Amplitude Studios may be working on a new Civ-ish 4X strategy game retelling human history, the recently-announced Humankind, but they’re not out of wild and fanciful sci-fi histories either. Today they released a new Endless Space 2 expansion adding an interesting new faction named the Nakalim. They’re a once-great empire who went dormant after their gods were killed and are now trying to secure their galactic position in anticipation of their gods returning. I do appreciate how Amplitude create factions who are more than your usual “they’re Klingons – but bugs!” or “they’re Borg – but less 90s!” Come meet the Nakalim.

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Gears 5 features a full campaign that will take hours to play from beginning to end normally, but is filled to the brim with components to upgrade your hover bot – Jack. These aren’t the only collectibles as there are tons of hidden trinkets which are not immediately obvious to find. We now have directions for all of the Gears 5 collectibles and some of the early Gears 5 components. Images will be coming over the next few days and we’ve got it all covered up until the third chapter of Act 3, so watch this space for the rest of the directions.

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The booted-up lady doing a high-kick with a grappling gun in the picture above is one of the two latest Operators added to Rainbow Six Siege this week. Ubisoft have rolled out its next major expansion, Operation Ember Rise – a hefty update which combines a reworked Kanal map with some nice new chaos-engendering gadgets and playable adrenaline junkies.

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A UK Parliament committee have recommended that the government declare certain types of loot box to be games of chance which must be regulated under gambling laws. That’s one of the recommendations the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee published today in their report on “immersive and addictive technologies,” the result of months of talking with members of the industry, academia, and public. This report doesn’t mandate any changes itself but does lays the groundwork and for possible future changes. I’ve read a lot of government reports in my career, and this one is actually quite good. They have little patience for the industry’s nonsense.

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World Of Warcraft Classic has been running for 30 minutes and there are Minotaurs everywhere. I m standing in the Tauren starting region of Mulgore, and the area around me contains more beef than a guild forum. Bull-shaped adventurers, as far as the eye can see, are racing each other to the one ostrich-like enemy in reach, as the bird s respawn rate fails entirely to keep up with the flood of people spawning in. But the chat is excitable, happy, even constructive.

In this first half-hour a group of us wish a player happy birthday, we share mid-2000s pop culture references, and we say aww at a player who ran her character from an entirely different starting area to this one (a huge undertaking) so she could play with her spouse. A player whispers thanks to me as I share a macro that will help them target a creature without needing to see it. The atmosphere is one of adults being set loose in their childhood playground, responsibilities a remote concern.

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The graphics card rumour mill never ceases to amaze me. Despite no hard evidence whatsoever, the latest thing being whispered around the internet is that Nvidia are apparently getting ready to launch two new GTX 16-series graphics cards – the GTX 1660 Super and the GTX 1650 Ti. Indeed, after first spotting the story on Chinese news site MyDrivers, even renowned leakers VideoCardz have admitted they’ve found “no substantial evidence” for such a claim. Even if it does turn out to be true, though, I just can’t fathom where a GTX 1660 Super, or even a GTX 1650 Ti, would even sit on the great graphics card hierarchy scale. After all, isn’t that the whole point of having the GTX 1660 Ti?

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I still play Mordhau almost every night. People are far too good at it nowadays, but thanks to Tuesday night’s update I can now take refuge in a pub. Full modding support is still a ways out, say developers Triternion, but you can now automatically download the maps people have managed to make just by jumping into a server that’s running them. I’m delighted to report that at least some of them involve roleplaying as bartenders.

There’s also a new asymmetrical mode called Invasion, which I’ve only played for a tiny bit. I mentioned there are pubs now, right?

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First announced all the way back in January of this year, HTC’s latest PC-based VR headset, the Vive Cosmos, is finally almost here. Arriving in Europe on October 3rd (and mid-October for those in the US) for 699 / $699, the Cosmos has the highest resolution screen of any Vive headset so far, squeaking just ahead of the 1119 / $1098 HTC Vive Pro‘s 1440×1600 pixels-per-eye with 1440×1700 per-eye. Admittedly, a hundred extra pixels might not sound like much, but compared to the original Vive’s 1080×1200 pixels-per-eye, it sounds like quite the jump. I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve been able test one myself, but the main thing that intrigues me about the Cosmos is its modular face plate design. Because everybody loves a good mod.

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Could you pass me that block of cheese? No, the other one, the blue one. No, that’s a slice of cake. The chee– oh, for heaven’s sake, I’ll get it myself. Honestly, you shouldn’t be playing sorting simulator Wilmot’s Warehouse with an attitude like that. You’re clearly not enthusiastic about the minimalist pile ’em up we can’t stop playing. Maybe a few of its motivational posters will change your mind.

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It’s just 180 days until Jack Boyd’s retirement in This is the Police. He’s the chief of police who has to juggle many balls and not drop one, otherwise everything goes horribly wrong. The mayor is breathing down his neck constantly, while his staff plead for time off to volunteer at the animal sanctuary, all the while the crooks are plaguing the city.

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