Conglomerate 451 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Nic Reuben)

My latest big brain critic realisation is that dystopian sci-fi settings are a clever way to make basic (and possibly tedious) elements of interacting with your game, suddenly thematic. Hmmm, I ve been clicking on this menu for a while, You think. This isn t very interesting. And then the screen goes all crackly or whatever, and a disembodied voice materialises and says: The year is 2483, and all humans do is click on menus. Corporations did this.

And that s you, sucked into a charybdis-level whirlpool of immersion. Eyes glued to the screen as you watch a text crawl tell the terrifying story of corporate goons going around with big buckets of glue and sticking everyone s eyes to screens….forever. Cyberpunk, eh? Cyberpunk indeed, says Conglomerate 451. It sits somewhere between the Ultima Underworld homage of Legend of Grimrock, the debuff-firing turn based combat of Darkest Dungeon, and the base and squad management of Alien Defence Squad Trouser And Hairdo Customisation Adventure 2012, which I believe you proles call XCOM.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Katharine Castle)

It’s been VR headset deals galore this week. On Monday, HTC slashed the price of its Vive Pro starter kit by 220, no doubt in preparation for the launch of the upcoming Vive Cosmos Elite, and now Overclockers UK are offering 120 off a regular Vive Cosmos as part of their big 20th birthday bash. Normally 699, this takes the headset down to a rather tasty 579. If you’re still thinking about buying a VR headset for the launch of Half-Life: Alyx, this could be just the ticket.

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Stellaris - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

Paradox have announced a launch date of March 17th for the next Stellaris expansions, Federations. As the name suggests, it focuses on expanding options for spacefriends in the 4X strategy game, including new types of federation and a sort of galactic United Nations. It’ll bring new origins for civilisations too, including some novel ones like starting on a fragment of a Ring World or on a doomed planet that will explore in 64 years. And as is the Paradox way, it’ll be accompanied by a free update overhauling parts of the game for all players.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dave Irwin)

Much like the previous season change, Teamfight Tactics Set 3 changes the entire roster of champions in the game. This time every champion is themed around the space theme, with some champions taking inspiration from established concepts from within the League of Legends universe. So expect to see cybernetic variants of Fiora, or the “Star Guardians” that have an uncanny resemblance to the Sailor Moon team.

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Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dave Irwin)

So you’ve played a little bit of Wolcen, now that it’s properly fixed, and are now staring into the abyss that is the skill tree. Where do you even start? Luckily, there are some builds out there for new players looking for a bit of direction that cater to all types. From bloodthirsty warriors that spin axes repeatedly, to mages that want to see things explode. We’ve got a collection of the best builds right here for you to use, including one that we’ve found to be very handy indeed that we made.

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Feb 28, 2020
Taur - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Rick Lane)

Let s get the important stuff out of the way first. Taur has nothing to do with bulls. I don t know how many of you may have thought that, but I figured I d clear it up anyway. It does have a lot to do with towers, which is how I assume the title is supposed to be pronounced. I quite admire the brass of it. It s like calling your strategy game Bayse or your FPS Guhn.

Taur attempts to refine your typical tower defence scenario, borrowing ideas from strategy games like Total Annihilation and XCOM and reducing it down so individual matches last minutes rather than hours. It s a spectacular and surprisingly clever little game, although sadly its best ideas are also the least successful.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Katharine Castle)

There’s nothing worse than spending lots of money on a fancy gaming monitor and find it’s not very good, so to help you make sure you get the best price on today’s [cms-block]s, I’ve rounded up all the best gaming monitor deals I’ve seen over the last seven days. After all, your gaming monitor is one of the most important (and often most expensive) parts of your entire PC, so why pay over the odds when you can get a great one on the cheap? Updated every Friday with all of the best gaming monitor deals of the week, I’ll be using this page to keep a watchful eye over price hikes and price cuts to make sure you’re getting the best monitor price possible.

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Feb 28, 2020
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Tim Stone)

Roman thinks you re ready for Rithmetic Foxers. Below are three equations disguised as picture sequences. Each pic represents a number (For example a photo of The Flying Scotsman might signify 4472, 462, or 3). It s your job to identify the mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication or division) indicated by the lettered squares. The BIDMAS rule applies. No brackets or indices are involved. (more…)

Broken Lines - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Tim Stone)

If your hometown is full of Pilsner-swilling Sch tzen at the moment, if you can’t pass a pub without hearing strains of ‘Lili Marlene’, or walk down a tram aisle without tripping over a Karabiner 98k butt, blame the makers of Broken Lines. Realising that the Wehrmacht was desperately in need of some time off, thoughtful Danish developer PortaPlay has left them out of the 20 WW2 tactical RPG that has been effortlessly monopolising my monitor for the past few days. (more…)

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Katharine Castle)

Graphics cards prices are largely stable at the moment, but there are some great GPU deals to be had on Nvidia’s RTX 2060 and RTX 2060 Super cards at the moment, as prices have fallen quite considerably since last week. To help you bag one of today’s [cms-block]s on the cheap, I’ve rounded up all the best graphics card deals of the week below, comparing how they’ve changed since last week and whether they’re currently a good buy. It’s bad news for RTX 2080 buyers, for example, as prices have risen so high over the last seven days that it now costs as much as an RTX 2080 Super.

Elsewhere, though, this week’s best graphics card deals are largely the same as last week. No one likes paying over the odds for their graphics card, after all, so let us help you get the best deal on your new GPU. Whether you’re upgrading your PC or building a new PC from scratch, there’s a best graphics card deal for you below.

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