Astarion can literally get blood from a stone in Baldur’s Gate 3-
Baldur’s Gate 3 keeps giving me little surprises. In Act 3, you’re able to purchase a statue from Boney and Stoney from the Circus of The Last Days for your camp. Doing this will run you a costly 5,000 gold, but that’s a small price to pay for an immortalised tribute to your handsome hero, surely?
Astarion, your party’s very own vampire spawn, can also feed on you or your enemies. Doing so gives him the Happy buff, a +1 bonus to attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. This will all become relevant in just a moment.
While this buff isn’t that hard to get, it’s a bit of a pain—either you let him use your character like a juicebox (which’ll hit you with the “Bloodless” debuff), or you have him gnaw on someone with his bite attack. The latter’s un…
Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti rumoured to cost $450 at launch in May-
The expected launch of the Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti has been penned in for May by the rumour mongers and, as we shuffle through April, we’re starting to hear noises about the pricing for the green team’s next most affordable graphics card. With a potential sticker price of $450 the RTX 4060 Ti would be only $50 more expensive than the last generation’s RTX 3060 Ti.
Just a bit more expensive, then, not a lot more expensive. I guess we’ve got to take the wins where we can find them, however meagre they seem.
The rumour has come from sources cultivated by the Red Gaming Tech channel, reportedly from the same source which provided an early $599 figure for the recently launched RTX 4070. And I’ve got to say it scans with what we know about the card.
We’re expect…
Relic Entertainment is ‘returning to its roots as an independent creative studio,’ but it’s also owned by a global investment firm now-
Less than two months after being cut loose by Sega, which resulted in another round of layoffs at the studio, Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment says it is “returning to its roots as an independent creative studio” with support from investment firm Emona Capital LLP.
The past year has been rough on Relic. Company of Heroes 3 was met with a mixed reaction when it launched in February 2023, and then in May of that year the studio laid off 121 employees. In March 2024 the studio was sold off by Sega, and a month later a reported 41 more employees were let go in what sounded like a desperation move: Relic said the cuts were made “with the goal of providing Relic the best possible chance to survive in an increasingly volatile industry.”
The investment from Emona, “an…
Sega abruptly scraps extraction FPS Hyenas inches from the finish line-
Update: Following Hyenas’ cancellation, Creative Assembly has announced that its looking at making an unknown number of its staff redundant.
In a statement released to Twitter, the developer wrote: “We have made the incredibly difficult decision to begin a redundancy consultation process in some areas of our UK operations, alongside ending development of Hyenas. This may, unfortunately, result in job losses.
“We fully understand that this has a significant impact on our people whether they are directly affected or not—which we are truly sorry for.”
An attempt will be made to reallocate as many roles as possible, the studio says, in order to “minimise any job losses.” Creative Assembly called the game’s cancellation and potential redundancies “a d…
Start saving, because Intel’s 14th Gen CPUs are reportedly launching in just a few weeks-
Intel’s 14th Gen CPUs are quietly but quickly approaching their launch date. We know they’re refreshes, so we have a very good idea of what to expect. Still, there will be plenty of interest in Intel’s latest wares.
That launch is not quite imminent, but it’s close. According to Videocardz, the 14th Gen Raptor Lake Refresh range will kick off on October 17, with reviews to come a day earlier, on October 16.
Over the past few years, Intel has kicked things off with the launch of K models, and it looks like this launch will be no different. We can expect the i9 14900K, i7 14700K and i5 14600K and their iGPU-less KF counterparts to come first, with 65W non-K models to follow later. CES in early January would be a safe bet as it was with the 13th Gen models earlier this year.
The Assassin’s Creed game about ninjas in feudal Japan is called Assassin’s Creed Shadows, full reveal coming on Wednesday-
The Assassin’s Creed game we’ve known for the last year-and-a-half as Codename Red finally has a proper title, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and it’s going to be fully revealed in just a couple days, on May 15.
