Humble have announced plans to launch a $1 million fund (£800k) “dedicated to helping publish games by Black developers.” This comes in a week of protests across America against police brutality and racism, following the police killing of George Floyd. “We stand in solidarity to condemn racism and violence against the Black community,” the company said. “Humble believes in empowering and uniting communities through gaming and will leverage our platform to help achieve racial equity everywhere.”

(more…)

You will no doubt be aware that protests, marked by a violent police response, are ongoing in America. These protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd, who was killed by police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for almost 9 minutes. Today you will see many people, websites and individuals, participating in what is being called Blackout Tuesday. By not posting on social media, it clears the way for Black voices, particularly of the Black community in the US, to speak about the systemic racism and police brutality that they suffer.

We will be participating in this social media blackout for 24 hours from 2pm BST today, and have joined in a joint statement of solidarity from all the websites across our network. We’re going to spend the time playing and writing about games by BAME developers and creators, and those posts will appear in the next 24 hours and beyond.

We know we haven’t done nearly enough to amplify Black voices or help diverse people into this industry. We are working on things to change that. But now is not the time for a long and empty mea culpa. We encourage you to donate to organisations fighting racism and police violence. We encourage our white audience to take the time to listen and educate yourselves with resources like those provided by Black Lives Matter.

After last week’s big sale on WD Black SSDs, this week’s big [cms-block] are all about Samsung. After weeks of prices inching higher and higher or just plain refusing to budge whatsoever, prices for Samsung’s best SSDs have finally started to fall in the US. There are big discounts to be had on our current [cms-block] pick, the 860 Evo, and their top-end 970 Evo Plus drives, as well as their portable Samsung T5 drives, with some returning to what they cost over Black Friday.

(more…)

After a two-month closed beta, Riot’s guns n’ wizards shooter Valorant is now out for everyone to play. Valorant is the League Of Legends developer’s first tactical FPS, pitting teams of five players against each other to capture objectives. It’s very ‘CS:GO meets Overwatch’, and what’s more, it’s free-to-play. For those of you already embedded in the game, its full release today comes with some lovely new things to see and do – there’s a new character, a new map, and even and a jaunty hat for a frog.

(more…)

The start of Season 4 in Call Of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare, due to happen on Wednesday, is postponed. On a night when protests in the USA continued over the police killing of George Floyd, the makers said “now is not the time.”

(more…)

Ebay UK always seems to have some kind of sale on these days, but this time the discounts are pretty damned substantial. Thanks to a new site-wide 20% off code, you can get up £75 off if you find something that tickles your fancy. There’s a catch, though: it only works on certain Ebay stores. The good news is that we’ve done the hard work for you and found the best PC deals available right now. Read on below for our top picks.

(more…)

Despite the ongoing coronavirus, SSD prices have generally dropped a little this week, making it a good a time as any to upgrade your PC with one of our best [cms-block] recommendations. That said, if you’re in the UK, it’s not a good time to buy the WD Black SN750, which has spiked once again after last week’s Amazon sale. Still, even if the WD Black SN750 is no longer a good buy, we’ve done our best to round up all the other SSD deals we’ve been able to find below, collating all the lowest prices so you can see exactly how they stack up against the competition.

Below, you’ll find a range of size capacities and form factors in our SSD deals hub, as there are great deals to be found across all sorts of SSDs if you know where to look – which is more than can be said for the week’s cheapest [cms-block], [cms-block] and [cms-block]. Whether you’re looking for the best SATA SSD deals or the biggest savings on today’s super fast NVMe SSDs and portable SSDs, here are the cheapest SSD deals of the week.

(more…)

Nimbatus

is about building spaceships. More accurately, it’s about learning to build spaceships. And if we’re being completely honest, it’s a game about learning how not> to build them. At its heart is one of the most flexible digital construction toys I’ve come across, which allows for enormous complexity despite a relatively unforgiving learning curve, and Nimbatus would be a worthy purchase if its freestyle sandbox mode was all there was.

But welded onto it is a game about hopping from planet to planet whilst pursued by space gits, facing increasingly stern challenges to your engineering skill, and I’m not altogether certain what to make of it. On the one hand, it’s brutally difficult, and often in the most frustrating ways. But on the other hand, it’s an elegant piece of game design that manages to add impetus, strategy and tension to an otherwise aimless physics sandbox. It’s a roguelite whose purpose is to force you to get better at using a toy, and the more I smash my head against it, the more I think I like it.

(more…)

You’d think you couldn’t do much with the brick-breaking genre after Arkanoid and Alleyway, but in 2010 Shatter came along and smashed that theory to bits.

(more…)

You know how it goes, Fortnite is constantly changing up the map and events on its battle royale island and folks love to get a sneak peek at what’s up next. This time around it’s not a datamine that dug up the dirt. It seems that the PlayStation Store accidentally changed Fortnite’s icon on its site to this, the battle bus floating over an endless ocean. Fortnite’s Chapter 2 Season 3 is coming in hot, so folks are thinking a big flood might be the next shakeup.

(more…)