As I start my final assault, I wonder if there’s a chapter in the Space Marine tactical codices on moving in hexes. It quite suits their methodical murder-all-heresy style. One by one, I move squads of bread-and-butter tactical marines into a front line. Then I pepper the line with close-combat captains and damage-boosting chaplains, and bring up a few predator tanks from the rear. With each turn I send them on a plodding death-march across the entire map. 

It’s more relaxing than a Warhammer 40,000 turn-based 4X strategy game should be. In my first game the Orks are wiped out before I start putting my full army together. The human Astra Militarum forces offered a little bit of resistance until my dreadnoughts punched all of the hitpoints out of their tanks. After several turns spent punching and shooting the central tower in their base, they were gone. The robotic Necrons—the fourth playable race—put up even less resistance.

Gladius - Relics of War is a solidly made strategy game, but a bland one. The UI for basebuilding, troop production and movement is clear and intuitive, but you’re not asked to make any difficult decisions as you build up your fortress to generate more resources. The tech tree simply asks you to research two technologies from a small selection before you access the next tier, giving you a clear, if simplistic choice, of which units and buildings you want to prioritise. The four playable factions have a series of mission objectives to complete to win a game, which tend to involve researching particular technologies and moving specific units to a point on the map. This tells a loose story about the planet Gladius, but you’re likely to wipe the other factions out before you get close to its final stages.

In a universe in which there is famously ‘only war’ it’s difficult to come up with a sensible diplomacy system, so there isn’t one. Gladius - Relics of War is all about producing units and moving them around though, as with base building, the troop production and combat systems aren’t particularly deep. Fans of hex-based Warhammer 40,000 games might remember the challenging Rites of War, which called back to meatier wargames like Panzer General 2. Gladius ain’t that. Units have attack, defence, armour penetration and morale values, but if you build a big clump of every unit you can unlock and push the army forward, you won’t have to worry about most of those stats. 

Orks have loyalty problems to reflect their rowdiness, Necrons regenerate a little bit of health each turn and can teleport to cities, but most of the differences between each faction are minimal. They all have combat specialists, basic line units, anti-armour options and a smattering of heroes who level up over time and unlock abilities. Normally these consist of a big hit on a cooldown, a ranged poke, and a passive faction wide resource boost. Whatever the faction, you produce as many units as you can, put them in a big line, and move them at the enemy base.

I wouldn’t mind the game’s simplicity if it captured more of the spectacle of Warhammer 40,000. The units are faithful to the tabletop originals but in motion they are stiff and mostly unexciting to watch. Grenade attacks looks like one unit is hurling a bunch of rocks at another, and when members of a unit die their bodies sink awkwardly into the ground and vanish. Enemies can behave oddly too. They tend to fall back when damaged, but will sometimes come right back and fight you even if they haven’t recovered. I haven’t seen the AI make any structured pushes on my base, which adds to the feeling that you’re just there to mop up the map.

Maybe some bigger explosions would help the ponderous exploration section, which you spend exposing procedurally generated terrain and blasting local insects. There are resource points scattered around that you can capture, and ancient relics that provide army-wide boosts to speed, damage or sight range, but the planet gets samey after a couple of games, and without the depth of a full-fat 4X game, it’s not as replayable. Perhaps with updates and expansions it will gain some complexity and nuance, but until then unless you truly adore the setting, play Endless Legend instead.

Intel is pushing out a new graphics driver for several of its integrated graphics options, and it contains performance optimizations for several games—Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War, Defiance 2050, and Banner Saga 3.

"In addition, this driver is also ready for BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, Lust for Darkness, and The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit with Intel Iris Pro Graphics or better," Intel states in its release notes.

We don't generally recommend running integrated graphics for gaming if you can afford a discrete GPU, but we like that Intel is getting in the habit of releasing updated drivers to coincide with new games. Intel recently assembled a graphics team led by former AMD Radeon Technologies Group boss Raja Koduri, and is planning to launch its first discrete GPU in 2020. It's not clear if that will be aimed at gamers, but even if it isn't, Intel has hinted at releasing a graphics card for gaming at some point.

