At the end of the first of three acts in Torchlight III, there’s a boss character who repeats two of the same barks over and over. One is “This should be fun.” The other is “Let’s make it interesting.” I couldn’t help but hear both as the ignored voice of a quiet developer at the back of a Torchlight III planning meeting.
Torchlight III feels an awful lot like what it is: a free-to-play multiplayer game that thought better of itself, and decided to become a proper full-price microtransaction-free primarily solo release. If I didn’t already know the path it had taken, I’d have spent my entire time playing the game being gnawed at by wondering just what it was that made it all feel so off>.
No, not that Knight’s Tale. While I’d love to be proved wrong, I’m afraid Paul Bettany probably isn’t going to show up to give your latest tussle a bombastic shoutout in NeocoreGames’ King Arthur: Knight’s Tale. Announced today, the developers of dimly-lit action RPGs like Van Helsing and Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr are returning to their Arthurian past for a nightmarishly dark, tactical-RPG twist on the English legend.
As you might expect, there are gaming laptop deals galore taking place this [cms-block], but none of them have me as excited as this Lenovo Legion 5 bundle from Best Buy (and I can’t even buy it because I don’t live in in the US). Not only does this GTX 1660 Ti-powered laptop have a great spec, but it also comes with a RazerBasilisk X Hyperspeed Wireless mouse and Razer Goliathus mouse mat for a very tidy sum of $998 – that’s a combined saving of $170 overall, and arguably much better than some of the other sub-$1000 laptop deals I’ve seen in my [cms-block] round-up lately.
Sorry, Mister Chief. With testing for Halo 4 about to begin for The Master Chief Collection on PC, 343 have once again confirmed that their first game will also be The MCC’s last – with no plans to bring Halo 5 into Captain Motocross’ big ol’ bundle. It might have a reputation for being a bit rubs, but that’s a weird, Cortana-shaped hold to leave in between the MCC and Infinite’s release next year.
‘s third Act drops today, and it’s bringing a bounty of lovely new things to Riot’s guns and wizards first-person shooter. The first and most notable of these is a cold new map called Icebox. Then there are updates to ranked play and the deathmatch game mode. And to top it all off, later in Act 3 we’ll see a new wizard arrive, too. Her name is Skye, she throws animals at people, and she looks a bit like Artemis from Supergiant’s Hades.
Graphics card deals have been pretty scarce in this year’s pick of [cms-block] deals, but this ridiculously cheap from Powercolor is just too good to ignore if you’re after a fantastic 1080p graphics card. It’s only the 4GB model, mind, rather than the beefier 8GB one, but as you’ll see from my AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT review, you really don’t gain much by opting for the larger memory model. Both versions can hit a smooth 60fps on Medium to High settings, and I really can’t see any reason to opt for the more expensive 8GB model – especially when this 4GB model is around $40 cheaper than normal.
If you’re looking for a great SSD deal this [cms-block], you may be slightly disappointed with the selection available on Amazon US today. While there are a couple of stand-out hits, including a 2TB WD Blue 3D NAND for $176 (down from $230), it’s not exactly as wide-ranging as the UK deals. Happily, other retailers are filling the gaps. I’ve already highlighted a great deal on the excellent WD Blue SN550 over at Newegg, but if it’s Samsung SSDs you’re after, the place to be is Best Buy, especially if you’re after an 860 Evo or 970 Evo Plus. Read on below for the highlights.
Who says you don’t get more than one chance at a happy ending? Not the Terraria developers Re-Logic, that’s for sure. Today, they’re releasing their, uh, second final update for the 2D mining and crafting game. Named Journey’s Actual End, after Journey’s [fake] End that released back in May, the update adds a final NPC, new achievements, balance changes and “the long requested game credits (done Terraria style)!”.
Dungeon diving loot ’em up Torchlight 3 leaves early access today. Eight years after its stellar hack ‘n’ slash predecessor, with a studio closure and a complete pivot away from a shared-world online vision, it’s kind of amazing the game’s even made it this far. But now, Torchlight 3’s long journey towards being a pretty alright goblin-puncher finally comes to an end.
I’m told today is Prime Day, which I can only imagine is a day wizards travel from far and wide to pay tribute to the Prime Sorcerer. Among them are Wizards Of The Coast, who come to the court of Mammon with [cms-block] deals on tabletop RPGs and Magic cards. But wait, as if by magic, these are connected to video games! You’ll find Descent Into Avernus, the Dungeons & Dragons campaign which serves as a prequel to Baldur’s Gate 3, as well as some Magic cardboard decks that are also Magic: The Gathering Arena digital decks.