Alpha and Early Access reviews offer our preliminary verdicts on in-development games. We may follow up this unscored review with a final, scored review in the future. Read our full review policy for details.

I like pulling weeds. It s repetitive labor, but it feels good every time I yank a prickly stem and up pops a bundle of roots with a puff of dirt. It feels good to make visible progress from one side of the garden to the other. I like popping Zed heads in  Killing Floor 2 for sort of the same reason. It's a splash of blood and guts rather than a puff of dirt, but it s more therapeutic than it sounds.

KF2 s gardens are a biotics lab (run by someone who might as well be called Dr. Mad von Scientist), a snowy facility, and a section of post-civilization Paris. Its weeds are the monstrously malformed Zeds. They re nasty weeds. The bulk are skinny, pasty and zombie-like, but then there are specials like hulking chainsaw dudes, fat vomiting fellas, and shrieking Sirens.

The game design is about as stereotypically 'video gamey as you get, in a good way: up to six players work together to hack, burn, shoot, and explode increasingly nasty hordes of the monsters, pausing briefly between waves to refill ammo and armor, get new weapons, and set up for the next attack. I compare it to weed pulling because wave-assault games are really about cleaning up. There s a counter in the upper left which displays how many Zeds are left in the current wave, and ripping a whole wave from the Earth is delightful. It s every weed pulled, every checkbox checked, every typo corrected, every errant nose hair plucked. It s triumph over disorder and victory over to-do lists.

Shot in the dark

Weeding doesn t usually involve Kalashnikov rifles and pump-action shotguns, though. Tripwire is known for its expertly crafted digital firearms—I m a big fan of its Red Orchestra series much for that reason—and it has done a superb job here. It s more than just the smooth, believable animations. It s the whole act of using a firearm. Killing a group of basic Zeds, such as the shambling Cysts (whose heads pop like their name implies), is a multi-part story about you and your weapon.

A group of the pasty buggers gurgles through a doorway. Am I holding the right gun? Ammo conservation matters—refills aren t cheap and you can run out during a wave—so using my primary for every enemy isn t a good idea. Is it set to the right mode? Some guns, like the AR-15 Varmint Rifle, can be set to single or burst fire. I prefer single. And is it loaded? Magazines run down fast, and reloading can take a long time depending on the gun.

Next, there are aiming decisions to be made. Say I m using the medic s default HMTECH-101 pistol. I ll need a few shots to take down your basic nasties, and depending on my range, I might want to go for a headshot and a bodyshot, or just bodyshots, or maybe I just pop their heads off and let them stumble around for a bit. With another gun, I'm thinking about spread and recoil. Accuracy is extremely important: every miss is time and ammo wasted. At the same time, I need to be thinking about how many Zeds are left in the group I m targeting, if any might be behind me, and what my team is up to—I don t want to start shooting at a group someone is currently charging with a katana.

Finally, there s the payoff: an explosion of gore, another weed plucked. Tripwire s gore system, which makes melee weapons especially gruesome to use, is just ridiculous. Limbs fly off and heads are sacks of fluid and giblets. KF2 is very much about accuracy, and it rewards your for it. When slow-mo kicks in (which happens when someone does something cool) and I headshot, from the hip, a gaggle of charging beasts while listening to metal… that s just freaking video games.

I don t find the melee weapons nearly as fun as guns—success is largely about timing with regular and heavy swings—but I use them sometimes just for the front-row seat to the Zed-splosions. The Eviscerator is the exception: it s a hybrid melee/ranged weapon made of a spinning saw blade which can be held with outstretched arms to saw through necks, or shot out like in my favorite Half-Life 2 section. It's not quite as good as flinging saw blades in HL2, but I'll take it.

Teamwork makes the dream work

Sometimes, the only good decision is to run. Normal difficulty isn t too tough, but on Hard and above, you ve got to know when to cheese it, and when not to reload or heal, both of which slow you down. Everything can seem to be going well, and five seconds later you re backed into a wall, surrounded, and then dead. If your team survives the wave, you ll come back for the next one, but you ll lose any guns you purchased. Not dying is very important.

In any situation, teamwork is the best way to stay alive. Unfortunately, not many people use the built-in (and very good) voice chat on the random public servers I ve been joining. It s frustrating when teammates scatter, or don t respond to questions, and in the Biotics Lab especially it can be tough to describe landmarks on the map. It s my fault too, because if no one else is talking I m generally reluctant to step up and lead, but I m trying to get past that shyness.