Intel also maintains a gaming portal where you can plug in your CPU model and view the recommended settings for various games, based on whatever integrated graphics it's armed with.

As for the latest GPU driver (version 24.20.100.6194), in addition to game optimizations, it offers improved Thunderbolt stability, WebGL improvements in Chrome, security improvements, and a few bug fixes.

You can download the latest driver here.

Late last month a digital version of Quarto showed up Steam, and I’m much more enamored by it than I thought I was. An abstract game designed by a Swiss mathematician almost 30 years ago, Quarto is a simple and lovely game that requires you to really think, but occasionally feels more like a puzzle than a game. This digital adaptation from Games-Up and Asmodee Digital is faithful to the spirit of Quarto, and gives you one thing I didn’t know I wanted: The ability to play by myself.

Like most abstract games, Chess or Checkers or what have you, you could play Quarto with stuff you find around your house. It’s played on a 4x4 grid with 16 pieces, each of which is a unique combination of four traits—tall or short, square or circular, etc. The first person to place four in a row with a common attribute wins. The twist you might not expect is that each turn your opponent, not you, chooses which piece you can place. You’re constantly setting up delicate balances, looking at the pieces still available, and thinking a move ahead to set up a situation where your opponent can’t help but hand you a winning move. You’re also trying not to set up a situation where your opponent has a winning move you can’t see coming, or where you can’t help but hand them a win.

It’s a game with a serious less is more design philosophy. It may seem too simple, and like Chess it’s not a game you want to binge play for hours on end, but it’s a wonderful way to kill time and after a few rounds you can see why it has remained popular in board gaming circles for a quarter century. Further, what’s great about this digital version is that it implements lots of new ways people have found to play Quarto over the years—and trust me, there are a lot of victory variants and quirky rules limitations out there. This series of challenges and puzzles is really satisfying for one reason: You can do them by yourself.

It’s not always easy to get someone else to try a new abstract game, or to find an opponent as skilled as yourself. What I was pleasantly surprised by in this adaptation was the AI, which is pretty good, but not perfect. At its hardest difficulties, though, it’s a real course in how to be good at Quarto. It makes unexpected moves, trounces you with perfect board knowledge, and generally crushes your hopes in dreams over and over—beating it is the kind of brain burning strategy puzzle that I love. 

You can also play it in hot seat, with multiplayer marked as ‘coming soon’ by the developer. Quarto is $6.99 right here on Steam. 

Here's what happens when four players try to run one town in Cities: Skylines. It ain't pretty. In fact it's so ugly, I reckon you're better going it alone—which you can now do via EA's Origin Access. The subscription service has now opened its doors to Colossal Order's city-builder, and seven other games. 

Darksiders: Warmastered Edition also joins Origin, alongside Rime, Orwell: Ignorance is Strength, Mad Games Tycoon, Jotun Valhalla Edition, Ghost 1.0 and Crashlands. 

Besides Cities, my favourites there are probably Orwell and Jotun. Phil billed the former a "novel perspective on totalitarian surveillance", and a success despite its flaws. Here's an excerpt from his 78-scored review:    

[Orwell] lets you watch over a spiralling conspiratorial thriller, and throws in enough twists and surprises to keep things interesting. It's an enjoyable way to interact with a world—the voyeurism creating a distinct, enjoyable power dynamic that I refuse to self-reflect on any further. It's not at all subtle—it's called Orwell, after all—but it's a well told mystery framed by a captivating storytelling device. 

And here's an interview between ex-PC Gamer assistant editor/current professional turncoat Tom Marks and Jotun's creative director William Dubé.

More information on EA's Origin Access subscription service, including how to sign up if you're into it, lives here. 

