Over the last several months, we ve taken a close look at a network attached storage (NAS) device provided by Thecus called the N5810PRO. It s a five-bay storage solution that was released last summer, built for small- to medium-sized businesses, and is packed with its own built-in mini-UPS and a quad-core Intel Celeron J1900 processor. Priced at nearly $900, the N5810PRO is unquestionably feature-rich and should meet the needs of its target audience. For the general consumer, however, the NAS can be a bit challenging.

First, let s start with the hardware specs. In addition to the processor, which is clocked at 2GHz, the N5810PRO has 4GB DDR3 RAM (expandable to 8GB), five Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 3.0 ports (one front, one back), two USB 2.0 ports on the back, an HDMI port on the back, and an LCM display on the front complete with two navigational buttons (Enter, Esc, up, down). It also packs a 130W power supply and a built-in fan to keep its innards cool.

This hardware is packed into a metal chassis measuring 9.06x7.48x9.45 inches. There is an LED installed beside each drive bay to indicate when the NAS is accessing the installed hardware. We inserted three 4TB drives into the NAS; drives must be physically mounted in the drive tray rather than merely slipped in.

Upon first setup, users must install a small program on their PC that will find the NAS on the network. Once the device is found, the user clicks on the IP address link, logs onto the NAS using the default password and username, determine if the NAS needs a fixed IP address or one supplied by the local router (DHCP), sets a new password, saves the information, and then closes the program. After that, users simply load up the NAS address in a web browser using the saved credentials.

For this review, the first thing we did was update the firmware to the latest release (v2.05.12). This NAS runs on the company s Linux-based ThecusOS operating system, which upon loading provides links to the main administration portion, modules you may have installed, and other apps that can be installed from the Thecus NAS App Center. (Not all apps show up here, but more on that later.) By clicking the Admin button, you jump into the meat of ThecusOS.

I m going to be honest and admit that I m not a big fan of ThecusOS, having been spoiled by other NAS solutions that provide a more pleasant visual experience and easier access to apps. The general consumer may be confused and overwhelmed by this platform at first, but again, this NAS is designed for the small- to medium-sized business. Those accessing ThecusOS in an enterprise environment are presumably professionals who are used to working without the visual glitz.

The ThecusOS UI consists of a menu bar on the left, the information window on the right, and a toolbar on the bottom. This toolbar provides quick access to RAID management, disk information, fan information, details regarding the mini-UPS, the current temperature, and the current network status. The information window defaults to the main Home page, which lists shortcuts to the iTunes server, shared folders, the system log, FTP setup, and more. Users can add shortcuts to this page by clicking the My Favorite button listed throughout the platform s settings.

The toolbar on the left has nine categories: System Information, System Management, System Network, Storage, User and Group Authentication, Network Service, Application Server, Backup, and External Devices. To create a volume for storing data, we clicked on the Storage category, which lists the subcategories Disk Information, RAID Management, NAS Stacking, ISO Image mounting, Share Folders, iSCSI, Disk Clone and Wipe, and System Failover. We clicked on RAID Management to create a RAID 5 volume, which provided a total capacity of 7.5TB. After that, it was time to install some apps.

Unfortunately, installing apps isn t as easy as loading up a built-in app store, as we ve seen with other NAS solutions. Instead, users must click the Application Server section listed on the toolbar and click the Manual App Installation subcategory. Here you ll see a field for pointing the ThecusOS to an app downloaded to your PC. These can be obtained by visiting the company s online NAS App Center, which offers 727 apps for its NAS lineup.

On the site, Thecus provides means for searching for apps by model and categories. The company serves up a handful of first-party apps for the N5810PRO along with an individual named Stephane. Categories include Backup/Sync, Business, CMS, Downloader, File Management, Mail Server, Media/DNLA, Photo Server, Security, Tools, Web, Others, and Core App. Thecus-developed apps include Dropbox, WebDisk, XBMC, Piczza!, McAfee VirusScan, Dashboard, and more.

