I've not played a huge amount of Dungeons & Dragons, but I get why those kids from Stranger Things won't stop banging on about it. It turns out all those librarians in the 90s were right: using your imagination really is> cool and fun! Indeed, our ability to conjure fiction from the ether is fundamental to the ongoing success of D&D. Making up stories with friends is very much a good time, and if you get to kill a goblin or two in the process? Well. That's just gravy.

Built upon the foundations of D&D's fifth edition ruleset, Baldur's Gate 3 attempts to translate the fundamentals of the game into digital form. But how successful is it at doing so? Can a video game - with all the rigidity that comes with the medium - replicate the freedom of a table-top role playing game?

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LG's 27GN950 monitor is one of my all-time favourites, as it's the perfect complement to a high-end gaming PC. You get a 4K resolution for pin-sharp graphics and text, a 144Hz refresh rate and Fast IPS panel for excellent motion handling, and a 27-inch span that fits easily onto a desk or monitor arm. After debuting at an eye-watering $800, this monitor has dropped on Amazon.com to a more reasonable $543.

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Remember the Samsung CRG9? This absolute unit of a gaming monitor impressed erstwhile hardware editor Katherine when she reviewed in 2019, and four years later you can pick up this 49-inch super-ultra-wide gaming monitor for £440 off its UK RRP - when you buy it in "opened - never used" condition from Samsung's UK Ebay account.

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There are loads of good Steam Deck games – as in, games that happen to play well on a Steam Deck, even if they were originally crafted around desktop hardware and intended to be poked around with a mouse and keyboard. This is a joy of the portable PC in itself: that if you already have a populated Steam library, a box-fresh Deck will immediately have a selection of familiar favourites to install at no extra cost.

Still. While the Steam Deck doesn’t do exclusives, it does have a killer app. Nearly a year and a half after Valve surprise-launched Aperture Desk Job alongside their handheld, the comedy tech demo remains unsurpassed as a playable introduction to the hardware. Again, there are thousands of compatible games, but if you’ve just recently grabbed a Steam Deck (perhaps via the new official refurb scheme), Aperture Desk Job could hardly be more perfect as an inaugural install.

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I have, for the past several weeks, been playing Baldur's Gate 3, the RPG equivalent of paying for ex-special forces lads to kidnap you at an unappointed day when you're walking your labradoodle, and put you through a rigorous (pretend) interrogation schedule. Will you learn something? Will it occupy your waking thoughts until it's over? Is the commitment of everyone involved assured? Yes. But would describe the experience as restful? Extremely debatable.

Hammerwatch 2 is out today, and it's kind of an isometric RPG that you can play in multiplayer, and which is at base kind of hacky-and-slashy, but has stacking complexity the more you play. It's like paying for ex-special forces lads to read a choose your own adventure book to you, but they get really into doing the voices. I feel comfortable describing the pixel art as "adorable", and it makes everything seem like it's a cute little miniature you can hold in your hand. Hence Mighty Max, which was a key part of my childhood. I don't want to say that Hammerwatch 2 is easy, because that isn't quite right and there's some jank lurking in there. But what it is, is easy to get a handle on. It has also functioned as a way of reintegrating my diseased Faerûined mind back into normal society.

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SPOILER WARNING FOR PEOPLE SENSITIVE TO SPOILERS. SPOILERS. I HAVE WARNED YOU. RIGHT, ONTO SPOILER TERRITORY.

I met this really nice bard in Baldur's Gate 3 called Alfira the other day. She was perched on a rock, swinging a sweet medley to a couple of squirrels. Being the> bard Edders Sheeran, I wandered over and listened to her perform. She kept getting stuck on some verses, so I helped her fill in the blanks. Then things went Disney, as the camera pulled away and circled her as she performed a beautiful ballad, one dedicated to her late teacher. She seemed content, belting out the ballad. The squirrels, it turns out, thought her voice was awful.

Anyway, she took me by surprise much later on as I slew the last of some goblin leaders. She snuck into danger just to say she wanted to join our adventures; see the world! I, Edders Sheeran, was thankful to have such a ray of sunshine enter the camp. "Of course, we'd love to have you," I replied. What could possibly> go wrong?

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Sclash is gorgeous. That's not the reason I'm writing about it, but it definitely helps. Style can't fix a bad game, but it can elevate a decent one about, say, a little hand-drawn 2D samurai running across the world stabbing dudes for peace. Little Jinmu does a lot of running to the right, a lot of slashing, and probably very little parrying and punching once you figure out the power attack.

There is, bluntly, not a lot to it, especially while its online mode is still listed as "coming soon". But even with remote multiplayer, I see this as more of a diversion for friends to enjoy than a serious competitive fighter and intentionally so.

I enjoyed it though. Actually, I think I enjoyed it more for that, though it does perhaps limit its audience.

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This week I wrote a little post alerting you, my best friends, to the existence of Murdle. This weekend I went to town and bought a copy of the Murdle book - or, I should say, Volume 1, because you can already pre-order Volume 2. It's a chunky enough tome made up of 100 of the puzzles that form Murdle's daily little treat, split into sections of escalating difficulty. And, against my expectations, and despite basically being a vehicle for logic grid puzzles, Murdle has an actual plot. Which is more than many video games manage.

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Just bought an awesome new CPU after a friendly RPS deals writer found a great deal on one? Worried about covering that massive IHS with thermal paste? Don't worry - you can pick up Arctic's popular MX-4 compound thermal paste for $5.56 today and it comes with a tiny spatula, perfect for ensuring full coverage even on modern extra-large processors like Intel's 12th/13th-gen chips, AMD's Ryzen 7000 chips and even workstation-class products like ThreadRipper. This stuff normally costs $9, making this a cool 38% discount.

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Building a new PC? Newegg have specced out a great high-end combo that bundles a Core i7 12700K processor, MSI Pro Z690-A WiFi DDR4 motherboard and DDR4-3200 RAM for $347 with code BTS343A, a $230 savings over buying the same items individually.

That's a surprisingly awesome deal and would make the perfect beginnings of a high-end rig, with just a GPU, CPU cooler, SSD, PSU and case needed for a complete build - many of which you may want to bring over from your existing PC.

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