On a dinky asteroid orbiting the Earth, two symmetrical ziggurats mark the red base and blue base. Each sniper-lined tower guards a flag, and their confined spaces contrast with the exposed and treacherous bridge between them. It is elegant, simple, stark against a grand sci-fi background. This is Facing Worlds, a level in the once dominant first-person shooter Unreal Tournament. This modest map has created countless memories of squaring off with friends over LAN and modem since it first appeared in 1999.

Before Fortnite and the Epic Games store, there was Unreal Tournament. 20 years have passed since Epic Games and Digital Extremes released their critically-acclaimed sequel to Unreal, and just one since an ambitious crowdsourced reboot was quietly shelved. Still, the original remains a touchstone for twitchy FPS multiplayer, and Facing Worlds, or CTF-Face for “capture the flag”, is a microcosm of everything great about it.

(more…)

With the release of Half-Life: Alyx lingering on the horizon, many of you (your deals herald included) may be wondering whether, given it’s Black Friday and everything this week, whether you should finally take the plunge pick up a great VR headset deal. Well, to help aid you in your quest for the best Black Friday VR headset deal, I’ve been scouring the web for all the best prices. From HTC Vives to Oculus Quests and even a couple of cheap Windows Mixed Reality headsets, here are the best Black Friday VR headset deals available right now.

(more…)

The devs behind Minecraft-server-turned-sandbox-RPG Hytale finally reckon they know when it’ll be done. Don’t get your hopes up for jumping in anytime soon, mind. In a development update posted this week, developers Hypixel think the ambitious block ’em up will be done by 2021. To keep you filled in ’til then dropped three additional update posts showing off new sights, new sounds, and our first 36 seconds of gameplay footage. Blimey, aren’t you spoiled?

(more…)

The Black Friday deals bonanza marches on this week, and there continue to be some pretty good Black Friday SSD deals for those looking to upgrade their PC’s storage banks. Admittedly, most of the best Black Friday SSD deals have, so far at least, largely been limited to just Samsung SSDs. That’s by no means a bad thing, of course, as my best gaming SSD rankings are chock full of the things, making it a great time to pick up some of the fastest and nippiest drives around on the cheap.

Still, deals on other SSDs like those from WD, Adata and Crucial have all been a bit lacking this year, although thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the case in the US, as there are still plenty of nice, tasty SSD deals to be had on non-Samsung drives, particularly on their Black SN750 SSD. Regardless of whether you’re after a deal on the best SATA SSDs or mega discounts on super fast NVMe SSDs and portable SSDs, we’ve got you covered in our Black Friday SSD deals hub.

(more…)

Your first goal in The Quiet Sleep is to wake up. You do this by connecting that goal to a willpower mine, which is itself linked to an energy spring via a train of thought. This is very confusing, especially if you’re attempting to understand how this works while frazzled on a Friday afternoon.

That confusion isn’t ideal in a game that deliberately hides its true nature. This exacerbates the way you’re meant to feel overwhelmed, like you’re struggling to hold your life together, because that’s exactly what’s happening to your character. That’s sort of a neat idea, except in practice my hour with The Quiet Sleep has left me more exasperated than intrigued.

(more…)

It’s go-time for those after the best Black Friday graphics card deals right now, as even within the space of 12-odd hours I’ve found a bunch of new, low prices for loads of today’s best graphics cards. To save you trawling through all the different Black Friday graphics card deals sites, I’ve done the hard work for you, as below you’ll find the best GPUs at the best and lowest prices in both the UK and the US. If you’ve been thinking about moving up to a ray-tracing Nvidia RTX card or want that great-value AMD Navi power, then these are the best Black Friday graphics card deals around right now.

(more…)

Brendy might have made an excellent case for Abe’s Exoddus being the better of the two original Oddworld games, but for me Abe’s Oddysee will always be the greatest. It was dirty but gorgeous, unpolished but refined, and filled with dark humour and brilliant ideas. But the main thing is that Abe’s Oddysee had those diabolical temple runs.

(more…)

It’s all very well me telling you what the best Black Friday graphics card deals are, or the best SSD deals are this Black Friday season, but even I’m prepared to admit that it can all seem a bit meaningless unless you’ve got a specific goal in mind, or you really, really> need a very particular upgrade for your ailing PC.

Fortunately, your deals herald has come up with what’s arguably the best and most worthy cause for maybe considering a couple of Black Friday deals this year, for what better way to show your ageing PC a bit of love and affection than to make sure it’s ready for what’s almost certainly going to be the game of the century, Half-Life: Alyx? So read on, dear readers, for the cheapest way to get VR-ready in time for Half-Life: Alyx’s launch next year.

(more…)

While Red Dead Redemption 2‘s been out on PC for a month, Rockstar’s cowboy epic has only been sold through their own store and Epic’s clients, steering clear of Steam. It was always due to mosey on over, of course, but like a fine wine, it needed time to breath (and satisfy exclusivity arrangements). Today, Rockstar announced a release date for RDR2’s Steam debut, opening the West to Valve’s massive platform on Thursday, December 5th.

(more…)

Is that a tingling in my ears? Has Kevan Brighting’s soothing voice returned to comfort my lobes? The Stanley Parable‘s narrator is back in a new trailer, and he’s got some concerning news regarding the development of the upcoming Ultra Deluxe edition. Reluctantly, regrettably, and due to popular demand, it appears the labyrinthine adventure’s second remake won’t be launching as planned this year.

(more…)