After a number of huge games and reinventions, Far Cry has accumulated an absurd amount of thematic obligations. Emotional sincerity and nuance sit right next to Grand Theft Auto-style 'satire' and unapologetic violence. New entries need to include brutality to the point of repulsion, have some sort of philosophical or subversive layer, and offer breathtakingly beautiful virtual tourism, all at the same time. This mix isn’t just contradictory—it’s impossible to truly pay off without choosing an element to emphasize. 

This is why I believe that accusations that Far Cry 5 doesn’t have anything to say, or that it refuses to take a stance on the many subjects it approaches in its over-the-top tale of reclaiming Americana in rural Montana, is false. It just says these things in individual pieces, each beholden to a different portion of what has become an inherently conflicted series.

In Far Cry 5, a pseudo-Christian group known as the Project at Eden’s Gate established itself in a small, struggling, isolated segment of rural Montana, and preached about a coming end: The Collapse. This is an inevitable event where the economic and political elite would destroy themselves and the world in the process, leaving only the faithful alive. The damaged and economically disadvantaged flocked to this message, with its promise of salvation and a turning of the tables to come, to the point that the so-called “Peggies” became the de facto power of the region. The now dominant religion is headed by four figures. The Father, Joseph Seed, and his ‘Family’ of three lieutenants, each helping to control the members of the cult with a unique philosophy and methodology.

Joseph Seed, with his tinted sunglasses, preaches words that are alternately welcoming, reasoning, and vengeful. Faith Seed is the manipulator of the group, claiming innocence while dancing through hallucinogenic fields of a mind-altering drug she manufactures called Bliss in a lacy white dress. Military veteran Jacob Seed sees the world in shades of nihilism, brainwashing the player character to react to the trigger of the song ‘Only You’ by The Platters and monologuing about the need to cull the herd of humanity of weakness. Finally, John Seed spouts self help-adjacent phrases behind a brilliant smile and baby blue eyes, but harbors a sadistic need to carve the names of sins into one’s flesh and tear the skin off in strips to absolve the person of sin.

The charismatic leader, the seeming innocent, the grizzled soldier, and the not-so-undercover sadist. As caricatures with nothing more to do than misuse portions of Christian scripture to sound extremely creepy (and therefore being suitable targets in the eyes of the player), these figures could be effective enough. Far Cry 5, however, does feel the need to say something—to be more than a romp against cartoonish villains in the Midwestern United States. It attempts to give these characters nuance, in portions, and so undermines itself in an approach that is increasingly revealed to be typical of the game.

Faith Seed isn’t so much a name as a title. The woman currently holding it is just the most recent in a long line of people who have been taken advantage of by Joseph, and the cult by extension. In your final confrontation, you learn that Faith’s redemption was a false one under a cloak of ultimately hollow religion. She reveals that she was plied with drugs and threatened by Joseph when she was still practically a child to assume her current role. Manipulated when she was alone, addicted, and desperately needed help, to turn her into the manipulator of others that she is today. This is confirmed by other documents you find throughout the game. Notes from caring friends, and even those who were close to previous Faiths. In Far Cry 5, the character of Faith is both deceived and deceiver: tragic, like her brother John.

When you’re strapped to a chair in John’s torture dungeon, things don’t look great. He begins to monologue, talking at the player camera in the type of sequence that has become infamous since Vaas Montenegro screamed about the definition of insanity in Far Cry 3. However, when he begins to speak about his past, the theatrical posturing suddenly falls flat. John Seed’s story is one of child abuse. Internalizing the need for pain, he found ‘the power of Yes’ by seeking out every source of agony and debasement he could find. Suddenly, the cartoon sadist becomes a damaged person with a very sharp knife. Someone whose personal struggles have been redirected by leadership in the cult, into their very worst forms. Someone who was redeemable once.

The swings in characterization and nuance are so drastic that they pull you out of the loop of blowing shit up and running that you tune into to play Far Cry, and question the very premise of the experience. If these villains are people...what do their deaths mean? What is the game saying about them?

Is this the point?