For this review, we installed Plex, DropBox, the Thecus Dashboard Server, VirusScan, and Piczza. As previously mentioned, you must download and extract these apps onto your computer, hit the little monitor button next to the App File field on the Manual App Installation page, direct ThecusOS to that unzipped file, and then hit the Install button. Once the app is installed, you ll have to search for it on the ThecusOS platform by heading back to the Manual App Installation page. These apps do not appear on the Home page.

For instance, the App Management box on the Manual App Installation provides links to the installed apps. Click on the Plex link, and you re directed to NAS address:3200/web/index.html#!/dashboard in your browser. Dropbox is located at NAS address/modules/Dropbox/www/manage.htm and Piczza at NAS address/modules/Piczza/www/index.php . The Thecus Dashboard Server is necessary if you want to access the NAS by using the company s Dashboard app for mobile devices, which allows the user to manage services like AFP and NFS, change a user s password, and so on.

Because you ll likely have different users accessing the NAS, administrators will need to set up accounts by clicking on the User and Group Authentication category on the toolbar. Under this section, Local User Configuration allows you to create a username and password for each individual accessing the device.

Unfortunately, the NAS doesn t simply show up in Windows Explorer when you install it on your network (unless you ve installed services like Plex). So, how do you upload and download files? In a Windows 10 environment, I had to load up File Explorer and type a \\NAS address (such as \\192.168.0.15) into the search bar to access the volume. Once loaded, I could see the volume s existing folders, such as NAS_Public, usbhdd, iTunes_music, _NAS_Piczza_, etc.

Initially, you can t create new folders in this File Explorer window; this action is instead done via ThecusOS by clicking on the Storage category in the toolbar, the Shared Folders subcategory, and the Add button if adding a folder. These folders can also be edited and removed using this tool. However, the good news is that you can map your PC to one of these folders in File Explorer and add/delete files and folders. For instance, I could map the NAS_Public folder to Drive Z in a Windows 10 environment, which allowed me to create and delete folders, and upload files.

Because ThecusOS is based on Linux, file access in Windows is made possible thanks to the Samba service, which is enabled by default. Users can change Samba s details by using the Network Service category in the ThecusOS toolbar, and then selecting the Samba/CIFS subcategory. Settings include File Access Cache, Samba Native mode, Block size, Server Signing, and more. For the record, the Network Service category also provides other services users can activate and tweak including AFP, NFS, FTP, TFTP, WebService, UPnP Service, SSH, DDNS, VPN Server, and loads more.

As previously stated, this NAS provides five gigabit Ethernet ports. The first port is for connecting the device to the local network while the others can be used as a redundancy in case the main connection fails. Users can tweak each port by selecting the System Network category on the toolbar, which provides Networking, DHCP/RADVD, and Link Aggregation subcategories. For instance, by selecting Networking, users can manually set an IP address or let DHCP assign a number on each port. Under Link Aggregation, users can set the default gateway and view the IPv4 and IPv6 settings of each port. Thecus says the NAS supports additional external NIC cards, allowing administrators to pack on extra networking ports.

On the backup front, users can access this feature by selecting Backup in the toolbar, which serves up DOM Backup, Rsync Target Server, ACL Backup/Restore, Data Burn, Data Guard, and Amazon S3 subcategories. For instance, under the Amazon S3 subcategory, you can load up a backup wizard that allows you to back up to a remote NAS, to folders/devices/iSCSI targets on a local NAS, or to an Amazon S3 service. If users choose local backup, they re greeted with options to import from external devices, copy between folders according to the source and destination of your choice, real-time NAS backup, scheduling a backup, iSCSI backup, and iSCSI import.

The Data Burn feature is interesting in that users can burn NAS data directly to a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray disc. It s as if users have a built-in disc burner, allowing them to name the disc, add folders and files, select the data verification, and burning speed. If you have an ISO stored on the NAS, there s a tab for that, too: just locate the file, select the destination disc, and hit burn. You can also create an image file by adding folders and files, and selecting an ISO path.

