As the sun set over 2018, I was delighted to discover one last gem. An irrepressibly playful, hyper-imaginative shooter with the best movement system since Spider-Man – according to my chronology, at least. Xboxers got all their raving about Sunset Overdrive done five years ago, but it only fell under RPS’s remit when it came to PC last November. We didn’t review it.
We should have.
When it comes to bonkers gaming laptops, you can always rely on Acer to go that extra mile and create something that’s utterly bananas. For as long as I’ve been writing about tech (and gaming laptops in particular), this Taiwanese giant has been responsible for almost every surprise and baffling bit of innovation I’ve encountered over the years, and their latest Predator Triton 900 laptop is no exception.
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When a game spells magick with a K, you know it means business. Arcanum was one of my early isometric RPG experiences, and I still boot it up every so often to have a poke around in it. It s a world where a kind of industrial revolution is in conflict with the old magical ways; magic and machines are opposed to each other, like magnets. Your character has to pick a route to go down. It s cool and a steampunky, but not in an annoying way. There’s a mysterious cult and possibly the end of the world. You get it.
Not content with rewriteing the rulebook on RGB lighting with their new Capellix tech at this year’s CES, rainbow gaming specialists Corsair also announced a new wireless technology today that will form the foundation of all of their wireless gaming peripherals going forward.
Dubbed Slipstream, it’s twice as fast as their previous generation of wireless tech, has a massive range of up to 65ft, supports three devices on a single adapter, and will constantly search for the best frequency to keep your connection nice and stable. And best of all, it will make its first appearance on one of Corsair’s cheapest gaming mice, the Harpoon RGB Wireless.
In Bastet (an official Overwatch short story released today) Blizzard have confirmed that one more member of the game’s ever-expanding cast fits under that cozy LGBTQ+ umbrella. Eternal squad dad Jack “Soldier 76” Morrison once had a lad back home named Vincent, but the mission was tragically more important than love. It’s a minor revelation, but in keeping with Blizzard’s odd divide between Overwatch’s characters in the fast arena shooter, and as they appear in its extended fiction – fleshed out, with motivations and histories. You can read Bastet for yourself in PDF format here.
Free-to-play defend-o-shooter Orcs Must Die! Unchained and both games in Robot Entertainment’s turn-based Hero Academy series are set to close their doors this April. In an apologetic letter to players, CEO Patrick Hudson explains that the games simply cost more to run than they make back in return. The studio itself doesn’t seem to be in immediate danger, with Robot currently working on two new games that they plan to unveil later this year. Account registration for the games should end soon, but the last few Unchained players will find themselves with a sack of currency to spend over these final three months.
It’s been five years since Corsair first unleashed a wave of rainbows across PC gaming peripherals with the introduction of their K70 RGB keyboard, but now those RGB nuts are taking their brightly coloured LEDs to the next level.
Announced today at their CES 2019 press conference, Corsair’s Capellix tech is a new form of LED mounting that allows for higher brightness levels, better power efficiency, and crucially (for some, at least) a significantly higher density of LEDs for an even greater Skittle-based gaming experience. And the first product to use Corsair’s new Capellix tech is their newly unveiled Dominator Platinum RGB RAM.
Guild Wars 2 got a little off track with Path Of Fire‘s god-hunting story arc, but tomorrow those with their sights on the deadliest game of all (Elder Dragons, duh) should be pleased. Season four, episode five of the MMORPG’s ‘living world’ updates goes live tomorrow adding a new mountain zone to explore, a chunk of new story, and what sounds like a nigh-suicidal plan to kill Kralkatorrik, the big purple Crystal Dragon.
While my interest in this new episode is tarnished somewhat by ArenaNet’s questionable firing of two of this season’s key writers back in July 2018, I admit some curiosity in where the story is headed. Check out the trailer below, featuring some familiar faces and locations from past chapters and the original Guild Wars.
Life in a post-zombaplocalyptic world has never been easy for Clem, and judging from the new trailer for The Walking Dead: The Final Season‘s next episode – Broken Toys – she’s preparing for war. Produced under new studio Skybound Games (thankfully using former Telltale talent), the third of four episodes will be available to all existing season owners on January 15th on all stores. Those late to the party won’t be able to pick it up on Steam or GOG anymore as the game has become an Epic Games Store exclusive. The end is nigh, give or take one more episode – give it a peek below.
Today brings good news for Atlas players who respond to grind with an “Oh no!” rather than the customary “Yo ho!” Reducing tedious grind is a big target of the piratical sandbox survival game’s early access update v10, launched this afternoon, and that sounds welcome. Atlas proudly declares it’s from some of the makers of Ark: Survival Evolved, and its heritage is evident in the UI, the bugginess, the grind… and how popular it’s become despite all that. Like Ark, it dreams a big dream that few games rival, even if it is a mess. So I hope enjoy a slightly less tedious dream, you wild-eyed seadreamers.