You've heard about the PC Gamer Club, right? You know, the membership programme we launched earlier this year that nets members a digital subscription to PC Gamer magazine, monthly game keys, ad-free-browsing on this site, and more. More information can be found via our Club FAQ. 

Anyway, this month's PC Gamer Club game is Tropico 4. This cult favourite series sees you become El Presidente, and run an island state however you see fit. It has enhanced diplomacy options over its predecessor, and is generally considered a better game than Tropico 3. "Growing bananas and rigging elections remains remarkably entertaining" is what Tim Stone said in his original review of Tropico 4 from a few years back. Now it's yours to own. Enjoy. 

This game comes courtesy of retailer Bundle Stars and Kalypso Media, who also publish skyscraper construction and management sim Project Highrise, which has Very Positive user reviews on Steam. You play the role of an architect and developer, building world renowned skyscrapers that are the envy of every major city. That game's available now.

And, for even more Tropico action, you might like to check out Bundle Stars' Nemesis 3 Bundle. It includes Tropico 5, Facerig, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Trilogy and Styx: Master of Shadows.  

Sign up forms for the PC Gamer Club can be found in this direction. 

When PUBG first launched dedicated first-person perspective servers last month, it did so exclusively in Europe and North America. When FPP did eventually arrive in the OCE region, it did not support Solo or Squad play. 

Now, the latter is planned for some point "after mid-October".

That's according to the game's official Twitter feed, which has now confirmed that Squad FPP OCE servers are en route, and that Duo FPP will be open on SA and SEA servers at the same time.

Not much else to go on as yet. But, as per the above, we can expect to learn more in two weeks. 

Gone Home and Tacoma creator Steve Gaynor reckons more first-person games should implement Fullbright's 'Pack Back' mechanic, so as to create less clutter. Is this news? Probably not but it's Friday so I hope you'll humour me either way. 

Seriously, though, what is the deal with first-person games that let you pick up and examine items, before having you discard them carelessly on the floor? Have you ever tried placing said items back where you found them, without them toppling or missing their target entirely? It's near impossible. I've lost count of the number of picture frames I've knocked off desks and books I've recklessly pulled from shelves.  

Gone Home and Tacoma's 'Put Back' feature sidesteps this ordeal by returning items from whence they first came. Simple, really.

"I will say I definitely miss it in some games, where I'm like: Oh, just let me just be nice about where I'm putting this object!" says Gaynor. "The thing is, it's a really low-tech solution for us. In a game engine there are trigger volumes that are like a 3D cube in space which, when you interact with it, does different things. 'Put Back' for us is where there's a volume around the place that the object started out."

Gaynor continues: "If you're aiming at it and click, it just puts it back nicely instead of throwing it. Because it is where the thing originally was, it's where you tend to be already aiming. It's the easy default thing. It takes more effort to throw something on the floor than it does not. 

"Anybody who wants to copy 'Put Back' into their game—I more than invite you to do so. I will be happy to have that feature when I play your game as a player." 

I suggest to Gaynor that if you acted the way most first-person games have us behaving in real life you'd get into trouble. Imagine picking up a mouse or a cup of coffee at work and then throwing it on the floor thereafter? You'd get fired on spot. 

"Right, exactly," adds Gaynor. "It's like: This guy's Put Back feature is broken. Okay, you're not going to get paid."

Okay so this definitely isn't news. But let's consider it a PSA. 

Look out for our full interview with Gone Home and Tacoma creator Steve Gaynor next week, wherein I promise we explore more sensible subjects.

Despite not hitting the highs of Bastion and/or Transistor, Pyre is a gorgeous and quirky RPG-meets-sports game. In reply to the "wonderful response and feedback from players around the world", developer Supergiant has launched a new mode free-of-charge. 

Named the 'True Nightwing' update, the patch introduces a new ironman-like mode that unlocks following completion of the base game. Should you already have played through, it'll unlock automatically. 

Said to "really amp up the challenge", the new mode has no Game Over state, and takes into account your choices and outcomes as the game unfolds. Supergiant outlines the specifics: 

• Base difficulty same as Heightened.
• All Titan Stars unlocked, and some must be used.
• Enlightenment required to rank up re-scaled.
• Cannot load checkpoints or restart Rites.
• Book of Rites and White Lute fully unlocked.Slugmarket inventory fully unlocked.
• Feats of Glory introduced much sooner.
• Note: Once chosen, this setting cannot be changed.