Now and then I ll join an already coordinated group and it s a lot of fun, and as ever, nothing beats playing with friends who aren t going to be shy about yelling at you. Winners stick together, show each other weapon, armor, and ammo pickups, choose an area to defend, and weld doors shut during harder waves to control Zed flow. Even in silent servers, though, there can be unspoken cooperation. I once took on four or five waves with only one other player, and we skipped around all over the map together, me healing him when he needed it, him stepping in with this shotgun when I was overwhelmed. When he saw me rummaging through the shop between waves for longer than usual, he threw all his money into my pockets. It was kind of heartwarming.

We didn t quite make it to the end, the two of us. Damn Scrakes. I find the fodder the most fun to kill—popping head after head—but big enemies like Scrakes, which soak up a ton of bullets and then collapse in a slightly unsatisfying way, are important to the flow. They send teams running, distract from lesser Zeds, and generally wreck anyone caught backpeddling for too long. They re where lone-wolfing it is definitely not acceptable.

Even though I appreciate their purpose, I don t enjoy dealing with Scrakes (and their Fleshpound brothers) above Normal difficulty. I like managing a crowd, dropping the Zed counter at a steady beat. Scrakes are sponges, and sponges just don t have the same appeal. I can t shoot their limbs off, and it s generally hard to tell how injured they are. When one s after you, it becomes a chase rather than a game of positioning, circling round and round feeding them lead until they bite it.

Then there s the boss, who s that times a thousand. He s sort of like extra credit, and his design isn t especially exciting: he runs around yelling silly things with a German accent (because video game boss), lobbing grenades, shooting, and sometimes charging and grabbing. He could be a cooler, less traditional boss, but I don t really expect that from Killing Floor 2. I expect him, first and foremost, to be hard, and he s damn hard above Normal. The dude can take a pummeling before going down, and requires slow, methodical handling.

Killing the boss, like dealing with Scrakes, isn t as fun for me as the waves, which offset the stress with clear numerical progress. But when he s finally soaked through with bullets, the sense of accomplishment is substantial. I wish there were more fanfare.

Zed heads

It ll all get easier, with fewer we all ran out of ammo trying to kill an army of Scrakes losses, when my team and I have more perks. I m divided on the progression system. It s nice to have something to look forward to, but I find Normal too easy and yet feel encouraged to grind out XP there before taking on higher difficulties. Come to the game late, after the full release when everyone else has leveled up and all the perks are available, and you might feel like the runt of your team on Hard, but unsatisfied with Normal difficulty.

Of course, it s in Early Access and there s still tweaking to do. The final release will include more perks, more weapons, and more maps. It needs all that, especially the maps, but Killing Floor 2 is already excellently designed. The guns, regardless of any fastidious tweaking they may need, are superbly fun to shoot. They animate with character and force, while Zeds react to the force, stumbling, ragdolling, and exploding with gibs. While there are currently only three maps, they re all big and varied enough to offer lots of tactical footholds for coordinated teams. The playable characters each have distinct personalities and great voices (which you can get rid of if they get in the way of chat). The server browser works almost flawlessly (at worst, it doesn t refresh fast enough to show accurate player counts), and I ve never had to worry about finding other players. I also appreciate that KF2 launches quickly, lets me skip its splash screens, and has been almost entirely stable (it hung on the loading screen once, but that s forgivable).

None of what KF2 currently offers feels underdeveloped—even the loading screen is excellent—and there s remarkable complexity in each corner of the game. That s evident in the way Zeds don t just get more health, but new behaviors at higher difficulties, and how trying to load a fully-loaded gun cues a unique animation. I also love the culture of fun among the players, who enjoy shooting fountains of cash between each other while waiting for waves to start. When it grows into a full release, Killing Floor 2 will live a long and happy life, especially—to safely speculate a bit—thanks to all of its future modders.

Verdict

It's Killing Floor but better. Killing Floor 2 needs some tweaks, and will benefit a lot from more maps, but it's already a superb mutant bloodbath.

Project 1999, a fan operated emulation of the original EverQuest, has been approved by the MMO's original creators Daybreak Game Company, formerly Sony Online Entertainment. The ambitious service is operated on a not-for-profit basis and aims to offer the most authentic Everquest experience possible. 

