Total War: Warhammer rumbles on apace, which is good considering we're going to be giving you lot hands on with it at the PC Gamer Weekender this, er, weekend. Creative Assembly have released 12 minutes of Greenskin stomping for the quest Azhag's 'Ard Armour, detailing a little more about TW: Warhammer's magic system but mainly showing Bretons reduced to paste.

There's some lamenting the muted palette in the comments, which I sympathise with. On the other hand, the minute details continue to astound, befitting a game based on obsessively hand-painted miniatures: it's quite clear the  Orc Boar Boyz, for example, aren't Huns with a green paint job.

Total War: Warhammer goes live April 28.

Play Total War: Warhammer two months early at the PC Gamer Weekender. Our UK live event is packed to the rafters with exclusive game premiers, PC gaming heroes and all the kit you ve ever dreamed of. Book your tickets now.

Minecraft 1.9: Combat Update is live, and it's been an extraordinarily long time coming. Patch 1.8, the Bountiful Update, launched in 2014, with the existence of 1.9 being discovered in a QR code hidden in falling snow back in April last year.

There are a lot of headline features for a game that's getting on a bit. No longer can you swing a sword like you're having a seizure—each attack has a slight cooldown to force you to time swings. To help guard against zombie onslaught, however, shields are now a thing. Different weapons (which can now be dual-wielded) come with different special attacks too: a sweep for the sword and a crushing blow for the axe.

A more substantial change is the addition of the elytra, the chestpiece-cum-glider featured in the banner image above. This comes courtesy of the expansion of The End, with cities, loot and shulkers—new monsters that disguise themselves as the blocks The End is made of. If you thought Dark Souls' mimics were bad, imagine having to whack every stone to be sure. Of course, that shouldn't phase the intrepid sorts who have taken down the Ender Dragon. Mojang puts such stock in your martial prowess that you'll now be able to resummon the dragon for another bout.

Further changes, from the official blog, include:

• Added Chorus plants
• New Purpur blocks
• New End Rod block
• Added dragon head block
• Added beetroot and beetroot soup (from Minecraft: Pocket Edition)
• Added grass path block
• Added igloos
• Armor protection values have been lowered
• Added tipped arrows
• Added spectral arrows
• Added Frost Walker enchantment and frosted ice block
• Added a whole bunch of new sound effects
• Added sound effect subtitles
• Brewing Stand now requires Blaze Powder to activate
• Added skeleton riders
• Miscellaneous fixes, particularly with regard to the Windows 10 version

Herobrine has been removed yet again.

Things are kicking off in VR. Prices and pre-orders are being announced left, right and centre: first the Oculus Rift, then the HTC Vive and now Microsoft's AR HoloLens Development Edition is available to pre-order too. You really do have to be a dev though. And have $3,000 to gamble. And be based in the US or Canada.

It's good news for the rest of us all the same. The fact that Microsoft is now keen to expand the HoloLens library is an indication of how close the hardware is to realising its aim of producing "the world s first untethered holographic computer".

To inspire early adopters, Microsoft is releasing a number of HoloLens apps free with the dev kits. HoloStudio looks like it has appeared briefly in previous HoloLens ads, allowing you to manipulate 3D objects in 3D with something approaching natural motion—Epic is doing something similar with Unreal Engine 4. HoloTour is Google Street View on steroids, and Skype "enhanced to allow people to communicate using holograms" is pure sci-fi.

On the gaming end, Fragments purports to be "a mixed reality crime drama that unfolds in your own environment" wherein characters invite themselves in and chat with you. If nothing else, it'll tell us how deep the uncanny valley runs in the HoloLens. Young Conker is a platformer that uses your surroundings as platforms, which is basically how I entertained myself on long journeys as a child after the Game Boy batteries died.

RoboRaid, meanwhile, is the product of a week's feverish game jamming. An augmented reality shooter, you defend your home against alien invasion, seeing your own walls crumble as you yell lines from Independence Day (that's not a mechanic, it's my recommendation).

As to the price, which has been public for a while, it might sound hideous, but it's standard fare for console dev kits. Clearly Microsoft doesn't see the need to foster mass market appeal just yet. 

Kits start shipping on March 30, and if you're in the minority who can make use of such wizardry, the full details are here.

Convention stalwart Team17 is bringing a sterling line-up to the looming PC Gamer Weekender this weekend, March 5-6 at the Old Truman Brewery in London. Topping the list is the world debut of The Escapists: The Walking Dead's Survival Mode. You can be first not only discover what Survival Mode looks like in The Escapists but to try your hand not dying.

