With the collapse of THQ, it seemed impossible that Vigil’s series of ’90s comic-styled hack n’ slash adventures would ever see another game, but here we are, with Darksiders 3 on the way, and due for release this November 27th. Published under the reborn THQ Nordic banner and developed by Gunfire Games (staffed in large part by ex-Vigil people), the third game puts players in the monster-stomping boots of Fury, who is a lady despite being one of the four horsemen> of the apocalypse.

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It’s been a long, painful wait for fans of smacking giant angry lizards in the face with huge (but comparatively still very small) swords. Released back in January on consoles, Monster Hunter: World finally has a release date on PC, and mercifully we’ve only got one more month to wait. Capcom’s excellent semi-open-world co-op dragon hunting sim will be landing this August 9th.

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HDR on PC is a bit of a mess, but provided you haven’t been put off by Windows 10’s hazy support for it or the astronomical prices of the best gaming monitors for HDR, then the next step on your path to high dynamic range glory is to get a graphics card that actually supports it. Below, you’ll find a complete list of all the Nvidia and AMD graphics cards that have built-in support for HDR, as well as everything you need to know about getting one that also supports Nvidia and AMD’s own HDR standards, G-Sync HDR and FreeSync 2.

We’ve also put together a list of all the PC games that support HDR as well. There aren’t many of them, all told, but we’ll be updating this list with more titles as and when they come out so it’s always up to date.

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If you’ve thought about buying a new TV in the last couple of years, you’ll no doubt have been bombarded with the glorious three-letter acronym that is HDR. Standing for ‘High Dynamic Range’, HDR is a type of display technology that’s all about making the things you see onscreen more realistic and closer to how they’d look in everyday life. That means improved contrast, a wider range of more accurate colours and increased luminosity – and it’s finally arrived on PC.

HDR on PC is a bit more complicated than it is over in the world of TVs, however, and a variety of competing standards, compatibility issues and the general fussiness of Windows 10 can make it quite a messy thing to try and untangle. In this article, I’ll be taking you through what HDR actually is and does, why it makes your games look better, as well as the best graphics cards, best gaming monitor and PC games you need in order to take advantage of it.

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Thrilling futuresport Rocket League celebrated its third birthday on Saturday and, presumably having been held up by the football, today kicked off the birthday party. Guests will get to play carball on a new pitch inspired by Rocket League’s big sister, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, and can come home with shiny party favours including party hats and cakes to sit atop their sportscars. The event’s arena is a special one, in one of those ‘non-standard’ shapes that developers Psyonix stopped making and even with its own slightly different ballphysics. Goals on! (more…)

Tokyo Ghoul:re Call to Exist is a gory upcoming hack n’ slash action game based on decent action/horror anime and manga series Tokyo Ghoul. Developed and published by Bandai Namco (as is their bread-and-butter), I’m hoping this one turns out well as I’ve a particular soft-spot for this bundle of near-future gothic angst and ultraviolence. Probably because the setting is practically Vampire: The Masquerade fan-fiction.

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Back when I wrote about other bits of tech, July was always the month where everyone was desperate to show you what goodies they intended to stuff down your stocking come the end of the year. Christmas in July, they called it, and it was downright depressing.

Now, however, it seems to be morphing into more of a Black Friday in July> kind of deal, as we not only have Amazon Prime Day next week and Twitch’s ongoing month of free games for Twitch Prime members, but Dell are also getting in on the action with their own week of July discounts – and some of them are pretty decent, too.

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The makers of Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds say they have found one potential reason why some recent players have grumbled about being shot by people so far around corners they hadn’t even seen them. PUBG Corp say the update last Wednesday, July 4th, unintentionally broke the North America servers’ ping-based matchmaking restrictions which are supposed to keep high-ping lagjerks out. I find it extremely validating when my death turns out to be a bug’s fault, so I’ll blame this for all of my recent murderings. The devs say they’re poking at the problem but don’t give an idea of when we should expect a fix. (more…)

Welcome to my nightmares. As chronicled last week, all human progress is wiped out by a Steam Sale. Where once we were a species that revelled in new, interesting ideas, pursuing our dreams, we are once more wedged neck-deep in the past, doomed to buy the same 40 five-year-old games until we rot and coagulate into a molten horror. Welcome to the Steam Charts! (more…)

Every year, The BAFTA Young Game Designers competition gives developing minds the chance to develop video games. There’s nothing stopping 10-18 year olds from just doing that anyway, but I know from speaking to last year’s winners that the competition can provide a valuable stepping stone for talented game designers at the start of their careers.

If you’re a monster who’s not interested in the heartwarming human interest side of the story, maybe I can lure you in with the promise of free games. This year’s award ceremony took place this weekend, and checking out the winning entries won’t cost you a penny.

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