Whether or not the Overwatch League should implement hero bans has been a hot topic among fans and professionals lately. Those who are behind the approach believe it’ll mix up a stale meta, but it’s hard to say for sure until we see it in action.

Luckily, some players will be taking it for a test drive (albeit unofficially) in tonight s Tournament of Future Champions, run by Dallas Fuel and Team Canada coach Justin “Jayne” Conroy. Before a map begins, the two teams will be each able to select one character to eliminate from play, and one to be protected from bans.

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Before I started my PhD, I was an Inbox Zero kind of person. I used labels. Folders. Conditional filtering! These days, I might as well have a permanent out-of-office message. This isn’t to say that I never read my e-mails, but rather that they get filed into a section of my brain which I have deemed, “Later.” Within the distant confines of Later, I promise myself that when the “right time comes round for it,” I’ll remember whatever e-mail or Tweet or Instagram post I was looking for, and I’ll be able to pull it out at the perfect moment. Reader, I do not. Welcome to Spring Cleaning.

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Remember remember, the nineteenth of January, with gunfire, treason, and- hang on, this must be a misprint in my ‘On This Day…’ cat calendar. Let’s see. Ah! Wikipedia says January 19th, 1986 saw the release of the first IBM PC virus. Sadly that’s not in The Malware Museum and Wikipedia doesn’t list a catchy song to commemorate the event so I guess we’re about done here.

What are you playing this weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on!

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Free-to-play team shooter Dirty Bomb never drew the crowds it deserved. Slightly wonky business model aside (now no longer an issue – the game is proper-free now), it was fast, satisfying and skilful stuff. Not surprising, as developers Splash Damage are as veteran as they come – they’re the crew behind the excellent Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory back in 2003, and several iterations on the formula since. They’ve got a lot to teach, and have released their original design document for the game (formerly exclusive to Kickstarter backers) free for all. Grab it, an art-book and the game’s soundtrack here.

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A raytraced Quake 2 might be a fun retro showcase of shiny new hardware, but Quake 1.5 is what you really want to be playing right now. Assembled by modder “bloodshot12” (although its full credits are extensive), it’s a cocktail of mods for Id’s original Quake that aims to retain its aesthetic, but upgrade everything else. That means new, detailed weapon models, monsters (some from the excellent Arcane Dimensions), levels and more. Today’s release is technically a beta, but well worth playing, and dead easy to set up too. Find it on Mod DB, or check out a trailer below if the fancy new boss above isn’t exciting enough.

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The Creeper World series are strategy games unlike any other, and Sin Vega reckons they have the best monster of any game, even if the title is a bit rubbish. Part tower defence, part traditional RTS, part fluid dynamics sim, I’ve been a fan of Knuckle Cracker’s quirky if utilitarian-looking series for years now. The next game in the series – Creeper World 4 – will be the first to properly delve into the third dimension. With any luck, it’ll bring new depth (figurative or otherwise) to my years-long battle against an endless tide of caustic blue goo. Take a peek at an early trailer below.

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The Endless universe continues to live up to its name – both Endless Legend and Endless Space 2 are expanding once more next week. On January 24th, Endless Space 2 bulks out its espionage options in Penumbra, while Endless Legend’s Symbiosis expansion will let players control a race of sentient mushrooms and tussle with giant roaming crab-beasties. It’s nice to see Amplitude Studios still pouring time, love and vision into these two rather lovely games, even if only the maddest of players will have the time to master both. Trailers for the expansions below.

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Most of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 might be friendly and cooperative, but the lawless Dark Zones are returning in the sequel, giving players a chance to fight each other over some of the game’s best loot. It’s not quite as cutthroat as it used to be, thankfully, thanks to Ubisoft Massive protecting starting areas with automated turrets and player stats being normalised for a fairer competition – most of the time. There are also three Dark Zones, each one emphasising a different style of play; long, mid or short range combat, respectively. Take a look at how it all works in the handy info-vid below.

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Happy belated New Year of Deals, everyone. Having fully recovered from the depths of CES jetlag, your deals herald is back, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for another year of bringing you the best PC gaming deals around. You’ll have to hold me off the stairs by my coat tails before you can get rid of this> deals herald, and boy howdy do I have some good deals for you this week. We’ve got graphics cards, games, laptops, SSDs, the lot. Read on for your weekly dose of those sweet, sweet discounts.

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While we still don’t know what Bungie plan to do differently with Destiny now they’ve wrested their MMOFPS series out the clutches out Activision, franchise director Luke Smith has muttered cryptically about seeing “a bright future, with roots in a memorable past.” He drops a few references that have some fans dreaming real big about what might come, but it’s still all hazy.

In the near future and more certain, however, a patch is due at the end of the month to buff weak weapon types, including many auto rifles, scout rifles, and sniper rifles. It’ll fix a few irritants with the Black Armory DLC too.

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