Joining The Escapists will be Worms W.M.D. (that's 2D Worms like we used to know), in which you can test drive new vehicles and enter buildings (which I will continue to tunnel through regardless); Sheltered, a post-apocalyptic disaster management game; and Strength of the Sword: Ultimate, which Team17 challenges you to beat as opposed to merely finish.

That's alongside the likes of Dark Souls 3 and Total War: Warhammer, inexhaustible hardware expertise, the tournament gaming area and your chance to get your head inside the HTC Vive. Book tickets here and use the code PCG20 to get 20% off—you'll also save about 8 compared with buying them on the door.

See you there!

I'll admit that when Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey teased a collectible card game along the lines of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime, I was stoked on the idea of 100-foot high Blue Eyes White Dragons blasting me from the arena as my underfed deck folded before them. VR obliteration would add a certain spice to defeat. Dragon Front, from High Voltage Software, doesn't look quite like that.

While the spectacle and presence—at least from the trailer—isn't as grand as I was expecting, there's no reason a card game shouldn't work well on the Rift. Positioned above the 4x4 playing field, you have the vantage of a general deploying units. Games like Hearthstone pride themselves on their physicality, and VR can't help but enhance that. The absence of hands seems an odd choice though.

High Voltage has listed figures like 260 collectible cards, 80 different 'encampments' and more than 100 spells, but they don't mean much without context. Without seeing Dragon Front in play, who knows how it compares to Hearthstone, Magic, Chronicle: Runescape Legends and the myriad me-too CCGs springing up like mushrooms in a soggy lawn.

The one unique snippet I can find concerns 'Legendary Champions', one of which resides in each deck and whose cost to play becomes progressively lower the worse you're doing. Dragon Front wants you to snatch victory from the fiery jaws of defeat.

Dragon Front is coming in spring, and though it's not billed as a launch title, that window means it can't be far wide of the mark.

Walking through a moonlit forest, I see a glowing orange light in the distance. Curious, I head towards it. But then I notice that it s heading towards me. It s a bear, and it s on fire. I leap out of the way and the beast thunders past, roaring in pain. It disappears into the undergrowth and I hear human voices approaching, echoing through the trees.

Hiding in the shadows out of sight, I watch a group of hunters from a rival tribe chase after the bear. I follow, hidden, until they corner it. A fight breaks out and the bear—which is still very much on fire—mauls the hunters to death. It s one of those beautiful, absurd moments of colliding AI, and I can t bring myself to finish the weakened bear off despite its pelt being a valuable crafting material. Far Cry Primal is a very silly videogame.

It s also one you might have played before. Ubisoft have taken the structure, systems, and general feel of the previous two games and transplanted them into the year 10,000 BC. There are no guns, obviously, but you soon find yourself settling into a familiar routine of hunting, crafting, and missioning. Even so, it s amazing how neatly the Far Cry formula fits into such a wildly different setting.

The setting is Oros, a fictional valley somewhere in primeval Europe. It s a lush, beautiful expanse of grassy plains, redwood forests, sleepy villages, and cascading waterfalls. Hazy sunlight pours through gaps in the trees by day, and moonlight drapes the world in a pale, ghostly luminescence at night. It s also teeming with wildlife, and feels more alive than any previous Far Cry setting.

The air is filled with the strange calls of ancient, long-extinct birds and everywhere you look there are animals including the distinctly prehistoric saber-toothed cat and wooly mammoth. In terms of world-building, atmosphere, and evoking a rich sense of place, it s one of Ubisoft s best open-worlds.

You play as Takkar, a hunter who's fighting to restore his scattered tribe, the Wenja, to its former glory. Ubisoft worked with linguists to create a convincing prehistoric language, and as such the entire thing is subtitled. One notable departure from previous games is the lack of a central villain, and with no Pagan Min or Vaas Montenegro to drive the story forward, it feels a little thin.

Two rival tribes, the cannibalistic Udam and the fire-worshipping Izlia, are your antagonists. Your allies are a cast of oddballs including Tensay the shaman, Jayma the hunter, and Karoosh the warrior, who must be located and convinced to join the tribe.

Takkar s particular field of expertise is taming animals. Perhaps to make up for the lack of guns, animals can fight alongside you. Toss some bait near whichever beast you want to tame and you can creep up on it while it s distracted and magically make it your friend. Early on you ll be limited to smaller creatures like wolves, but later you can tame (and ride) mammoths and saber-tooths. It s an enjoyably silly idea, and one of the few ways in which Primal feels distinct from its predecessors.