Following a recent shake-up which saw Sony Online Entertainment cut ties with Sony and transform into Daybreak Games, doubts circulated about the legal viability of the project. But thankfully Daybreak Games has given its blessing, according to a statement on the Project 1999 website.

"As some of you may be aware, in the past there has been both confusion and concern over the status of Project 1999," the statement reads. "We have recently entered into a written agreement with Daybreak Game Company LLC that formally recognizes Project 1999 as a fan based, not-for-profit, classic EverQuest emulation project. 

"The agreement establishes the guidelines that we as a project must follow, but it will allow to us continue to update the game without risk of legal repercussions."

While this means delays for the planned Velious update, it does mean you can login to the previously decommissioned Everquest world and relive one of the best MMOs of all time, providing you own a copy of Everquest: Titanium Edition. Full instructions on how to get started are over here. For the rest of us, we can only wait for more news regarding EverQuest Next.

Thanks Vg247.

Procedurally generated survival horror is a good idea in theory, but past attempts at the formula haven't quite nailed it. New Zealand studio Eyemobi is giving it a red hot go in the form of Phantasmal, a horror game set in the notorious Kowloon Walled City, a huge Hong Kong sprawl which was demolished in 1994. That fact alone is enough to warrant a look (Kowloon was insane), but the studio's professed love for Lovecraft is also promising.

In true Lovecraft fashion you won't just be tackling "lurking, otherworldly creatures", but insanity also. Avoiding conflict altogether is the best way to keep the latter in check, and stealth appears to be a key part of the game. You can beat things with sticks if you're really desperate, though. The studio describes the game as The Binding of Isaac meets Silent Hill.

Phantasmal is in Early Access as of today, and is expected to stay there for 3-6 months. The core game is playable but a bunch of features will be added at launch, including procedural story generation, a greater diversity of environmental art and NPC interaction. Check it out on Early Access or watch the trailer below:

Phantasmal Steam Early Access Trailer from Joe Chang on Vimeo.

The 2003 Troika RPG Temple of Elemental Evil was not great. It was a faithful reproduction of the classic D&D module—a little too faithful, in my opinion—but it was also riddled with bugs. A persistent community of modders spent the following decade smoothing out the rough spots and restoring cut content, but there were limits to what could be done with it because nobody had access to the world editor. But according to an anonymous leak to the RPG Codex, it was there all along.

The process for accessing the editor is actually quite simple. Begin by downloading the official Polish 2.0 patch, and yes, it must be the Polish patch; grab it here. Then, create an empty directory, and an empty text file called ChangeLog.txt. Finally, run the patch and select the newly-created directory as the installation destination. That's it: The world editor—apparently called WorldEd—is now installed.

The discovery is probably more noteworthy as an anthropological curiosity than for any practical impact it might have, although the general consensus is that despite being an imperfect piece of software, it will make life simpler for modders. Also very interesting is that shortly after the leak was made public, the Circle of 8, the modding group that used its own toolset to create and release updates as recently as last August, claimed in its own forums that it been aware of WorldEd's presence in the game "for some time," but kept that knowledge to itself for fear of possible legal trouble.

Historical oddity and forum drama aside, there's some legitimate excitement about what this could mean beyond simply improving the original game. I have no idea how likely it is to happen, but it does appear to open up the possibility of new content being created in the ToEE engine: The Circle of 8 described it as "quirky and crashy", but also acknowledged that "it does indeed open up addition modding possibilities," while the Codex itself has opened up a new Temple of Elemental Evil modding subforum.

Warren Spector has done a lot of great things in the game industry over the years, but one thing he hasn't done is take part in an AMA. Today, that changed, as he took residence on Reddit to answer a range of questions about his time at Junction Point, his current gig as director of the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy, what he thinks of "HD" remakes of old games, and how the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided announcement trailer bugged him a little.

I found that last point particularly interesting, since Spector helmed the team that created the original Deus Ex, and it sounds like he approves of what Eidos Montreal did with Deus Ex: Human Revolution. But he clearly has some reservations about what he's seen of Mankind Divided thus far.

"I thought the Mankind Divided trailer was pretty violence-o-rific, which bugged me a little. I mean, the DX game was never about killing stuff. It was about picking your own playstyle, which MIGHT involve killing stuff," he said. "Given how well DX:HR did at the whole choice and consequence idea I'm hoping—and have confidence—the actual game will be a little more in the playstyle matters mold. In trailers, you just have to give people the most action-packed stuff you can, I assume. I'll definitely be playing Mankind Divided. Ask me then."