"Many of the early tutorials are skippable so you can get into the meat of the action more quickly, and develop brand-new strategies around how to outfit your exiles, and how to take on your many adversaries," so says Supergiant. "Complete the story in this mode, and earn a new Steam Achievement!" 

Pyre's True Nightwing update is live now on the game's Steam page. 

Before Destiny 2, Call of Duty: WWII, or Star Wars Battlefront 2 swoop in and demand sixty of your dollars, consider investing in these already-great, cheaper shooters. I give these recommendations with a simple rule: none of these games are in Steam's top 100 concurrent players list at time of publication. 

Day of Infamy 

Released: March 23Price: $20, with a free weekend coming soon

Based on an Insurgency mod, Infamy's co-op map-clearing is spectacular casual fun. You plonk down dozens of dumb-but-accurate AI soldiers with your friends, respawning only if the next objective is completed (or if a teammate retreats back to a resupply point at spawn). Infamy is a reminder of how diverse and interesting WWII's weapon set is: the limited optics and small mag size of the M1 Garand and other guns (and flamethrower) fosters drama and moments of vulnerability. Just watch out for Infamy's merciless artillery.

Quake Champions 

Released: August 22Price: $30 (eventually free)

My favorite FPS right now. I was initially skeptical of the changes Champions was bringing to Quake: character abilities, paid loot boxes, and the plan to move to F2P after paid Early Access. After putting a bunch of time into it, I feel like these revisions don't erode the feeling of tagging someone with a railgun across the map, or snatching up the Quad Damage before going on a lightning gun spree. Champions is still Quake at its core: blistering and athletic, played on maps that look like Hell's waiting room. All Champions needs at this point are some netcode improvements and a few more maps.

Squad 

Released: December 14, 2015Price: $40

Somewhere between Arma's simulation and Battlefield's chaos sits Squad, a trudging, deliberate, 50v50 shooter set in modern day maps modeled after Afghanistan and Iraq. It's been in alpha for more than a year and a half, but has grown a lot in that time, with big changes to animation, movement, and weapon handling arriving recently. Offworld Industries is currently working on adding modding support. If organized, large-scale firefighting and authentic radio chatter are your thing but you dislike the open-endedness of Arma 3, give Squad a look.

LawBreakers 

Released: August 7Price: $22.49, but free to try now through this weekend

PC gaming isn't a popularity contest. Yes, LawBreakers hasn't had a great launch, but that doesn't invalidate its clever weapon and movement mechanics, which are some of the most inventive I've seen this year. From my review: "Each role has a fun micro-skill or two to learn, adding depth and steepening the learning curve in most cases. Gunslingers teleport in 15-foot bursts like Tracer from Overwatch, but the first shots from either of their dual pistols are buffed immediately after you blink. If you fly backwards as the Harrier, you shoot lasers from your boots that can fend off pursuers. As Harrier, I have to mark a target with a debuffing dart, then grit my teeth as I paint an enemy with my Iron Man-like laser beam. The simplicity of the Battle Medic's grenade launcher is great: left click throws grenades that detonate on impact, and right click pops out ones that bounce. I like the moment-to-moment geometry I'm asked to do to decide which grenade will be more effective."

LawBreakers also sports some of the best netcode on PC. 

Rising Storm 2: Vietnam 

Released: May 30Price: $25

Antimatter Games and Tripwire make ambitious FPSes. With Vietnam, the studios continued Rising Storm 2's bold focus on asymmetry with faction-specific spawning mechanics in addition to distinct weapon sets. The Viet Cong can create tunnels; the Americans can phone in helicopters for air support. 

Otherwise RS2 strikes a sweet spot between authenticity and accessibility with features like weapon mounting, prone/lean, and a commander role that can call in air strikes and other support. It's a shooter about attrition, teamwork, playing the objective, and about slithering your way into a blind spot just behind the enemy's advance and racking up as many kills as you can before you're found out.