Codename Red was revealed in September 2022 alongside two other unnamed Assassin’s Creed games: Hexe, which has a very overt supernatural vibe but is otherwise entirely undefined, and Jade, a mobile game set in China in 215 BC.
Red, meanwhile, is set in feudal Japan, a shift in locale that had associate editor Ted Litchfield immediately excited, to the point that he was basically establishing a full headcanon based entirely on a 10-second teaser.
“Cast the shinobi clans of Iga province as some manner of Assassin Order franchisee, while the world famous warrior…
Starving Heroes of Might & Magic fans finally eat as spiritual successor Songs of Conquest leaves its 2-year early access behind-
Songs of Conquest, the really quite good and really quite pretty Heroes of Might & Magic-like that first hit early access in 2022, has reached its final form. Well, kind of. The game has finally left early access for the sunlit uplands of a 1.0 release, but the devs promise more development to come: “This is merely the beginning of a new chapter in our epic saga,” they say.
If you’re not familiar, Songs of Conquest is a tactics game in the classic vein of stuff like Heroes of Might & Magic 3. You pick a faction and guide heroes around a sprawling world map, capturing resources, battling armies on a hex-based grid, and generally doing all you can to crush your enemies. At the same time, you have to defend your home base and guide it up a ladder of production from ‘dinky ham…
Marvel’s Overwatch-style hero shooter has players scrambling to log in and push a payload as their favorite superheroes-
Marvel Rivals, the new Overwatch-style third-person hero shooter, has a killer theme song that I heard several times while waiting to log in as its closed beta was hammered by legions of other players trying to do the same. After about an hour, however, the servers seem to have stabilized and I managed to get in and play a match.
The servers went online a few hours ago and it seems like they weren’t quite prepared for the number of players who want to team fight as classic Marvel heroes, like Spider-Man, Loki, and Storm. Several players reported being stuck on the title screen on the Steam forums, and some say they were disconnected when they finally entered a match.
On Twitch, Marvel Rivals has already climbed into the top 10 most viewed games with a little over 68K active …
Today’s Wordle answer for Tuesday, June 11-
There’s a hint for today’s Wordle waiting below if you need it, some easily absorbed general tips if you don’t, and the answer to the June 11 (1088) puzzle just a little further down the page if you’re really stuck. However you want to win Tuesday’s game, we can help.
I would’ve given anything for a green letter today. Heck, I’d have been grateful just for a yellow or two. What I got instead was an endless supply of greys, every guess completely off the mark in a new and interesting way. I didn’t so much solve today’s game as run out of wrong letters to try.
Today’s Wordle hint
Wordle today: A hint for Tuesday, June 11
You’d use this word to describe the act of swaying, or moving back and forth in some way. Think of a monkey moving through the tr…
UK police bust a fast food worker turned £3 billion bitcoin scam member on a £7.5 million money laundering charge-
It’s not every day that you read that a five-year investigation to crack an illegal operation involving billions of pounds worth of bitcoin was solved thanks to the excessive spending habits of an ex-takeaway worker, but that’s exactly what’s recently happened. The person in question has been found guilty of laundering 150 bitcoins, worth a mere £7.5 million, but the UK’s Metropolitan Police ultimately seized a staggering total of 61,000 cryptocoins.
Details of Jian Wen’s conviction (via The Guardian) highlight that she originally lived and worked in a Chinese takeaway restaurant in Leeds, UK, before becoming involved in a complex and large scale cryptocurrency scam, which involved using illegally-gained bitcoins to pay for expensive houses and luxury items.
In 2017, W…
Twitch is replacing members on its Safety Advisory Council for Twitch Ambassadors-
Twitch is replacing many of the experts who were previously on its Safety Advisory Council with Twitch Ambassadors, but who exactly this will be and whether they will be paid or not still remains unclear (via CNBC).