One of the big selling points of the Thecus NAS is its VPN support. The device provides both a client and a server; the former merely requires the user to input a VPN Server IP address, a username, and a password. The VPN Server feature offers plenty of settings to tinker with, such as choosing which Ethernet port to use, and enabling an L2TP/IPSec VPN server. This section also provides a list of clients (in this case, the two user accounts I created for the review), a list of connected users, and a usage log.

The Thecus NAS also provides settings for external devices such as connected printers and a UPS. For the latter, you can enable UPS monitoring, view its IP address, manufacturer and model, check out its current status, and additional information. The Printers subcategory also provides the device s manufacturer and model information along with its current status, the ability to restart the printer service, and remove a document from the queue.

Another cool feature for home users is the N5810PRO's inclusion of an HDMI port on the back, so that it can connect to a monitor or HDTV. And thanks to the two USB 2.0 ports on the back, users can also connect a keyboard and mouse, allowing the NAS to turn into a makeshift Linux desktop. Thus, instead of grabbing video files through the network, you can watch stored movies and TV shows directly. There s also a built-in web browser with Flash support, making this device more than just a storage solution.

Finally, users can get a brief list of information about the NAS by through the System Information category in the toolbar. Here you can get general information, the system s status, hardware information, and so on. The System Management category is where you can update the firmware, control the built-in fan, set the NAS back to its factory defaults, manage passwords, schedule a reboot to check the file system, and so on. The device also supports SNMP, which is turned off by default.

Ultimately, there s a lot going on with the Thecus N5810PRO NAS device, more than can be covered in this review. To get a full idea of what this machine is capable of, the company provides a 220-page manual here, which we relied on heavily to get started. Naturally, the NAS doesn t come ready out of the box, so if you purchase one, you'll likely need to give the manual a thorough read-through.

As previously expressed, I m not a big fan of the ThecusOS platform in its current state. It s not exactly user-friendly to the novice user, and its overall presentation could be better. However, the company introduced its upcoming ThecusOS 7.0 platform back in December, promising a better experience. This updated operating system is said to be compliant with HTML5 and features a 64-bit architecture, a File Center feature, and a modernized design. It also promises enhanced multimedia capabilities and an incorporated App Center. I'm looking forward to checking it out.

Ubisoft has released notes for a brand new Rainbow Six Siege patch and it ushers in some major changes. Set to roll out tomorrow (March 1), the patch introduces Kill Cams to the Ranked playlist. This might seem counterintuitive Kill Cams can help the opposing team gather crucial intel on their enemy's placement but Ubisoft says it's a necessary peacekeeping step. 

"We are aware that there is a certain widespread sentiment that high level Ranked matches are often ruined by cheaters," reads the note. "We want to deter witch hunting as much as possible. While there were legitimate design reasons to remove the Kill Cam from Ranked, we cannot compromise on the quality of our game experience. For this reason, we are enabling the Kill Cam on Ranked matches to remove this hiding spot for cheaters. It will help the community as well as ourselves identify suspicious behaviors with a better level of certainty."

Other major changes include the addition of a report button on each player's profile, while custom games now support infinite overtime. More significantly, the attacking team's spawn points have been tweaked on most maps, in order to prevent the defence team sniping them in the opening seconds of a match. 

There are also a range of smaller fixes: apparently the T-pose bug has been stamped out, and rare instances of weapons clipping through walls are reportedly fixed. Full details (with images!) on the spawn changes are among the lengthy patch notes, which you should check out if you're an active Siege player.

Following the rollout of yesterday's international pricing details for the HTC Vive, come some more details specific to Australia. The short version is this: according to today's exchange rate (01/03/16), the Vive will cost $1,416 Australian dollars (that's $899 US dollars, plus an 'estimated' US$110 for shipping). That total includes shipping, GST, the headset, two wireless controllers and all other associated peripherals.

