It’s been quite a while since the Razer Blackshark last surfaced on shop shelves, but today marks the return of this wired gaming headset in the form of the delightfully low-key Blackshark V2. Gamers of a certain age may remember the first Razer Blackshark had a rather natty aviator look with its wiggly green mic cable and hardback ear cups, but this new V2 model is a complete revamp of that original headset thanks to a new pair of 50mm audio drivers not seen on any other Razer headset before, a cardioid mic with USB sound card, and super soft memory foam ear cushions to name just a few of its new features. It is, in short, a very different headset to its helicopter-inspired predecessor, but judging by my time with the Blackshark V2, it’s all the better for it.

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If you don’t fancy going for the 10-disc physical version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, it turns out there’ll be more than one storefront to download the chonky game digitally. The game will be making a cheeky landing on Steam when it releases next month, so now you’ll be able to choose whether to grab it on there, or go with the version that’s coming the Microsoft store.

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Have you visited the RPS Teespring Store yet? If not, and you fancy availing yourself of one of our fine t-shirts or PC Goliath hoodies to declare your allegiance in the ongoing website wars, then you’ll be pleased to know that you can get 10% off all of our lovely RPS merch until midnight on Saturday August 1st.

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Ants are a strong contender for the most fascinating creature on the planet. Arguably the most successful animal (discounting micro-organisms, those smug jerks), even. I was fascinated by them as a kid. There’s an ant with only one pair of chromosomes. There are ants that transform themselves into food storage units. There are kamikaze ants that defend their nest by exploding. Blind ants. Ants that form nests, bridges and even boats out of their own bodies. Ants that go to war, ants that farm, herd animals, spy on other colonies, take slaves.

In Grounded, Obsidian’s new mini-sized survival game, it doesn’t even take any of that to secure my undying love. When an ant sees you for the first time, it chirrups curiously, and tilts its head like a dog.

I love them. I will never harm them. If I ever play with another person and they attack an ant, I will fight them to the death. (more…)

Konami may be best known for making games here in the west, but over in Japan they also have a long history of making arcade hardware and pachinko machines for the amusement sector. Now, they’re branching out into gaming PCs as well thanks to their new line of Arespear rigs, which were unveiled earlier this week. The name is meant to be a portmanteau of Ares, the god of war, and the word spear, but personally I think they’ve got more of a cheese grater or electric razer vibe going on rather than something sharp and pointy. Just look at those rounded corners!

Alas, Konami’s Arespear PCs haven’t been going down well in Japan, as people have not only been making fun of the name, but also their very overpriced set of specs. Over £2400 / $3200 for an RTX 2070 Super and 9th Gen Core i7 PC, anyone?

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Valve have made the way you change your store country on Steam a lot more strict. Now, if you switch your country setting to somewhere else, Steam requires you to make a purchase with a payment method from that country. But what does that mean for you? Well, if you’re one of the people who uses a VPN to try and get games a bit cheaper… it’s gonna be a whole lot more difficult for you to do that.

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The Epic Games Store has started testing out achievements, which is nice. I like it when I do something ridiculous in Slay The Spire and a little picture comes up acknowledging how awesome I am (and ideally just how small a percentage of people are awesome in the same way). I would like this for Epic-only games too.

They’ve shown off some for Ark: Survival Evolved, but beyond that it’s not clear which games currently have them.

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Mount And Blade 2 Bannerlord does allow you to develop settlements into money making machines, but in order to get the most gold flowing through your town, you need to ensure that you have the right infrastructure in place. Setting up workshops is key to doing this and there are some workshops that are better for your specific towns than others.

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I want to like Sea Of Thieves so badly that I’ve convinced myself I do> like it, even though deep inside I find it quite dull to play. I don’t understand why I find it dull. The premise is superb, it looks great, and I know lots of folks who routinely have the time of their lives being weird, balloon-bodied pirates. I just can’t seem to see what they’re seeing.

Well, that’s not strictly true. The few sessions I have played, with folks here at RPS, have been a right laugh. But without sounding like a bit of a poorly elephant, I mostly put that down to my colleagues being fun people to hang out with, rather than to anything we actually did in the game (although firing myself out of a cannon at a kraken was fairly noteworthy). Even if the fun I’ve had is largely down to company, mind, I’ll still applaud Sea Of Thieves for providing such a pretty, easygoing place to hang out.

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If I’ve learned anything from Jurassic Park over the years it’s that running a dinosaur zoo is a harrowing undertaking. No less harrowing in Parkasaurus, it seems. These dinos may be neon-colored and wear tiny hats but they can still escape and munch on your guests. You can start running your own park and tending to its giant inhabitants when Parkasaurus graduates from early access on August 13th.

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