Dirty Bomb 

Released: June 2015Price: Free

You don't see too many people talking about it, but Dirty Bomb's average concurrent player count is up 38 percent in the last year. DB's low recoil guns and the low deceleration penalty for jumping translates to excellent and tense dances, close-range duels where the movement decisions you make have a major impact on the result. Its payment model is pretty inoffensive, and like other F2P games, there’s a rotation of free mercs. 

Making games is hard. The more you know about the process, the more miraculous it seems that games get made at all. As former PC Gamer writer Tom Francis described programming when he was making Gunpoint: "The most useful way I've found to think of it is this: Your game is fucking insane. It is a mental patient. It has completely lost its mind, and to make it behave in any kind of reasonable way, you have to be expecting every sensible instruction to be met with screaming, preposterous bullshit."

While it's easy to feel paralyzed by the thought of learning to design and program your own game, we asked quite a few indie devs for their advice and they all offered the same advice for beginners: just do it. Jump in, no matter how scary it is. To help you take that first exhilarating (and inevitably frustrating—but also, probably, rewarding!) dive into game development, we've devised this handy list of 2D game engines for developers who are still new to programming. Paired with developer recommendations, hopefully this will serve as the push you need to get started.

GameMaker Studio 2

Price and License: $100 for permanent desktop license; Free trial availableBest for: Short-format 2D platformers and RPGs; cross-platform gamesNotable games: Nidhogg, Hyper Light Drifter, Undertale, Risk of Rain 

GameMaker Studio 2 is your one stop destination if you want to get into game development. The platform allows creators to use the tool's easy-to-learn drag-and-drop interface, or work hands-on with the engine's own scripting language, GML. We talked to several developers who've made popular games in GameMaker, who shared their own experiences with the tool.

The Pros

Mark Essen, creator of Nidhogg and Nidhogg 2, says GameMaker is great for beginners because scripting is pretty open-ended, and Yoyo Games has a wealth of tutorials and guides to help folks get set up quickly. A marketplace also offers add-ons to customize the engine to build a platformer or top-down RPG.

Alx Preston, the mind behind Hyper Light Drifter, says that the GameMaker community is a huge asset. He notes that young developers should be "...learning the best places to get support in the community and the best tricks to use for the engine to achieve what you want—usually by going to the community as a resource." 

The Cons

Of course, you might not be making a Steam-ready game right off the bat. "Because GameMaker is so forgiving with its code, projects can get messy very quickly," Essen says. "I like that in the beginning stages of a project you can iterate quickly and focus on the game design, but down the line this will bite you in the butt if you don't maintain some personal organizational standards!"

Duncan Drummond, the creator of beloved roguelike Risk of Rain, also noted that GameMaker's ease of use can come back to haunt developers. "It's very easy and fast to develop, but does come at a performance cost if done incorrectly," he says. Drummond also noted that GameMaker doesn't translate to any other engines, so if you're looking to make the jump to Unity or another engine down the line, this might not be the tool for you.

Beginner's Advice

"Don't forget to delete your work! Starting over frequently is a great way to work your design muscles." — Mark Essen, Nidhogg

"Get started! Get involved, get as much help as you can. Just make work, even if it's bad. The more mistakes you make the more you'll learn." — Alx Preston, Hyper Light Drifter 

"Just start! It's fun and relatively easy—and doesn't really cost you much but time." — Duncan Drummond, Risk of Rain

Unity

Price and License: Beginner's package is free, $35/month for Unity Plus, $125/month for Unity ProBest for: Pretty much everything indieNotable games: Ori and the Blind Forest, Galak-Z, West of Loathing, Cuphead

Unity is one of the main platforms for popular indie games, and while it has impressive 3D capabilities, there are dozens of fantastic 2D games built in the engine, too. Unity has more of a learning curve than the other engines on this list, but with a huge community and bountiful tutorials, there are more than enough resources out there to get you off to a solid start.

Unity's asset store also includes a wealth of add-ons that customize the engine for 2D development. There's Unity's free 2D Platformer asset, and tools like Corgi Engine and Rex Engine, which offer platforming physics, controls and abilities out of the box.

We spoke to both inkle's Joseph Humfrey and Asymmetric Publications' Victor Thompson about jumping into Unity as a new programmer. 

