Alas, we'll have to wait an extra four months for the new cooperative zombie-smashing shooter from Left 4 Dead creators Turtle Rock Studios. They announced today that Back 4 Blood's release is delayed from the June 22nd to October 12th. Making something huge and complicated is tricky during a global pandemic, y'know. But on the bright side, we will get to play some part of Back 4 Blood this summer in an open beta test.
After being on holiday last week I make a stunning return to The Electronic Wireless Show podcast, just in time to wrangle Matthew and Nate away from excessive egg chat (Nate genuinely mooted today's episode be eggs: part two). Today's episode is actually all about our favourite journeys in games.
At first we interpreted this literally, talking about favourite progressions from place A to place B. Eventually we do start discussing whether we can also count metaphorical journeys: character arcs, or stories that take us as a player on a journey>. Digressions this week are include whether the sand in Journey is better than the mud in Red Dead Redemption 2, the time Nate offended a very famous chef, and Matthew just being generally sinister and saying words like "flesh".
Creative Assembly today announced they're revamping 2004's Rome: Total War for modern PCs with a re-release. Total War: Rome Remastered (flipping to the new naming style, I see) is due April 29th, with a little visual polish, a few new bits and pieces, and some tweaks to the interface and other systems. It's not a full fancy remake, but they are sweetening the deal a little by offering a temporary 50% discount to folks who already own the original on Steam.
We'll need to wait another four months for the civilisation-building strategy stylings of Humankind, as developers just announced a delay. Previously expected on the 22nd of April, it's now due to launch on the 17th of August. More time to polish, they say. Ah sure, I'm happy to wait a while longer to see what happens when the 4X wizards behind Endless Space and Endless Legend roll onto Sid Meier's lawn shirtless and ready to rumble.
AOC are best known for their excellent gaming monitors, but now the display makers are getting into a new area of PC gaming: the humble headset. Launching this May, the AOC GH200 and GH300 will both come with 50mm neodynium drivers like many of the other top gaming headsets out there right now, as well as detachable, omnidirectional microphones. The best part, though, is that these wired headsets are only set to cost £39 and £49 apiece.
With the release of Yakuza 6: The Song Of Life today, the entirety of Kazuma Kiryu's thug-bashing, bike-hurling story is now on PC. It's out on the Microsoft Store and Game Pass right now, with the Steam release following in a few hours. The Dragon of Dojima has dad duties to attend to in this one, so presumably his day's been interrupted by putting the kid to bed and putting more suits in the hospital.
The animated series based on Dota 2 is now out on Netflix, expanding elements of the MOBA's backstory into eight gritty episodes. Expecting an influx of curious newbies who'd be horrified by how unfriendly Dota is, Valve last night updated Dota's new player experience to be less completely useless. They've added new playable tutorials and a New Player Mode which gently introduces players to low-stakes games, as well as improving bots. Plus they've made smurfing a bannable offence, to keep sharks out the kiddy pool.
There's no denying that AMD's Radeon RX 6700 XT is a powerful graphics card for those after a 1440p graphics card that can play games on max settings at 60fps, but compared to its nearest Nvidia rivals, the RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti, AMD's reference design for their new Big Navi GPU left me feeling a little underwhelmed when I reviewed it last week. But what about the myriad of third party RX 6700 XT GPUs out there? Do they offer any tangible improvements on AMD's reference design? I've been testing XFX's Speedster Merc 319 Black Edition to find out.
The Vatican City, 1146 AD, and 90 years into a game of Crusader Kings III. As the doors of the conclave chamber are sealed, a ring of hangdog cardinals stare miserably at each other in the sudden gloom. It is time, once again, to choose a new Pope. Once, this would have been a gathering seething with the ambitions of powerful men. Now, it is a ritual of pure misery, attended by yokels who have barely even heard of Christ. They are all that is left.
Without a word, each of the defeated clerics step forwards to rummage in a velvet sack. Tokens rattle beneath their hands. When the sack is empty, the cardinals open their fists, and the chapel fills with murmured prayers of relief. Most of these men will live another year. But after the prayers subside, a lone sob continues to echo in the chamber. These are the tears of Pope Leo XXXVI, who has drawn the black token. And he weeps, for he will soon meet his God.