Meanwhile, the units will start shipping to Australians in May a month later than the April 5 date provided yesterday. Orders are open right now.

Compare that to the Oculus Rift: it costs US$649, with an estimated shipping total of $139. As of today, preordering an Oculus Rift would cost $1,106 Australian dollars. If you're determined to be an early adopter but don't know which headset to buy, Wes compared the Oculus and Vive just last month.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is one of the most interesting Kickstarter-funded projects to date: an open world, medieval RPG with no fantasy elements and realistic swordfighting. Chris Thursten played the game earlier this week and came away impressed, writing that it looks like "it's heading for cult classic status". 

Still, it looks like the game might not make its "summer 2016" release window. That's probably to be expected for a game of this scale from an independent studio, but according to a Eurogamer interview with the game's PR manager Tobias Stolz-Zwiling, the planned console versions could factor into a possible delay.

"The idea was to release the game in the summer and then to follow up with the console versions," Stolz-Swiling said. "Right now we are still indie developers but we are in negotiations with publishers to, well, we need someone to bring the games into the shops, so we need a distributor, and he kind of wants us to synch it with the console versions. We are still in negotiations, we will see.

"Best case for you will be summer this year for the PC version and then with the follow-up for consoles; or if the publisher wants us to synch it we will release everything let's say by the end of the year, so we will see about that."

Based on Chris's preview, my gut feeling is that more development time is probably the best outcome for everyone: after all, a delay to sync with console releases would allow for more polish time. It's worth checking out Eurogamer's full story for more details, but in the meantime, here's a lengthy developer diary about the studio's approach to fencing:

The X Rebirth expansion Home of Light is now available, as is the 4.0 update, which brings even more changes to a game that's already undergone quite a lot of them since its troubled launch two years ago.

Troubled, of course, is a nice way of saying bad, but I have to give full credit to developer Egosoft for persevering in its efforts to make the game playable. The latest update adds a bulletin board system to keep track of missions, makes big changes to the external views, enables Orders for multiple selected ships, adds a Trade Deals menu that shows profit estimates, enables time acceleration with SETA, adds new tutorials, and makes a number of other changes that will, hopefully, make the game more of a pleasure to play.

The 4.0 update will be free for everyone who owns X Rebirth. Those who don't mind spending a few bucks more can also snag the $10/ 8 Home of Light expansion, which brings three new systems to the game, including the titular Home of Light, and its massive economy to profit from. The expansion also includes specialized warehouse stations, new game starting points, new missions, and the possible return of an old and forgotten enemy, although I suspect that its mention in the update notes indicates that it's actually pretty likely to happen.

It's interesting that while the comments on Steam in response to the launch of the 4.0 update aren't quite universally enthusiastic, the Home of Light user reviews are almost universally positive. There are relatively few of them, but the general consensus is that the new content, coupled with two years of fixes, has finally resulted in a proper X game. And if you're a space sim fan, a proper X game is a pretty fantastic thing.

Update: In response to my inquiries about the state of DLC and microtransactions in The Division, Ubisoft issued a statement saying that Phoenix Credits, the game's currency, are "purely an in-game mechanic" and cannot be purchased with real money. 

"In Tom Clancy's The Division, there is no in-game currency that you can buy with real-world money," it said. "There will be DLC packs available through first party stores containing customization items, but these are optional and limited to items that have no influence on gameplay. An example of this are themed outfits for the agent's customization slots."

It still sounds like a rose by any other name to me: If you can drop a buck or two on a new outfit, hairstyle, or horse armor, then that's a microtransaction, and it really doesn't matter whether you're making it within the game using "credits," or in an external online store with your credit card. 

Original story: With just over a week to go until The Division brings its instanced take on the end of the world to your PC, there's still confusion about whether or not the game will offer microtransactions. Ubisoft Community Manager Natchai Stappers recently took to Twitter to state that it will not, but his wording seems to have raised more questions than it answered.