The Pros

Thompson may have been used to making games the old-fashioned way, but has quickly grown to be a fan of Unity, the engine he used to create the team's latest game, West of Loathing. "After 2-3 years of using it full time, the most exciting thing for me is how quickly you can put together concepts and prototypes," he says. "Despite having used many engines, both small and simple for personal projects as well as big and complex in the AAA industry, Unity is by far the best designed engine I've ever used, and allows me to be the most productive I've ever been."

The Cons 

However, there are some limitations when using a single platform for all of your development needs. If you encounter a bug in Unity, you're often at the mercy of the engine's designers to fix the problem, which can involve some waiting. "Despite publicly saying that they've put bug fixing at the top of their list of priorities, we still find editor and debugger stability a big problem at inkle," Humfrey says. 

Beginner's Advice

"Whatever it is you want to do, try to shape it in your head as a thing you want to make, rather than a skill you want to have. It's useful and rewarding to know how to do things, but in the long term I think people get more out of setting a goal, learning the things that they need in order to achieve that goal, and then reaching the goal." — Victor Thompson, West of Loathing

Ren'Py

Price and License: FreeBest for: 2D Visual Novels, SimulationCompatible with: PythonNotable games: Long Live the Queen, Analogue: A Hate Story

Ren’Py is an easy-to-learn open source engine. While the tool does require some programming, you really only need to know how to use a text-editor and photo editing software to get started. It’s a useful gateway to Python for newcomers.

Here’s what Georgina Bensley, creator of Long Live the Queen, had to say about Ren’py. 

The Pros

"Ren'Py is open source and cross-platform, which opens up a broad range of opportunities for dedicated users," Bensley says. "I also consider it a plus that it is beginner-friendly but still requires looking at and editing script files, rather than a graphical drag-and-drop interface, because I think it's useful to get people over that hurdle of thinking that code is scary."

Ren’Py is also a good tool if you feel overwhelmed by the sheer prospect of building a game from scratch: "One of the biggest roadblocks faced by people who've never made any sort of game before is simply the belief that coding is 'too complicated' and not something that they would be able to do. Being able to get a simple game up and running quickly helps get new developers over that hurdle, even if visual novels are not something they intend to make in the future. Once you've made something that other people can play, even something simple, it can change the way you feel about yourself and your ability to do things."

The Cons 

Ren’Py is a bit limited in support for graphical and mechanical features. If you’re looking to create games with 3D, Live2D, collision detection and other bells and whistles, you might want to look elsewhere before getting started. 

Beginner’s Advice

"Don't be afraid to try, it's easier to get started than you think. Don't be afraid to ask for help, there are a lot of other people out there who have been where you are and can offer tips, or who are looking for projects themselves and might want to join you. Don't assume that something is impossible until you've at least talked about it."

ink

Price and License: FreeBest for: Text-based adventure games Compatible with: Unity, C#, HTMLNotable games: 80 Days, Sorcery! 

ink is a good, free supplement to Unity if you're seeking an easy way to write branching dialogue and narratives. It's easy to learn, using markup instead of script, and it integrates with Unity smoothly thanks to the engine's built-in integration. ink was built as "middleware," according to inkle's Art and Code Director Joseph Humfrey—after writing an ink script, it's expected you'll plug it into a larger game within Unity. However, developers are also welcome to use the Inky Editor to export a game to the web.  

The Pros

Writing extensive narrative with branching paths can get messy, so ink is an excellent tool to ensure you don't get lost along the way. "This allows writers to use Inky to write their dialogue and narrative text in a format that's a lightweight interactive markup," Humfrey says. "The ink engine running within Unity can then read these scripts, and produce text that can be presented by the game."

Its open nature also comes in handy when creating more ambitious projects. Humfrey notes, "The text that's produced by the ink engine doesn't even necessarily need to be presented literally. For example, in Heaven's Vault, the ink engine produces a dynamic film script that's interpreted by the game and presented more like an interactive graphic novel or adventure game." 

ink also happens to be a great tool for people who are more interested in writing stories for games, as opposed to pure programming. "...There are increasingly a lot of interactive writers who have been using ink," Humfrey adds. "Where The Water Tastes Like Wine is a game by one of the makers of Gone Home and is using ink. It has a large team of well known writers including Leigh Alexander, Emily Short and Cara Ellison. So increasingly, if you're a writer interested in game development, ink could be a good way to get started."