One question he very pointedly declined to answer related to his experiences with the "drama" at Ion Storm, to which he replied, "Drama? What drama?" Even so, it's an interesting AMA, which in light of his history really isn't surprising at all. Catch the whole thing at Reddit.

Today at Microsoft's BUILD 2015 conference, Square Enix and Nvidia showed off a seriously impressive tech demo for DirectX 12 using a whopping four GTX Titan video cards.

The video, entitled Witch Chapter 0 [cry], was made by the same Square Enix team that built the similarly pretty Agni's Philosophy tech demo shown off back at E3 2012. The new video features more than 63 million polygons in each scene, approximately six to ten times as many as was possible using DirectX 11.

This one isn't nearly as flashy as Agni's Philosophy, but the level of detail—particularly in the skin close-ups around the three minute mark—is pretty spectacular. It should be, since it's running on $4000 worth of Titan Xs.

We won't be seeing a playable game that looks quite this great anytime soon, but the technology doesn't seem completely pie-in-the-sky. Here's a quote from Square Enix's Hajime Tabata, the director of Final Fantasy XV, about the tech demo:

"Our team has always pursued cutting-edge pre-rendered and real-time CG. As a part of the technical development, we created this demo using world-class, real-time CG technology with generous support from leading-edge software and hardware providers Microsoft s Windows10/DirectX 12 and Nvidia s GeForce GTX. The efforts from this project will power future game development as well as Final Fantasy XV, currently a work in progress."

Sure sounds like Final Fantasy XV belongs on the PC.

Check out the video above, courtesy of YouTube user Michael Wieczorek.

Are you running Windows 10 on your gaming rig? If so, you've probably encountered a hiccup or two trying to get drivers to play nice with the pre-release version of Windows. Well, if you have an Nvidia graphics card, things should be getting a bit smoother.

Nvidia has released a new driver, GeForce 352.63 Beta, designed for pre-release Windows 10 testing. The driver is tailored for WDDM 2.0 and DirectX 12, and covers Maxwell and Kepler GeForce GPUs (that is, the GTX 900, 700, and 600 series, specifically).

Get the drivers here if you're running Windows 10. If you're waiting patiently on Windows 8 (or very patiently on Windows 7), then stick to the regular driver updates through GeForce Experience.

The space combat sim EVE: Valkyrie is one of the better-known, and best-looking, examples of virtual reality gaming we've seen so far. I mean, how can you watch this trailer from EVE Fanfest and not want it strapped to your face, immediately? So it's a bit surprising to read that Hilmar Veigar P tursson, the CEO of EVE studio CCP Games, actually doesn't think that VR will be a big thing in 2016.

Speaking at the SlushPlay Conference in Reykjavik last week (via VentureBeat), P tursson said he expects it will be quite a while yet before VR really makes an impact on gaming. It took six years for 3D accelerator cards to catch on, he explained, and even longer for gaming on mobile phones to become a big business. "I used to go to GDC and they would say that mobile phones are the future, and it was nothing," he said. "Ringtones were a bigger business than games back then."

"And we sit here and say VR is going to be big next year," he added. "And it s not going to be big."

That's not to say it won't be big someday: Barring an unforeseen development on the scale of, say, the end of the world, virtual reality in one form or another will eventually become mainstream. Just maybe not quite as soon as we thought—although Valve is going to be taking its best shot when it launches SteamVR in November.

At PC Gamer, we believe strongly in the value of  building your own PC. It's cheaper, and it brings you closer to the hobby that we all love. But we know buying a pre-built system has its advantages, too. Maybe you just don't have time to build a PC of your own, or you have dreams of a custom paint job or complex water cooling you can't do at home. Buying from a professional builder also gets you warranty coverage and professional tech support, sometimes even for the life of the system. It's hard to say if the warranty price outweighs the savings it provides in repair costs, but it definitely brings peace of mind.

Once you've decided to go with a professional PC builder, the next question is: which one? Some companies differentiate themselves with custom artwork, unique case designs, or good service coverage. But there are a lot of choices out there. We looked at nine professional PC builders to see what kind of warranty options, service coverage, and other defining factors set them apart from one another. Then, I built two systems for each company: a high-end system—pretty much the best the company offers—and the cheapest pre-built system available. Here's what we found.