And that’s the thing about Far Cry 5—it has so much content, and says so many different things (often with an admirable amount of internal commitment), that a search for one overriding message is futile. 

Shooting brainwashed cultists to the beat of Disco Inferno with an enthusiastic pyromaniac, you could easily believe Far Cry 5 is a goofy if tone-deaf romp. Searching for what is possibly a certain alleged tape with a loud undercover agent, you might see Far Cry 5 as a GTA-esque satirical morass. Murdering cultists next to a massive bear you can pet after he’s torn your enemies throats out, you could conclude Far Cry 5 just offers an over-the-top setting for an exciting FPS. Depending on the missions you played, that would seem correct for the most part. 

However, you might then play a mission where you take Nick Rye, one of your recruitable companions, to the hospital with his pregnant wife. That’s it. That’s the mission. A moment of humanity at the end of the world that immediately contradicts whatever single comfortable narrative you believed you found.

Apart, any one of these scenarios could be representative of a specific tone and subject matter for an experience. Together, they’re the confused mess that has become Far Cry’s modern identity...Which is why I’m increasingly excited about its divisive ending.

At the end of Far Cry 5, the Collapse occurs. Mushroom clouds rise in the distance as you race to a nearby fallout shelter, only to find yourself taken prisoner by Joseph in the deserted bunker as a captive member of his new ‘family’. All your friends are dead, Joseph hisses “I was right” into your ear, and he sits in a chair across from you, triumphant.

When I first saw this ending, I was frustrated. There was no closure. No final message to rearrange the many, many thematic pieces I had been given into even a partial picture. Then, I realized that...Joseph might have a point. Maybe the sole, inevitable way for Far Cry to move on was to destroy its world first.

Someone has to be right—why not him?

Technically, Stardew Valley multiplayer was designed for four players, but technicalities have never stopped modders before and they're sure as hell not going to slow their roll for Stardew Valley, of all games. Case in point: Community Farm, a content pack by modder SgtPickles which comes fully loaded with a massive 156x156 map and support for 10-person multiplayer. 

Not long after Stardew Valley multiplayer came out, modders worked out how to remove the player cap so all your friends (and all their friends) can play on one farm, but that still left the issue of building everyone a cabin without turning your farm into a cramped neighborhood. I'm not sure if Community Farm is compatible with the Unlimited Players mod, but I dearly hope it is, because it could solve that problem by giving everyone some wiggle room. In any case, it's a great map for large friend groups who want to farm together. Have a look at the whole, massive thing: 

You and all your friends will need the Stardew Valley modding API (SMAPI) and the map pack MTN (More Than Necessary) to get Community Farm working. Visit its Nexus Mods page for download and installation instructions. 

The latest update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive brings both good news and bad news for players in the Netherlands. Steam trading and Steam Market functionality, which were disabled last month, have been re-enabled, but players in the country, as well as Belgium, are no longer able to open containers—which is to say, loot boxes. 

Market and item trading were switched off after the Netherlands Gaming Authority ruled that some videogame loot boxes—it didn't reveal which—were in violation of the country's gambling laws and therefore had to be changed, with a deadline set for June 20. Valve said at the time that it didn't "understand or agree with" the ruling, and had contacted the Gambling Authority for clarification; in the meantime, "our only practical alternative is to disable trading and Steam," it explained.

Belgium issued a similar ruling on loot boxes shortly after the Netherlands and specifically named CS:GO, along with Overwatch and FIFA 18, as being in contravention of the law, but did not set a deadline for compliance. 

Re-enabling the CS:GO market, but disabling cases, means that players in the Netherlands will be able to buy and sell items directly, but not partake in the randomized luck-of-the-draw of lootboxes. That probably won't make CS:GO fans who like to play the ponies very happy, but it's presumably enough to keep Valve out of legal trouble, and it's better than the across-the-board shutdown that Valve went with originally. 

The latest CS:GO patch notes are available in full at counter-strike.net.