The Cons 

ink is best used to complement games made within Unity, rather than as a standalone engine. Humfrey says, "ink isn't an alternative to Unity—it's complementary. In fact, ink is one of the only interactive fiction authoring languages that was specifically designed as middleware." 

Beginner's Advice

"The most common advice is that you should make a demo game, and I still believe that to be best advice. For artists, make sure you've got an awesome portfolio that shows what you're good at, and hides what you're not good at—only show your best stuff. So, get out there and make stuff!"

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an exceptional RPG, but that doesn’t mean mods can’t make it even better. With its robust editing tools and intuitive Game Master mode, expect to see lots of tweaks, new features and entire campaigns in the  future. We’ll be updating this list over time, but we’ve already found plenty of helpful mods. Here are the best Divinity: Original Sin 2 mods so far.

Free pet pal

Steam Workshop | Nexus

The pet pal talent is objectively and irrefutably the best ability in the game. Giving you the power to talk to critters, it’s an endless source of jokes, hints and hidden quests. By not picking it, you’d be missing out on many of the adventure’s greatest moments. This mod simply makes it a free ability, so you can use it straight away without being forced to pick between it and one of the many other handy talents. You’ll be able to blather away with Rivellon’s chatty animals to your heart’s content. An update to the mod also makes it affect everyone in your party, not just your character.

Expanded party size

Steam Workshop | Nexus

Original Sin 2’s companions are all worth bringing along on your journey, adding elaborate personal quests to your journal that span the game and providing plenty of roleplaying opportunities. Unfortunately, with the maximum party size of four, you’ll have to leave at least two of them behind. The expanded party size mod, not surprisingly, lets you take all of them with you. There are some minor UI and dialogue issues, but nothing game breaking. Combat will be a bit unbalanced, however, so you might want to consider a higher difficulty.

Infinite spirit vision

Steam Workshop

Spirit vision lets you strike up a conversation with ghosts, opening up new ways to solve quests. It’s basically pet pal with spectres. Unlike pet pal, however, it’s an ability you have to cast, and it doesn’t last forever. This makes it easy to forget that there could be several more characters floating about. Infinite spirit vision keeps it on all the time, effectively making it a passive ability. If you’re in an area that’s haunted, there’s no faffing required, and you’ll notice right away. The original mod has vanished from Steam and Nexus, but this newer one comes with an expanded radius so you’ll see ghosts that are further away. 

Origin and racial skill books

Steam Workshop | Nexus

Several skills in Original Sin 2 are exclusive to specific races and character origins. It’s one of the few restrictions in what is an otherwise very flexible, classless system. The origin and racial skill books mod makes these skills unlockable in the same way as all the others by turning them into skill books. This includes pet summons, so you’ll be able to make a custom character that can control Ifan’s wolf and the Red Prince’s dragonling, but it doesn’t include the abilities granted by Fane’s Shapeshifter’s Mask. The skill books can be found in specific book shelves. The mod is no longer being updated as of December 2017.

Artificer and Bard skills

Steam Workshop | Nexus 

This mod adds a whopping 50 new skills to the game. They can be mixed and matched with other skills or used to create Bard and Artificer characters. The Bard skills call to mind its D&D counterpart, revolving around buffing and debuffing, but the cherry on top is the weaponised lute you can get your hands on. Artificer skills are based around messing with items, like duplicating potions and cursing objects, handy both in and out of combat. Both of these skill sets are great for support characters.

Tempest skills

Steam Workshop

Spears are kind of weird in Original Sin 2. They’re finesse weapons, but unlike daggers and bows, they don’t have any skills specifically associated with them . Unless you download the Tempest skill pack, that is. This mod gives spears piercing damage, bypassing armour, and also introduces ten spear-based skills that run the gamut from simple jabs to summoning an intimidating barrage of spears.