Alienware

The gaming arm of Dell, Alienware is somewhat known for its expensive systems and "high-end-gaming-for-dummies" approach to service. Every Alienware system comes with a standard one-year limited hardware warranty, with additional warranties of up to four years available.

• Low-end system warranties: $80 for two years, $150 for three years, $210 for four years of hardware and phone support
• High-end system warranties: $149 for two years, $219 for three years, $279 for four years of hardware and phone support.

The one-year limited hardware warranty doesn't seem to cover standard phone service though, as Alienware offers a variety of "gaming services" such as new game setup, game customization and optimization, troubleshooting, and system mechanic, all at a variety of prices. In other words, you have plenty of tech support options, but they'll cost you.

Tech support hours are listed as Monday - Friday from 10:00am to 7:00pm CST. Return policy is a 30-day money back guarantee, including free shipping both ways and sometimes a waived restocking fee.

I'm not a big fan of Alienware's custom build system. For one, links have a tendency to sometimes bounce you between Alienware, Dell, and Alienware-branded Dell pages. It's not a huge issue, but a bit annoying and can get confusing. The bigger issue is that part options vary depending on which base model you start from. The low-end Area-51 desktop, which starts at $1,699, has a variety of video card options to upgrade to, while the top-end model (starting at $4,499) only lets you choose between triple GTX 980s or upgrading to Dual Titan-Z cards (which are now outdated with the arrival of the Titan X).

Origin PC

Origin PC offers one-, two-, and three-year parts and free shipping warranties, excluding accessories, software, and anything damaged beyond the company's control, such as: "impacts, liquids, fire, rain, lightning or other disasters such as: nuclear war, zombie apocalypse, epidemic, alien occupation, or armed insurrection." Purchasing from Origin comes with lifetime US-based tech support that is available 24/7. Baseline warranties (included in the cost) start at one-year part replacement and 45 day free shipping. $69 extends free shipping to a year, while an additional $100 or $200 bumps the parts replacement and shipping up to two and three years, respectively.

The company says it can professionally overclock systems up to 5.2 GHz, and all systems are subjected to a rigorous three-day burn-in stress test. Purchases come with a 30-day money back guarantee (subject to a 15% restocking fee), excluding custom paint, logo, or artwork services, which are non-refundable. The company ships internationally, and boasts its "wooden crate and instafoam shipping protection," which presumably helps prevent any damage during shipping.

In addition to Origin's extensive color options, which will run you $250 for metallic side panels, $450 for pre-designed themes, or considerably more for custom artwork, the company differentiates itself from the competition with an upgrade service, allowing customers to return internal components of their Origin PC for credit towards the purchase of a new product. You have to buy-in to the upgrade service (it's available in a two-year and three-year format, at $20 and $40) at the time of original purchase. It covers system motherboards (on desktop form factors), CPUs, GPUs, internal hard drives, memory, and optical drives. Buyback prices are the part's current market value, as determined by Origin based on a combination of data sources. If you're planning on upgrading your PC at all in the future (which you should be), the upgrade service definitely seems worth the money.

Origin's online build process was one of the best I experienced. You can customize the internals of tower builds (as in, whether you want a standard, inverted, or rotated motherboard positioning), and part selection is straightforward for both towers and small form-factor systems.

Falcon Northwest

Like Origin PC, Falcon Northwest is one of the more expensive options on the market, but is known for its unique, custom cases. The company uses automotive-quality paint finishes in everything from basic solid, metallic, and pearl color schemes to complex color-shifting hues and custom graphics and airbrushing. Falcon's Exotix paint starts at $756 for a solid color and goes up to $1,000 or more for complex color-shifting hues. Custom artwork, depending on the complexity, will raise that price even more.

Falcon offers lifetime tech support, 9am-6pm Pacific Time, seven days a week. All desktops except the Talon include a three-year warranty which covers parts and labor (the Talon costs $195 to upgrade from a one-year to a three-year warranty), and some systems (the Mach V and FragBox) additionally come with a year of Falcon Overnight service (only available in the contiguous United States), a coverage plan that will have your system picked up, repaired, and returned via an overnight courier, should a problem arise that can't be fixed via over-the-phone tech support.

With the exclusion of custom paintwork, which is non-refundable once painting has begun, Falcon offers a 30-day money back guarantee. Like Origin PC, systems are subjected to a three-day burn-in. Customers are also provided with a convenient binder of system documentation, as well as "ResuceDrive" — a USB stick that can reset your system to a factory fresh state.

