If you want to stream, podcast or record gaming videos for YouTube, then one of the first steps is picking up a good USB or XLR microphone. These mics can provide that extra bit of audio quality, noise reduction and control you need to be a successful content creator - things you won't often find on your standard gaming headset microphone. There are plenty of options on the market, so we tested the most popular USB and XLR mics available to find the best of the best.

We've split our picks into a few different categories: the best mics for streaming, the best for recording voiceovers or podcasts and the best cheap option. There's a separate category for XLR mics, as these are a different kettle of fish. We've also selected a handy attachable mic that trounces those built into most gaming headsets but remains just as convenient to use.

All of our choices retail for less than $200/ 200, as we're focusing on affordable options for those new to content creation rather than truly professional-grade solutions which can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Finally, we also picked runner-up options for a few categories to recognise good alternatives that may be preferred by some people.

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It's been three years since the initial launch of Facebook's Oculus Rift and this spring, Oculus will be launching two new versions of its headset. Both the Oculus Quest and the Oculus Rift S will retail for 399/€449 each, but after hands on time with both, it's safe to say they offer radically different experiences depending on what kind of gamer you actually are.

The next iteration of the Rift comes with Oculus Insight - that's full, six degrees of freedom tracking using five inbuilt sensors on the headset that offer room scale VR, right out of the box. This means no more annoying external sensors need to be placed around your gaming setup in order to track the movement of both your head and hands.

Whilst the Rift S still relies on PC computational power to run its software, the amount of cables needed to do this has been reduced to just one single five-metre cable. Not only is this much more convenient in the long run, it also opens up the possibility of playing on powerful laptops with a limited number of USB ports.

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In real life, planes do not move the way they do in Jetstream. In Jetstream, gone are the arcs and steady ascents, the slow, bovine turns and the rattly, thumping intrusions of turbulence. Instead, it's brisk straight lines and sudden right angle turns. Start here, get to there. Go.

Jetstream's a 2D puzzle game, in which you navigate little grids of sky to reach your target. The rules are simple and build in clever ways. At first, your only real obstacle are cloud banks that block your progress, and the fact that you can't cross your own contrail. The challenge comes from the fact that your plane won't stop moving until it's run out of squares in the direction it was headed in.

Fairly soon, though, you get compasses that allow you to stop and change direction, and fuel pumps that allow you to cancel out any contrails that have been laid down so far. Next come storm clouds, teleporters, and all that kind of clever jazz.

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Just in case you haven't had enough Star Wars this weekend, a new, free to subscribers expansion pack is coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic - the first in three years.

A blog post (thanks,
PC Gamer) details the new expansion, Onslaught, confirming the update will not only bring a whole new story, but two new planets, a new Flashpoint, a new Operation, and new abilities, too.

"Star Wars: The Old Republic: Onslaught puts you at the center of the reignited war between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. Will you remain loyal to your faction or work to undermine and sabotage their war efforts? The choice is yours," the blog post teases.

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With the arrival of Nvidia's RTX video cards and support for real-time ray tracing in both the DirectX 12 and Vulkan graphics APIs, we're looking at one possible future for graphics technology - but it is one mired in controversy because up until this week, only RTX GPUs could run DXR-enabled software, meaning only a very limited number of PC users could access ray tracing functionality. But now, the floodgates are open: Nvidia's latest driver allows its 10 and 16-series GPUs to run DXR software too. But is any kind of playable experience possible on cards without RTX's hardware accelerated support?

We tested DXR software across three cards that lack Nvidia's RT hardware - specifically the GTX 1060 6GB (the least capable compatible card), the GTX 1660 Ti (Turing with RT cores) and the top-end gamer's 10-series offering, the excellent GTX 1080 Ti. To get a sense of comparison against the RTX line, we opted to bench the RTX 2080 and the RTX 2060. It's an interesting assortment of cards: the RTX 2080 typically runs non-RT workloads at a similar speed to GTX 1080 Ti, while the 2060 is the cheapest card in the RTX line.

But what we quickly discovered is that outside of specially prepared ray tracing workloads, gaming benchmarks flatter to deceive the older cards. What quickly became evident is that RT workloads introduce such an enormous variability into gameplay that canned benchmarks only have limited relevancy compared to an actual experience of playing the game, and sometimes there's basically no correlation at all. Ray tracing can add a baseline cost to a game, but in scenes heavy in RT components, a 10-series card crumples while a 20-series GPU powers through. As we discovered, what you test in-game needs to be very carefully selected.

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Bungie's plans to enable the cross-platform transfer of Destiny characters were stopped by Sony, according to Kotaku's Jason Schreier.

Schreier made the claim in a recent episode of the Splitscreen podcast (skip to around 57 mins if you want to get straight to this topic - thanks, ResetEra). In a discussion about how Destiny 2 will fare following Bungie's separation from long-term publishing partner Activision, Schreier intimated that while Bungie had been keen to make character transfer a reality, it's exclusivity partnership with Sony prevented the developer from pressing ahead.

"I heard that Bungie wanted to do character transfers for PS4, PC - before Forsaken came out - but Sony wouldn't allow it," Schreier said. "Sony is just like, we want people to associate Destiny with PS4, even if that means screwing over other players.

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Mortal Kombat is a series known for its gore - and the Fatalities are the goriest moves of them all.

But there's one Fatality in particular I've seen in Mortal Kombat 11 that's really grossed me out.

The Fatality in question belongs to D'Vorah, an insect-like being who made her debut in Mortal Kombat X. She's got horrible stabby limbs, pulls insect babies out of her stomach and uses a swarm of flying insects to dig holes into her opponent. Yuck.

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The Star Wars video game leaks continue: this time it's a release date for Respawn's Jedi: Fallen Order.

As seen on the back of Star Wars pin badges from the ongoing Star Wars Celebration event, Jedi: Fallen Order comes out 15th November 2019.

This release date is backed up by Amazon Italy, too.

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EA has come under fire for the way it's handled Icons in FIFA 19 Ultimate Team after a recent move that made a number of the best cards in the game virtually impossible to get.

For context, EA recently added Prime Icon Moments cards to FIFA 19 Ultimate Team. These are even better versions of Prime Icons - what were already considered the best versions of Icons such as Brazilian Ronaldo and Dutch superstar Ruud Gullit.

Then, yesterday, EA launched Squad Building Challenges for Icons in FUT 19. Squad Building Challenges, or SBCs as they're known, task you with trading in a number of cards for a reward. The more valuable or sought after the reward, the more valuable the cards needed to be traded in.

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Despite a campaign of review-bombing from disgruntled Borderlands 3 fans upset the game will be a timed Epic Games store exclusive, old Borderlands games have enjoyed a huge surge in popularity on Valve's platform.

Fuelled by the announcement of Borderlands 3 and the release of the free The Handsome Collection Ultra HD Texture Pack, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands Game of the Year Edition have all seen a massive uptick in concurrent players.

According to Steam Charts, Borderlands 2 enjoyed a whopping 89.25 per cent gain in average players over the last 30 days, with an impressive peak of 59,333 concurrent players.

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