@Tovarisc_ There will be no microtransactions, and definitely no P2W

— natchai stappers (@natchai_) February 26, 2016

It seems odd to me that he would emphasize the absence of pay to win, since that should go without saying if there are no microtransactions, and thus nothing to pay for in the first place. Muddying the waters even further, Ubisoft told Eurogamer in mid-January that there will be no microtransactions at all. Not even for vanity items. Vanity items will be sold as DLC, through the regular first-party stores.

So it's clear that Ubisoft will offer separately purchasable content for The Division, which gives this no microtransactions claim the appearance of Riddler-like quibbling over words: When is DLC not a microtransaction? I've asked Ubisoft for clarification and will update if I receive a reply. Otherwise, we'll find out next week: The Division comes out on March 8.

Machiavelli would have hated the Mercenaries expansion for Galactic Civilizations 3. The Florentine diplomat despised the very idea of soldiers of fortune, and in The Prince he took almost every opportunity he could to slather them with insults about their unfaithfulness, cowardice, and lack of discipline. Historically, all that may be true, but I never would have picked that up from playing GalCiv. Sure, the galactic variety may cost a pretty penny (and, by some metrics, so does the expansion), but the dependable, skillful mercs in Stardock's memorable 4X adventure cling to their employers more devotedly than I imagine many of us cling to PC gaming. And if that's not devotion, what is?

The idea driving Mercenaries is likely self-explanatory: you hire a bunch of goons to help with the usual 4X business of exploring, expanding, exploiting, and exterminating. Were they merely hired guns, they'd barely add enough content to warrant the expansion label.

But in the right hands, the mercs introduced here are literal game changers, allowing things like planetary invasions long before the progression allows it. Instead of the merc with the mouth, I found myself hiring the merc with the missile prototype, or (less poetically), the merc with the +150 points to the base influence of any colony while his ship is stationed there. At their best, they break up the tedium of inevitability that bogs down some late games of Galactic Civilizations 3 with some last-minute reversals.

They're thus effectively the hero classes of this galactic conquest sim, and I find them hanging out at the Galactic Bazaar (or MercMart, as I like to think of it), a spaceborne Mos Eisley of sorts with a bobbing billboard shining amid the hexagonal grid. Alas, that's about the extent of their visual personalities aside from the design of their ships, if you don't count the dapper prunish fellow who hawks them via a gridded menu.

Mercenaries come to life instead in the (typo-ridden) text descriptions, where a mercenary's ship and corresponding ability are paired with a brief yarn. There's the poor planetary production booster Avatar-278, for instance, a sentient harvesting unit who sells his services following a purge of AI-powered machines on his home planet. In my darkest hour, I enlisted the expensive aid of Ruire Podaq Nu and her Swayer-11 ship, a Precursor constructor vessel that alters the allegiance of non-capital planets within its range. Who says love's the only force that can turn enemies into friends?

Overpowered? Almost certainly, and ships like Ms. Nu's can disrupt a match so thoroughly I'm surprised there's no way to disable the Bazaar in custom matches. But it's a controlled chaos, at least, held in check partly by the fact that each faction has access to the same catalog of mercs, which randomly selects an assortment of 36 for each match from a total pool of 70. Though whatever I buy stays mine for the duration of the match, so there's no worry that multiple Ms. Nus will flutter about the unfriendly nebulae.

Mercenaries are best used to make a massive leap in progress (and they thus sometimes only serve to make the powerful more powerful) or to gain a significant advantage when in a tight spot. That sometimes meant I didn't need them at all when my strategy was unfolding well, and the AI would seem to agree, as it uses mercenaries sparingly at best. Their prohibitive costs make most mercenary ships a gamble, particularly since they don't upgrade throughout the game and their specific natures all but broadcast your victory strategy to your opponents. At times I did fine upgrading my ships without tossing my money toward hired help; but in others, I was happy to pay the cost for the boosts to production or firepower a mercenary could bring. They're thus a generally welcome expansion of the choices available, as they yield some hope in spots where the base game would have let you waste away into defeat.