AMD has started rolling out its Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.7.1 driver release, and with it comes some claimed hefty performance improvements to Earthfall, the co-op shooter that's due out tomorrow, July 13.

Just how hefty? According to the release notes, the game runs up to 28 percent faster, compared to the 18.6.1 driver release. Here are the three examples AMD provides in its release notes:

• Up to 28 percent faster performance on the Radeon RX Vega 56 (8GB) at 2560x1440 (1440p)
• Up to 22 percent faster performance on the Radeon RX 580 (8GB) at 2560x1440 (1440p)
• Up to 27 percent faster performance on the Radeon RX 560 (4GB) at 1920x1080 (1080p)

It seems there is some serious optimization going on—those figures are higher than we're used to seeing when AMD (or NVIDIA) releases a new driver set. Note that we haven't tested this ourselves yet.

In addition to bumping framerates in Earthfall, AMD says all Radeon owners who are planning to play Fortnite Season 5 should install the new driver package as well. That's because it fixes a bug that could cause the game to hang when throwing starts are visible on the screen.

There are a few other fixed issues, including:

• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice may experience flickering or corruption on some Radeon graphics products.
• Display modes may sometimes appear as not available when setting resolution or refresh rates of a display.
• CorelDraw may experience slower than expected performance.
• Memory clocks may remain at higher than expected values on some displays after changing resolution or refresh rates.
• Some displays may exhibit black screen flickering when booting to desktop when using DisplayPort.

Go here to download the new driver release.

We took a look at inXile's upcoming Bard's Tale 4: Barrows Deep today and found it "a captivating dungeon crawler," which is really good news for people (like me) who have been looking forward to getting their hands on it. Also in the "good news" department, inXile announced today that the game will be released on September 18. 

Like its 1980s predecessors, Bard's Tale 4 is a single-player, first-person, party-based RPG set inside sprawling dungeons filled with puzzles, traps, and monsters. But it "doesn't feel beholden to the past," Wes said in his preview, and that's good because those early games were viciously difficult. I've knocked off dungeon crawlers from Eye of the Beholder to Legend of Grimrock, and I don't think I ever even came close to finishing The Bard's Tale. But I sure loved knocking around in its tunnels. 

The Bard's Tale 4 will be released on Steam and GOG, and is available for preorder now at bardstale.com. Preordering the Platinum or Ultimate edition will net you access to the beta, which went live today, and Kickstarter backers can get in on that action too.  

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines was a WW2-set real-time strategy game that looked a wee bit like Red Alert but was a lot harder. If I remember correctly. That's me casting my mind back 20 years, but a quick glance at its Steam page makes me think I've recalled it right. 

Perhaps I'll refresh my memory soon, as Tropico publisher Kalypso Media has "secured all rights to the highly-acclaimed fan-favourite gaming IP". 

In a statement, Kalypso talks of developing "completely new games for all platforms" and so-called extensive adaptations of "the existing titles for contemporary technologies and platforms." Which I'm fairly certain means we're in for remasters and new games in their own right. 

Kalypso's takeover also nets it the rights to Behind Enemy Lines follow-ups Commandos 2: Men of Courage, Commandos 3: Destination Berlin and Commandos: Strike Force, as well as Pyro Studios’ other titles Imperial Glory and Praetorians. I didn't play any of those myself—I was Red Alert through and through—but I'd love to hear from those of you who did in the comments below.  

Here's Simon Hellwig, Kalypso founder and global managing director, on the acquisition: "We have great respect for what the Pyro Studios team have accomplished and created throughout the history of the studio. Therefore, we see it as our responsibility to want to revive and further develop these beloved games for the fans around the world. 

"Of course, this will include the development of a completely new games for all platforms, but also an extensive adaptation of the existing titles for contemporary technologies and platforms."

And here's Ignacio Pérez, founder of Pyro Studios: "We have been looking for a suitable partner for the continuation of our products and brands for a long time. Kalypso has great expertise and experience with rebooting well-known titles, and we are delighted to have our IP in such good hands."