Originally, the Council, which was formed in 2020, consisted of nine industry experts, moderators, and streamers who would be consulted and offer advice on trust and safety issues related to nudity, banned users, and children, among other things. “It is composed of online safety experts and Twitch creators who have a deep understanding of Twitch, its content, and its community,” Twitch’s overview page says. “Each member of the council is carefully selected based on their familiarity with the Twitch community and their relevant personal and professional experience…
Xbox chief Phil Spencer thanks Bobby Kotick for his ‘invaluable contributions’ to the games industry as Kotick officially exits Activision Blizzard after 32 years-
It is now official: In a farewell message to employees, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has confirmed that he will be leaving the company.
Kotick’s future with Activision Blizzard came into question almost as soon as Microsoft announced its intention to acquire the company back in January 2022. The decision appeared to be all but made after that deal was finally closed, as Kotick said Xbox boss Phil Spencer had asked him to stay on as CEO “through the end of 2023,” which isn’t generally the sort of timeline you announce if you’re expecting to stick around. But today’s message makes it a done deal.
“As my last day leading this company inches closer, I marvel at how far the talented people at our company have come toward realizing the great potential of games,” Kotick wro…
Epic Games doubles its reward program for the 2023 Summer Sale, which is live now by the way-
The Epic Games Store’s 2023 Summer Sale is now live, with beefy discounts and a doubling of the Epic Rewards program that will now give back 10% of what you spend in the store to use on other purchases.
The Epic Rewards program launched in May as part of the Epic Mega Sale, and it’s a pretty simple concept: Two weeks after you make an eligible purchase—basically anything you buy on the Epic Store, plus in-game purchases in Epic games like Fortnite—you get 5% of whatever you spent back as an in-store credit. So if you buy a $60 game, for instance, you’ll get $3 back for future purchases.
During the Summer Sale, however, that percentage is doubled to 10%. That’s a pretty good giveback, and it applies to all eligible purchases, not just the stuff that’s on sale.&nbs…
What’s the better gift for a student- a handheld PC or this sweet gaming laptop for just $699–
There’s a lot to like about the HP Victus laptop, currently at a really low price for its power. Yes, the CPU is two generations old, but the Core i5 12500H still offers four P-cores, eight E-cores, and 16 threads in total.
It would be nicer to have a CPU that has fewer E-cores and more P-cores, but with a boost clock of 4.5GHz and a power limit of 95W, it’ll cope with most games just fine. You’ll even be able to throw in a bit of content creation.
To handle the graphics duties, there’s a GeForce RTX 4060, which is a decent 1080p budget-level GPU. There’s no indication as to what its power limit is, but hopefully it’s not one of the low-end versions. In other HP laptops, such as its RTX 4050 models, they’re typically towards the higher end of the power range.
But regar…
Wordle hint and answer #665- Saturday, April 15-
Improve your daily Wordle guesses with our guides and tips, take a look at a hint for today’s game designed to give you a nudge in the right direction, or skip straight to the best part and read the answer to the April 15 (665) game—however you want to win today’s Wordle, we can help.
The answer to today’s puzzle was an obvious one… eventually. I had all the information I needed quite early on, but this was one of those days where I couldn’t see what I had until I was in danger of running out of guesses. It was frustrating, but at least I got today’s Wordle answer in the end.
Wordle hint
A Wordle hint for Saturday, April 15
If someone was in an extreme and most likely prolonged level of physical or mental pain, today’s word would be …
WoW Classic made the ‘radical change’ to stop testing new content with players to bring back a sense of ‘mystery and discovery’-
Phase 3 launches for Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery today, and players will once again explore a WoW Classic update with no advance community testing. Not having a Public Test Realm (PTR) for Classic means some things will be broken, developers said in a PC Gamer interview—and that’s okay.
Not just okay, Blizzard argued, but good, even.
“I think our whole team has been extremely pleased with not having PTRs,” said Clayton Stone, associate production director. “That was a radical change. Keeping that level of mystery and of discovery for Season of Discovery, with each phase that we roll out, has really created a moment every time for the whole player base to come together and experience something fresh together at the same time.”
Oddly, that means that playe…