I doubt the idea that a bunch of ruffians would hire out their services for some cash requires great leaps of the imagination, but a new campaign provides a reason for the mercs' existence should you need one. Yet "campaign" is such a strong word. It's a bit longer than many individual chapters of the main campaign and it fleshes out the lore for the two reintroduced races from the series' past, but it's essentially a elaborate tutorial for the Bazaar in fancy digs.

Such as it is, the campaign follows the plight of the Torians, a race of what looks like shell-less turtles who can colonize aquatic worlds without penalty. For years they've been slaves to the orcs-but-not-orcs of the Drengin Empire. Since the Drengin are occupied elsewhere in the wake of the main campaign's conclusion, they're trying to rebuild their own empire. The Arcean Empire also makes an appearance, thus allowing a warrior race for players who don't feel like playing evil space orcs. It's decent stuff, but ultimately skippable for those who'd rather stick to the random maps.

As our proven mercenary hater might ask, does the end justify the means? Considering that Mercenaries costs half as much as Galactic Civilizations III itself, I suppose that depends on whether tossing away 20 bucks counts as living beyond your means. The mercenaries and two new races certainly enrich the existing 4x sandbox, but there's not much else aside from numerous tweaks hidden under the hood.

Yet as I learned when I cashed in all my credits to enlist the services of Enopriumta Xu's fearsome dreadnought to score a last-minute victory, sometimes it's worth slapping down a bit of extra cash for an edge. 

I can't tell you how relieved I am to see blood on my own sword. Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a historical first-person roleplaying game committed to an unusual degree of realism, from how (and how much) you fight to the world and the people who occupy it. You wander 15th century Bohemia as a minor player in a real historical crisis—the Papal Schism—but free to follow your own course. In this instance my course has taken me to a duel on a muddy forest pathway in the rain, a duel that I worry that I'm going to lose until I realise that the other guy is bleeding too.

When you fight somebody in Kingdom Come, your view locks on to your opponent and you circle one another with swords (and sometimes shields) drawn. You can rotate your angle of attack and defence around a dial, which dynamically alters your stance, and spring from that position into a slash, a thrust, or a block. These actions consume chunks of a regenerating stamina bar, which also doubles as a defensive buffer in front of your real (and very vulnerable) health. These are the building blocks of a combat system that is slow, heavy, and remarkably immersive.

Full disclosure: I'm a bit of a swordfighting nerd and I daydream about RPGs that take the concept beyond 'hit each other until somebody runs out of hitpoints'. Kingdom Come's developers clearly feel the same way and as such I was likely to enjoy this game from the outset. I want combat to feel weighty, stressful, confusing, even unfair sometimes, which Kingdom Come does. I understand that not everybody comes to an RPG for that experience. While there's a fair bit of The Elder Scrolls to Kingdom Come's open world, there's also a little ArmA, too—a willingness to plumb the uncomfortable consequences of realism.

So: I am circling this anonymous attacker by the side of the muddy path and my sword has blood on it. This is important because it means that I've hurt him. While Kingdom Come lets you see your own stamina bar, you aren't told how your opponent is doing. Instead, you need to rely on visual clues—blood is a pretty convincing one—as well as audio. Opponents are vocal and sound increasingly more tired and stressed as fights wear on.

I sweep my longsword up into my foe's flank and he barks 'fuck!' He's hurt and worn down, which is good to know because so am I. I press a bit harder, into a bind that I break by punching him, forcing him to block to one side so I can stab him in the other—I press right up to the point where I'm out of stamina but I'm convinced that he is too. I try to press my advantage, forcing another bind, but I lose this one. My view snaps back and spatters with blood, an unnerving first-person simulation of being punched in the face with a mail gauntlet. I don't block the next hit—I don't even see it—but then I die. Given that this early beta version of the game doesn't include saving, this is a terminal problem.