Your arsenal is comprised of Stone Age favourites like clubs and spears, as well as the staple Far Cry bow and arrow. Occasionally I yearned for the deadly rattle of an assault rifle, but the new weapons, while comparatively limited, are fun to use. Tossing a spear and hearing it thud into an unfortunate cannibal s chest has a gruesomely satisfying weight to it.

I also love their attempts to make prehistoric versions of modern weapons, like the sting bomb grenade , which is basically just a small bag filled with angry bees. Attacking an enemy camp with a mammoth by your side, a flaming club, and a pocket full of irate bees is hugely entertaining.

Instead of binoculars, you have an owl, and this is an example of a system being improved on. Rather than being stuck in one place you can fly around freely as you scout the area and tag enemies. Later, with upgrades, you can use the owl to drop bombs, attack enemies, and free angry animals from their cages. It s such a powerful tool that I hope all future Far Cry games feature it, even if they have a modern setting.

Otherwise, it's business as usual. You brutally kill thousands of animals to craft gear and weapon upgrades; you light bonfires to reveal more of the map; you attack enemy outposts; you have trippy dream sequences; you complete story missions that steadily unlock more stuff. It s Far Cry, basically, but in the Stone Age. But as much as I love Oros as a setting and all the animal-based tomfoolery, I can t shake the feeling of d j vu. If you ve invested significant time in Far Cry 3 or 4, you ll find your enjoyment of Primal dampened by its deep-rooted similarity to those games.

Update: I previously printed that the Slacker Backer campaign made an additional $6,564,903, which is wrong: it made $231,608. The previously printed figure was the crowdfunding amount in total, combing Kickstarter and Slacker Backer. Thanks to @Shenmue_Dodo for picking it up.

Shenmue 3 is definitely happening, and these freshly released screenshots are proof. They've been released to coincide with the Monaco Anime Game International Conferences, where game director Yu Suzuki appeared at the weekend. He also had dinner with some Kickstarter backers, which was one of the reward tiers. Isn't that nice!

While the Kickstarter campaign attracted $6,333,295, the following 'Slacker Backer' campaign raised an additional $231,608: and that was without the ability to pledge for a PC version of the game. The possibility never eventuated during that campaign, despite promises that it would. Will there be yet another PC-centric crowdfunding campaign? I wouldn't rule it out.

The other images are embedded below. Shenmue 3 is expected to release some time towards the end of 2017.

Adr1ft, the forthcoming space exploration game coming to both Oculus Rift and Steam, will also come to other VR platforms, the studio has confirmed. Still, it won't be coming to Steam's own VR platform, as the studio wishes to support Oculus's own marketplace at launch.

"ADR1FT doesn t currently support Steam VR because we are working with and supporting Oculus and their entry into the marketplace," creator Adam Orth wrote on the game's website. "We ve been working closely with Oculus for most of the development of ADR1FT and we want to support them as partners because we love them, their hardware and their vision for VR.

"It is entirely possible that this may change in the future, but we don t have any information regarding that and it is entirely out of our hands as the software developer. These are decisions for the platform owners to make. We have no say in that whatsoever. Not even invited to the table read."

Still, its no show on Steam VR doesn't mean it won't work with other non-Oculus headsets in the future. "We are working on bringing ADR1FT to other VR platforms. We just aren t ready to make any announcements about them yet," Orth wrote.

Adr1ft will launch on March 28 for both Oculus Rift and Steam. People who purchase the non-VR version on Steam will be entitled to a free Oculus Home key, in the event they end up wanting to play it in VR.

Back in the good old days rage quitting involved bitter anger, a lot of swear words and sometimes a broken keyboard or two. Nowadays it can have more far-reaching consequences, as some players have discovered in Street Fighter V. Basically, if a player quits an online game when it seems inevitable they'll lose, their win streak won't be affected and the hard-fought victory of their opponent will be stolen. 

But Capcom is aware of the issues and is determine to stamp the phenomenon out. "Yes, we are well aware of the problem of players disconnecting before the match ends to retain their League Points and their win streaks," a post on the Capcom Unity blog reads. "Thanks to all of the players who have brought this to our attention.

"We are working on a permanent solution to this problem, though we don t have an exact date to share with you at the moment. That said, we are going to take direct action starting next week to punish those players who are abusing the system."

Capcom asks that players record instances of rage quitting (though they don't provide details on where to send those videos, presumably that will come later). The long-awaited fighter had a rocky launch, but things appear to have smoothed out. In his review, Nathan Brown described SFV as "so, so good for the genre-savvy", but warned that "Street Fighter V does nothing to help you grow as a player."