Chronicles of Divinity map collection 

Steam Workshop | Nexus

If you’d rather kick off a campaign without building every single map yourself, the Chronicles of Divinity map collection adds 12 new maps for GMs to throw into their games or tweak to their heart’s content. The collection includes a dingy pirate’s cove, an ancient Elven forest and a prison filled with lava. More maps are being added, including an alternate version of Fort Joy. The maps all come from the in-development Chronicles of Divinity mod, an unofficial expansion to the main game that introduces new classes, quests and the ability to sail around in your very own ship. 

Combat sneak

Steam Workshop |Nexus

By reducing the AP cost of sneaking in the middle of a fight down to two, the combat sneak mod makes stealth a viable combat tactic. At 4 AP, it's normally too expensive to make it all that useful. You'll still need to watch out for archers who might spot you, of course, and you'll want to take advantage of cover and stay out of the red view radius while you're sneaking up on your targets or getting out of dangerous situations. This mod is particularly useful if you take the Guerilla perk, which increases damage by 40% when attacking from stealth.

JRavens GM Toolkit

Steam Workshop | Nexus

While the GM mode comes with a mountain of assets—everything from incidental props and window dressing to ships and castles— you can never have too many toys to play with when you're building your very own campaign. This toolkit expansion adds hundreds of items, both entirely new and stuff that Larian created but either didn't finish or left out of the final version. It also makes the maps larger and more customisable, letting you remove previously fixed elements like rocks and trees. Particularly handy are the empty maps that allow you to create custom areas for your campaign without the need to make them on the separate editor. The mod is still in development, but its creator has been fixing bugs. They recommend starting a new campaign rather than using it in a pre-existing one.

Void Knight

Steam Workshop | Nexus

Another new class mod, Void Knight introduces a slew of skills that combine martial and magical attacks that debuff any unfortunate enemies that get in their way. There are skills for strength-based warriors, including knockdowns, charges and leaps, but these are joined by magical abilities that summon shadows and transform the caster into a void dragon. It's a broad set of skills, but the void mark system lends the class some cohesion. Certain attacks apply a void mark on enemies, cursing them and reducing their resistances, and when the number of void marks on a target hits four it empowers that skill. You’ll be able to make a Void Knight in character creation, but you can also pick up the skills from a vendor in Fort Joy and, later, on the Lady Vengeance. 

Crafting overhaul

Steam Workshop| Nexus

If you’ve found the perfect set of armour but hate the colour, or if you desperately need to craft a sword in the middle of the woods, then the crafting overhaul mod has you covered. Along with more than 1600 new crafting recipes and over 550 new items, it introduces armour dyes, unique craftable gear, fancy elemental weapons and extra conveniences like portable crafting stations and bags. And you’ll also be able to get your hands on the grisly corpse harvester: a weapon that lets you harvest parts from the corpses of your fallen enemies. And why would you need body parts? To craft new items, of course. I suspect Fane’s a big fan of this nasty piece of kit.

There is a darkness that enshrouds Path of Exile. No, I'm not talking about the dank crypts and black mausoleums I stalk through, clicking madly on my never ending quest for loot. I'm talking about the seemingly impenetrable shadow of complexity that hangs over it, that feeling of total confusion as yet another esoteric system is introduced without any idea what it's for or how it will help my character become more powerful.

In the four years since Path of Exile was first released, I have tried to play it countless times. I start a new character and, before long, abandon them because I feel overwhelmed by the sheer intricacy—the commodity-based economy, freeform character progression, and the always nagging feeling that I'm playing it the wrong way. But with the release of its massive Fall of Oriath expansion a month ago, I decided to try once more, and I have finally seen the light. Path of Exile isn't an easy game to get into, but if you stick with it, you'll discover the most richly rewarding ARPG out there. 

Lost in Wraeclast 

Path of Exile is a theory crafter's dream come true, the kind of game with seemingly endless ways to build and optimize your ideal character. On top of a standard leveling system is a passive skill tree that makes Final Fantasy 10's Sphere Grid look like a 'connect the dots' puzzle book for toddlers—and that's just the beginning. There's an Ascension system for further specializing your character, a Pantheon system which gives you more passive bonuses for killing various gods and trapping their souls, the skill gems which lets you essentially spellcraft—the list goes on. And on. And on.