Even so, it's a genuine thrill. I gambled and lost. I love the drama that uncertainty about your opponent creates, and how much more convincing it makes the game. In real life, you can't truly tell how much energy somebody has left, how much they have in reserve—you can only test them and make a judgement, and there are consequences for getting that wrong. While there are certainly problems with Kingdom Come's combat at this early stage—occasional glitchy animations, controls that seem to lag from time to time—the system is enough to have me excited about the game on its own merit. I want to wander 15th century Bohemia, get into fights sometimes, and die alone in the woods sometimes. As you do.

That having been said, swordfights are relatively few and far between by the standards of a modern RPG. In peaceful moments Kingdom Come feels closer, surprisingly, to a detective game. The beta version has you tracking down somebody with crucial information about a recent bandit raid. He has vanished from his home village and you are given an open-ended remit to find him. This means talking to people and asking questions.

The version I played used placeholder dialogue and as such I can't really comment on the quality of the writing and acting (short version: it's obviously a placeholder). Instead, the system is what is interesting. The developers do not spawn NPCs in the world in response to player action—they are all there, from the start, doing their own thing. Demonstrating the game to me before I got my own time with it, technical designer Martin Ziegler called this "not cheating". That sensibility gives you an idea about what the game as a whole is trying to achieve.

If you know where your mark is you can run directly there (providing you can find it without map icons) and he'll be there and the quest will continue, no questions asked. Otherwise you need to talk together and piece together the information you need, and your success at doing so affects how straightforward your road to the target will be. At one point in the village inn Martin points at two men, armed, who happened to have just sat down and started drinking. They, apparently, are hunting for the same man as me—I just don't know it yet. Later, I'll fight them in the woods. They are here in the meantime because their AI has decided to go for a drink, but if I take too long with my investigation the story will play out differently: the guy will be dead when I get there, and I'll have to get the information from them instead.

This is an enormously ambitious way to structure a game and, honestly, it's not 100% there yet. As free as you are to do as you will in the world, vital information is often a persuasion skill-check away: improving your skill means nattering to people, which means having conversations that you don't really want to have so that you can return to a conversation that you've already had, repeat it, and do better this time. When the game acknowledges conversations you've already had and works around them, it functions well. When it starts to repeat itself, the skeleton of if/then statements underpinning the system is shown in an unflattering light.

This doesn't condemn the idea, but it does highlight the amount of fine-tuning it'll take to make it all work reliably for the majority of players. The notion that a branching story can play out fully dynamically in an AI-driven open world is something that other games have attempted, and it lives or dies on the extent to which its developers are able to anticipate and account for everything the player might try to do, every crucial NPC they might try to kill. Kingdom Come may well deliver on its promise, but historically I'd say that players tend to exceed whatever expectations developers place on them.

Even if Kingdom Come doesn't resolve these issues, it'll still have its combat system and world. The latter is beautiful in a starkly naturalistic sense. It's nice to wander villages and fields that feel like real villages and not game hubs, and to see a castle closely modelled after real history. The weather system is atmospheric and it's suitably easy to get completely lost in its forests, which is after all what forests in games are for. If I have a complaint its that village interiors feel a little static and samey, but then again I can't imagine that your average peasant in 1403 paid much attention to decor.

Kingdom Come feels like it's heading for cult classic status—it has the ambition, the idiosyncratic commitment to realism, and the Kickstarter backers for that. If it gets the time it needs to deliver on all of its ideas, iron out the bugs and flesh out the world with non-placeholder acting then it has a chance at removing 'cult' from that equation. If nothing else, though, I'm on board—there are few other games going set to let me lose longsword fights in the words on my own terms.

