Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Ed Thorn)

Two trucks in Armored Royale side by side in a big old gun fight.

Boots on the ground. Hah, “boots on the ground”. That’s so last gen, so, I don’t know, basic. Armored Royale is the hotness in Call of Duty: Warzone right now, and it’s all about boots on the clutch. It’s a mode in which you care and nurture for an armored truck like it’s your child. As long as it stays alive, your team can respawn back into its waiting, metal embrace. If it explodes in a hail of shrapnel, your ability to respawn is severed. And thus, you must roam Verdansk vulnerable and shaken without your big four-wheeled boy. So, it’s important to keep your truck well maintained – as the old saying goes, “the team with their truck still in tow often wins, hoo-ah!>“.

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Europa Universalis IV - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

A royal family in Crusader Kings 3 art.

What to do when you’ve completed a Crusader Kings 3 campaign? You could start over as a new ruler in a new place, I suppose, but isn’t that negligent? A truly responsible leader would steer their nation through the middle ages, the Victorian era, and World War 2. And you can do that thanks to a tool which transfers a CK3 world into Europa Universalis 4, picking it back up in the Paradox grand strategy game set in the following era. You could also then use another tool to take that from EU4 into Victoria 2, then into Hearts Of Iron 4 with yet another tool, converting the same world across one millennium-long ‘megacampaign’.

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

A photo of the Intel Core i7-10700KA and Asus ROG Strix Z490-F Gaming motherboard.Intel’s new 10th Gen Comet Lake chips

are some of the best and most powerful gaming CPUs around, but they also cost an arm and a leg, especially when you factor in the cost of the new Z490 motherboard you’ll need to go with it. Happily, Newegg have got some handy CPU and motherboard combo deals going on at the moment, including a Core i7-10700KA and Asus ROG Strix Z490-F Gaming bundle that saves you $150 compared to their normal price. Plus, since the Core i7 is a special Marvel Avengers edition (hence the extra ‘A’ on its model name), you’ll also get a copy of Crystal Dynamics’ new Marvel Avengers game thrown in for free, too.

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Baldur's Gate 3 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

Today’s the day for the return of an RPG classic, with Baldur’s Gate 3 launching into early access at 6pm (that’s 10am Pacific). Well, it’s not made by the same people as ye olde games, nor is it really the same sort of RPG, and it’s set a century after their story, but it is in the same Dungeons & Dragons fantasy world. Perhaps more importantly, it’s coming from the makers of Divinity: Original Sin, and what we’ve seen of it so far is good. Larian Studios have also confirmed at short notice that hey, it’ll be on Mac today too.

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Apex Legends™ - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Imogen Beckhelling)

Wraith’s days of flinging her arms back, leaning her head down, and sprinting like Naruto are over. Apex Legends‘ Aftermarket event update went live this morning, adding cross-platform multiplayer and a new limited-time game mode. But, more importantly, it also kicked the most popular Legend out of the anime club, giving her a new sprint animation that doesn’t hide away her already-tiny hitbox.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Ollie Toms)

Best TIE Fighter loadout in Star Wars: Squadrons

The TIE Fighter is one of the most recognisable shapes in Star Wars, and we were all expecting to see a fair few TIE Fighters in every Star Wars Squadrons match before it came out. Instead, everyone’s playing as Interceptors and Bombers – and for good reason. But a TIE Fighter can still be viable with the right build, and our best TIE Fighter loadout in Star Wars Squadrons is not just viable: it’s the Interceptor-killer.

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

A screenshot of Currys PC World's current RTX 3070 prices, showing all four cards costing £3070.

I do love a good techno pricing gaff and the latest one comes courtesy of Currys PC World, whose [cms-block] pre-order page currently lists four such GPUs for a whopping £3070, making Nvidia’s upcoming mid-range GPU more than twice as expensive as their top of the line [cms-block]. Still, I think we can all see what’s gone wrong here, can’t we?

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The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director's Cut - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

Geralt in season 2 of Netflix's The Witcher.

Netflix have shared a wee look at Geralt in the second season of The Witcher, and he’s certainly going hard on black leather. Even got leather pecs and leather abs this time. No leather nips, mind. While the live-action series is based primarily on the books, I hope this is the game’s influence being felt more, and Geralt will be forever swapping out his swords and jackets as he finds blueprints for new ones in bushes and holes. In one episode, he’ll walk into a blacksmith and just clang down twenty swords to cash in.

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My Exercise - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Katharine Castle)

A screenshot from My Exercise, showing a chubby boy doing sit-ups surrounded by strange animals.

At its core, My Exercise is a game about a chubby boy doing sit-ups with his dog. Specifically, into> his dog. With his little round legs anchored firmly beneath his dog’s tummy, chubby boy rises and falls in time with your space bar, smooshing his little chubby cheeks into the soft, plush fur of his animal companion. Sometimes he’ll give it a good old nuzzle. Other times it’s straight back to the business of sit-ups. The dog is pretty nonplussed by the whole affair, but other animals in this strange yellow void quickly catch on and become mesmerised, joining him one by one as they, too, embark on their own rhythmic journey to cheer chubby boy on. It’s weird, but brilliant fun.

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Baldur's Gate 3 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Lauren Morton)

baldurs gate 3 first trailer 3

How big was the drive space required to install? “It was this> big!” says Volo. Well maybe not that big. Bards do tend to exaggerate. Baldur’s Gate 3 is launching in early access tomorrow and I thought I was all set and ready, having glanced over those early access PC requirements, but it turns out that the required storage space has doubled.

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