Oh, and I haven't even mentioned loot. Good lord, the loot. Never have I been so haunted by an inventory full of obscure knick-knacks and gizmos that I know do something but have no clue if that something is even worth doing. If you're someone who likes understanding the fundamental concepts of a game right away, Path of Exile can feel impossible.

To be clear, The Fall of Oriath, the latest expansion, fixes none of this. Not directly, anyway. The biggest feature is the addition of six excellent new acts, but you'll need to have persevered through the original four to even experience them. A new in-game tutorial will walk you through some of the basics in more detail, but I felt like it more often told me how to interact with a system without telling me how I should use it. As someone who recently returned to Diablo 3 to play as a Necromancer, the contrast couldn't have been more stark. And yet I've sunk about 40 hours into Path of Exile this month while Diablo 3 is, again, gathering dust. 

Pushing through the fog 

The biggest problem I had when first trying to play Path of Exile was feeling paralyzed with freedom. Where Diablo 3 offers structured character classes, Path of Exile's classes are almost inconsequential. Sure, you can start as a Witch, but nothing is stopping you from investing all your points into strength and turning her into a sledgehammer-wielding melee maniac.

Veterans will tell you to just wing it the first time, but I'm not fond of the idea of investing 20 hours into some rickety-shit build only to have to undo those mistakes later. But looking at various build guides, they're often steeped in lingo that can be impossible to interpret. Here's an excerpt from a popular build I found on Google.

"THIS BUILD IS MADE FOR BOSSING, NOT VSPARK SPEED MAPPING, SO KEEP THAT IN MIND."

General guides aimed straight at newbies can be a huge help, but even those feel a bit overwhelming. Here's a fantastic guide by Zizaran that clocks in at a whopping 43 minutes. But surely there must be a quick set of tips for new players who just want to kill monsters and not spend hours researching? There is. Sort of.

One of the great things about Fall of Oriath's launch (which brings Path of Exile up to version 3.0) is that sweeping balance changes and new skills means the entire metagame has been thrown out. The community has created a ton of new builds to play with. After doing some searching, I came across YouTuber Engineering Eternity who has fantastic beginner build guides. Though there's still some jargon to learn, Engineering Eternity solves one of the biggest problems with many guides I read by walking you through the leveling process. Instead of just showing you what the build will look like in the endgame, he breaks the guide into major leveling milestones, giving you smaller, more digestible goals to work toward. 

I went with his Scorching Ray Necromancer build, which revolves around melting enemies under a blast of fire and letting its damage over time ability finish them off while I move on to the next group. It's an excellent build that I recommend anyone use because it isn't overly reliant on gear. I still felt confused but I finally had a lantern that could at least illuminate the next few steps I had to take. That made Path of Exile much more accessible, and I started to see why it has such zealous fans. 

The joy of synergy 

One of the best concepts in Path of Exile is its passive tree and skill gems. Each time you level up, you unlock points which you can use to unlock nodes in the passive skill tree. Minor nodes offer slight upgrades to your stats, while major nodes unlock powerful passive skills that fundamentally change how you play.

This works in concert with skill gems, which slot into pieces of equipment and give your character spells and abilities to use in combat (unlike Diablo 3, they don't have any given abilities). Items will often have multiple gem slots, and sometimes they're linked together. If I put an ability like Orb of Storms into a slot and then link it with Curse on Hit, Flammability and Vulnerability, each time my Orb of Storms hits an enemy it'll also apply both of those curses to them. It's essentially a highly robust spell-crafting system. 

But it's when skill gems and the passive tree overlap that things get really exciting. My Necromancer relies solely on Scorching Ray to deal damage. Naturally, I've unlocked plenty of nodes that increase fire damage, but a few major nodes have these clever synergies that are really fun to unlock. Take Elemental Equilibrium for example, which makes enemies I hit with elemental damage temporarily receive 25 percent resistance to those elements and -50 percent resistance to other elements. 

How could that be useful to me? Well, when an enemy is hit by Orb of Storms, they become more resistant to lightning damage but weaker to fire. And because Scorching Ray is a damage over time ability, it doesn't actually "hit" an enemy, so I never risk making them more resistant to fire by accident. That's just one of a dozen small synergies my character has. I've never been much of a theory crafter, but seeing my build slowly come together as I unlock more major nodes has been a rewarding experience.

