Total War: WARHAMMER - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

It’s a big and fighty day for Total War: Warhammer II, with extra factions, units, and lords flooding in from all over. The first Total Warhammer’s Norsca DLC race have become playable in Twarhammer 2’s cross-game Mortal Empires campaign, the new ‘The Queen & The Crone Lords Pack’ paid DLC is out now, new free DLC adds a brooding new High Elf for everyone, various races have received powerful buffs, and elite units from the first game are now in the sequel too. As I said, a big and fighty day, whether you’re buying anything new or not. (more…)

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (RPS)

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When it comes to upgrading our PCs, we so often forget that one of the most important parts of our system is the big black box sitting right in front of us, which is why we’re here to help you find the best gaming monitor to suit your needs and budget. Let’s face it – buying a new monitor is hard. It’s one thing to look at the specs, but trying to judge whether that screen actually produces a good picture or not is nigh on impossible to do from the comfort of your own home.

Fortunately, we’ve done the hard work for you, as below you’ll find a list of all our top recommendations across a multitude of different screen sizes and resolutions. Tried and tested at Castle Shotgun itself, the only monitors you’ll find here are the ones we’ve had sat in front of our own eyeballs and measured with our trusty X-Rite Display i1 Pro calibrator. Naturally, this means we’ll be updating this list as and when new gaming monitors come in that we think deserve a place on our coveted hot list. Case in point: BenQ’s new EW277HDR, which sits newly-crowned as our best 27in 1080p monitor.

We’ll also take you through everything you need to know about screen sizes, resolutions, refresh rates, panel types, inputs and adjustable stands. By the time you’re done here, you’ll be fully equipped to find the best gaming monitor for you. Let’s begin!

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Just Causeā„¢ 3 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alec Meer)

There we were, being all surprised that Just Cause/Mad Max outfit Avalanche Studios had been handed the reins to Id sequel Rage 2, and now here we are, being all surprised that Avalanche are now owned by a 111-year-old Danish movie studio. Nordisk Film, the world’s oldest still-active film production firm, have doled out some $103 million to take control of Avalanche’s three offices, but the claim is that the Swedish games studio will retain creative independence. In fact, the plan is to work on more self-published titles, though they don’t plan on giving up work for hire just yet. (more…)

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Katharine Castle)

Corsair HS70 Wireless

PCs are a messy business. Most of us have wires up the wazoo, and probably not an insignificant number of knots and snarled cables to go with them. Problem is, not many of us are willing to forgo the speed and reassurance that comes from having a wired set of peripherals – except, that is, when it comes to our headsets. Life is so much better when you’re not getting throttled as you desperately try and untangle yourself from your wider pool of leads and flexes when you need to answer the doorbell or go downstairs for dinner, but good grief wireless headsets do cost a lot of money, don’t they?

Fortunately, Corsair have taken note, as their brand-new HS70 Wireless headset has finally arrived for just 100/$109. That’s a heck of a lot more appealing than the 140/$160 demanded by HyperX’s Cloud Flight and even the 130/$150 you’ll need to spend on the excellent Steelseries Arctis 7. Corsair hasn’t skimped on features, either, as you’re still getting virtual 7.1 surround sound and up to 16 hours of uninterrupted play time. Can it break into our best gaming headset rankings? Let’s find out.

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Cultist Simulator - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Nic Rueben)

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In my time with Cultist Simulator, I ve browsed hidden book shops for arcane grimoires, sent loyal acolytes on doomed expeditions, and felled nosy investigators with poisoned tea. I ve been reduced to begging in the street for opium money, and I ve sacrificed followers with antique daggers in secret rites to restore my vitality. Weather Factory s first outing is what I imagine playing solitaire with Necronomicon pages might feel like, if those pages then formed a map to the location of a much older, much more cryptic tome that made the Necronomicon look like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. (more…)

Budget Cuts - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Matt Cox)

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I had a little VR party on the day I got my Vive, and my guests all regarded the Budget Cuts demo as the highlight. That’s partly because it felt slick and stylish in a way that hasn’t been matched by anything I’ve tried since, but mostly because watching VR newbies fail to sneak past robots is the most fun you can have with a pair of cyber goggles. I still vividly remember one friend getting so startled that he froze rock solid, spent a second doing terrified jazz hands, then crumpled straight to the floor. It might have been the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

The full version of Budget Cuts was originally meant to come out “soon” after that demo did back in 2016. Then it was meant to come out at the start of this month, and then it was meant to come out today. Turns out it’s actually (well, probably) going to come out in “approximately 1-2 weeks”, because developers Neat Corporation aren’t quite happy with it yet. (more…)

TEKKEN 7 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brendan Caldwell)

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Brendan: Fisticuffs game Tekken 7 celebrates its first birthday today and is gifting players some free costumes, hairstyles, effects and props to use in the fighting game s silly-yet-joyful character customiser. As a strong adherent of fashion in the world of the Iron Fist, I am duty-bound to inspect these new bits and pieces with the critical eye of a trendsetting face-puncher. I m joined now by fashion guru and kung-fu stylist Jean Claude Tekken, who will accompany me on this round-up of the best outfits. Hello Jean Claude.

Jean Claude: Good afternoon, Brendan. Let s Tekken >the sights, shall we?

Brendan: Ha ha ha. Very good, Jean Claude. Very good. (more…)

PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

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The tropical new island of Sanhok will properly arrive as the third Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds map “near the end of June”, developers PUBG Corp have said ahead of the final public beta test’s launch tonight. If you haven’t dropped on Sanhok yet, you might want to get the download started early today, as it uses a whole separate client.

Stag & hen parties who’d rather not dabble with unknowns get something new this week too, as an update for the main game has arrived with changes including making molotovs and grenades less rubbo. Heck, it’s not a real hen party until you’ve flashbanged the bride. (more…)

May 31, 2018
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Tim Stone)

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When it comes to scenario durations, CMBO is as pedantic as a parks department pedalo f hrer. Unlike its successors, it always halts battles at precisely the advertised time. Overlordy will have no false dawns… no painfully extended death rattle. The defence of Caent will end in exactly sixty seconds’ time.

(Overlordy is a 20-turn open-to-all game of Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord in which German forces are orchestrated by commenters while British units are computer controlled. For a scenario outline and summaries of earlier turns, click here). (more…)

Golem - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dominic Tarason)

Golem

It’s easy to get the wrong impression of Golem at first glance. Released just today, this point-and-click adventure could easily be mistaken for a platformer, especially considering the pace of the action in the trailer within. Instead, what we’ve got is a purely mouse-driven game, telling the wordless tale of a young girl and her pet rock, by which I mean you get to go all Ico/Last Guardian with a shape-shifting pile of stone.

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