Superhot is finally out, and good golly, it s great. Most people seem to agree, because the official Superhot clip site, Killstagram, and the Superhot subreddit are already spilling over with gifs that would make John Wick cry. For the uninitiated, none of these are happening in real time. In Superhot, time only moves when you do, but the game smashes together a real time gif of each scenario afterwards. It s basically your own personal highlight reel, a reminder that, heck yeah, you re a cool, smooth action hero. Still, some action heroes are smoother and cooler than others, so here s a small slice of what we should all aspire to.

Drinks are on this guy!

I know that a good chunk of the hype surrounding Superhot is about how it takes the FPS formula, chops it, screws it, remixes it, and spits out something super fresh (hot, you might say), but what about Root Beer Tapper? This player knows what I m talking about. Check out those drink serving skills. Someone s getting a good tip!

A shaky definition of pacifism

In this impressive clip, the player manipulates the enemies into shooting one through a series of precise dodges. It s a pretty clever approach to beating the scenario, I just can t help but wonder what kind of bad guy shooting training these bad guys have. Step one: when you see the good guy, shoot in their direction. Step two: uhhh. I think the bad guy academy is low on funding.

Bullet empathy

The creator of this clip calls it a Jedi fantasy. I m just not sure that Jedis feel the pull to slice up every projectile coming their way. They certainly don t swing with that kind of fervent urgency, like they dropped their penny collection at a penny convention. Then again, I haven t read the extended universe stuff.

Bored action hero

In the same scenario, this player just dodged all the bullets, or maybe the bullets just didn't want to hit him. Look at them go, zooming by like they have some place to be. You ll get to where you re going, bullets! Just chill, enjoy the bullet ride. Yeesh. You only fire once.

No class, broken glass

Here s another go at that same hallway scenario, but this delinquent takes a different route entirely. They smash a few windows and dance on the edge of a skyscraper to reach the enemies. Slicing up bullets is one thing, but smashing up windows? I know you re trying to survive, just do it with some class, you darn hooligan.

I love katana

You love katana. We all love katana. More games need katanas. It's the only sword you can pose with and look cool, it's the only sword I want to chop up fruit with, and it's the only sword that can cut through dozens of red cybermen without losing its sheen. Always sharp, always digital, always cool: Katanas. 

Katana boomerang

Bravery isn't standing up for yourself. It's not taking a chance and trying something new. It's not walking a tightrope between two skyscrapers. Bravery is throwing your katana a long distance with the intent of it bouncing it off something so you can catch it mid-air.

Your new screensaver

Not that screensavers are a thing anymore. Are they? Anyway, put on your favorite pump up jams and let this infinite bullet-dodging gif take the wheel. I'm feeling like Jock Jams, short shorts, high socks, and Superhot were meant to be, but your combos may vary.

Cage match

This clip sums up Superhot better than anything I've seen.. A bunch of dudes wearing hokey sunglasses getting punched. Poetry.

I'm not sure how a developer goes from a coming-of-age adventure story about a teenage girl with the ability to rewind time to a post-Great War action-RPG featuring a vampire doctor caught up in the midst of the Spanish Flu. But such is the path that Dontnod Entertainment, the developer of Life is Strange, has taken for its new game, Vampyr, and I would be lying if I said I didn't dig it at least a little bit.

That's based more on hope and relentless optimism than actual information, since Dontnod really hasn't said or shown much about the game up to this point. Even the website at vampyr-game.com is basically a placeholder. But today the studio released four new screens showcasing its London-based environs, and they are... well, they're really dark. But this is a game about vampires, after all, and we all know they only come out at night. And it's not like the world was all that well-lit 100 years ago anyway.

It's still not much to go on, but I really do like the shadowy ambiance, and especially that shot of the early 20th century hospital, which looks to be all the right kinds of unpleasant. (Which is to say, "very," but not something I have to deal with.) For now, it's certainly enough to keep me interested. Vampyr is currently slated to come out sometime in 2017.