Path of Exile's core combat will never be as satisfying as Diablo 3's. It's slower and lacks the same kinetic energy as monsters ragdoll and the environment crumbles from your attacks. But what it lacks in animation and action, it makes up for in spades with the strategic depth that comes from slowly molding a character from such a robust system. I don't feel nearly as attached to any of my Diablo characters because I feel like I've invested so much time into intimately understanding how my Witch works. She feels handcrafted even though I built her from a template. And with her passive tree nearly complete and a good deal of her skills in place, she burns through packs of monsters with tremendous ferocity. It's like booting up a new PC build for the first time, hearing it whir to life and wanting to shout "It's alive!"

Flipping the switch 

Once I embraced Path of Exile's sprawling complexity, the dominos of my apprehension began to fall. I wanted to learn more about the game because I understood that its complexity is actually a virtue. The other day I spent an hour on the wiki finding out where I can get the rest of the skill gems I need to complete my build, and there's a few dozen other long term goals I'm beginning to work towards. Like a good MMO, I'm excited about the journey instead of the destination. And that's another reason why Diablo 3's Necromancer, despite being a lot of fun to play, never hooked me for longer than a few days. Within an hour or two, I had power levelled him to 70, but I didn't feel any connection with the progress I had made. 

Now that I've learned to enjoy Path of Exile's core game, I'm also beginning to appreciate Path of Oriath. As I mentioned, it introduces six new acts for a total of ten. This replaces the genre-standard difficulty system, where I'd normally play through the same content again and again at higher difficulties. Instead, Path of Exile is now one massive adventure. Technically four of the new acts are a retread through familiar zones, but there's constant detours to new areas and dramatic changes to the scenery to keep things interesting. Beyond that, there's a whole endgame to look forward to, but I'm not sure if I'll even get there. I've already been reading other build guides and I'm itching to try something new, to experience that slow transformation from weakling to god-like but with a new playstyle. 

Path of Exile is a huge game to try and comprehend. There's still dozens of systems I don't understand and an inventory full of items I don't quite know how to use. But it has rekindled the power fantasy that ARPGs have always fundamentally been about. One that, for me, has largely remained dormant since those sleepless nights playing Diablo 2.

Rocket League's Autumn Update releases today at 3 pm Pacific, kicking off Competitive Season 6 and bringing major changes to car soccer. I'm particularly excited about the addition of transparent goalposts—finally, goaltenders will be able to see whether the ball (or puck) is about to drop on the goal line, or if it's bounding into the corner, rather than peeking out to find it already behind them. We are truly blessed.

Though if you were fond of non-standard arenas Wasteland and Starbase ARC, you'll only be able to access their original layouts in private matches come update time, as they've been converted to the standard arena shape in all other modes. "We see Rocket League as a digital sport," said Psyonix about the change in a recent post. "As such, we think standardization is important and necessary to provide a level playing field and foster consistent competition across all skill levels and events."

Speaking of private matches, this update also adds LAN play. Every multiplayer game should have LAN support, especially a competitive one like Rocket League, so it's better late than never.

Finally, the Autumn Update brings us "over 90" customization items, "player banners," and a new seasonal arena, Farmstead—check out a few golden screenshots of it below. This is just the motivation I needed to sink a hundred more hours into Rocket League, at least if I can pull myself away from Original Sin 2.

The Call of Duty: WWII PC multiplayer beta was supposed to get underway on September 29, which is tomorrow. Surprise! It's live now.  

"The development teams at Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software have worked hard to get to this date, and are energized to keep pushing to make this the best possible PC experience. So please head online to play, and be sure to share your feedback with us—we’ll list below all the ways to express your comments," Sledgehammer wrote on the Activision forums. "If you experience a technical issue, please check with the Customer Support team at Activision. They’re ready to help get you back on track."

The beta is definitely a day early: The Steam page is still indicating that tomorrow is the day. Why? I do not know. But hey, it's an extra day of play. Nothing to complain about there.

The full version of Call of Duty: WWII will be out on November 3. For more, Wes recently spoke to the developers about the PC version and what to expect in this beta, and wrote up some impressions of the new War mode.