The Falcon "Configurator" is a bit clunkier than Origin's system, but still overall a good customization experience. The biggest issue is that you have to click into each part in order to see price differences, making it slightly more difficult to compare parts at a glance.

Xidax

Every Xidax computer is hand-built by a single system builder. The other main selling point for Xidax systems is the company's lifetime warranty on parts and labor for desktop systems. (Two years for laptops.) This covers the "core computer," defined as all hardware inside the computer case (excluding AMD video cards, which come with a limited two-year parts warranty, and liquid/water cooling components, which are covered for a year). Defective parts are repaired when possible or replaced with a new, used, refurbished, recertified, or comparable part. If a component is no longer supported and/or commercially available, to the point that repair of the computer would be impractical, Xidax may issue an in-store credit for the computer's then-value, instead of going forward with a repair.

Xidax's return policy is a bit wonkier than most. All sales are final and as-is, with returns only at the exclusive discretion of Xidax. Returns (that are approved) within 45 days of purchase are subject to a 20% (of the purchase price) "rental fee" while returns after 45 days are charged a 20% restocking fee plus an additional $75 per day rental fee.

The Xidax website lists several technicians on staff, so it's presumably they offer in-house tech support. However, the website doesn't have any mention of the company's actual tech support hours. (Company office hours are listed as Mon - Fri 9am - 5pm (MST) and Sat/Sun 10am - 5pm.)

Xidax also offers a number of financing options. BillMeLater via PayPal, GE Financing (subject to a credit approval), and a no credit check option. The third option is a terrible deal, though, as all leases are for 12 months at a rate of 20% per month. In other words, a $1000 system would cost you $200 per month for 12 months, adding up to $2400 total. Not good.

Xidax's custom build UI is better than most, making it straightforward to compare prices and pick components. My only real complaint is that the menu scrolls back to the top every time you select a new component section, making it possible to lose your place and maybe forget to pick a component.

iBuyPower

iBuyPower offers a wide variety of pre-built and custom configuration options. The company's signature desktop systems come with a three year standard warranty, covering three years labor and one year parts. Four- and five-year extended warranties are also mentioned on the company's warranty info page, but they don't seem to be listed as options at the time of purchase, so you will likely have to contact the company in order to buy in. Warranties extend only to the original purchaser, and are only effective on systems purchased and operated in the United States. iBuypower does not offer international shipping, service, or sales (except for APO/FPO customers, which are covered by the standard three-year warranty).

All purchases are covered by a 30-day money back guarantee, not including shipping/handling. Returns not in their original condition may be subject to a 15% restocking fee. iBuypower provides technical support 8:30am - 5:00pm PST Mon - Fri.

iBuyPower's build interface seems aimed more at someone who knows what they're doing, but still doesn't want to build their system by hand. It almost overwhelms you with component choice, yet provides little info about each part on the decisionmaking page, save for the part name and price. If you don't know what you're looking for, I could see easily getting lost in the weeds.

Maingear

Maingear lists customer service as its top priority. All parts are covered during the warranty period, which starts at one year on all systems then costs $99/$199 for two/three years of coverage on most systems (but the price goes up to $199/$399 on super high-end systems). Labor and phone support are free for the lifetime of the system. The warranty employs a combination of virtual on-site, remote diagnostic software, telephone support, and if necessary, on-site repair via a third-party service. Tech support hours are Mon Fri, 10:00 am 7:00 pm EST and Sat, 10:00 am 5:00 pm EST. Issues within the first 30 days are additionally covered by free two-way shipping, while Maingear will cover one-way shipping after that. Systems come with a 30-day money back guarantee, subject to a 20% restocking fee, excluding shipping costs, custom work (including paint), and orders over $5,000.

As for the computers themselves, Maingear says it hand-builds every system with a focus on optimal wiring for maximum airflow. Systems come with the latest hardware drivers installed (and never any bloatware), and everything is subjected to a 48-72 hour stress test.

Maingear's approach seems mostly focused on providing lots of pre-configured options at a variety of price points. You can still customize those further, but based on the number of options, I imagine they're more interested in attracting customers looking for a build to suit their needs (gaming, 3D modeling, post-production, etc) rather than someone looking to hand-pick their parts.

CyberpowerPC

In addition to standard laptops and tower cases, CyberpowerPC offers a number of exclusive case options, such as the futuristic-looking Trinity and the briefcase-shaped Battlebox.

Tech support is available Mon-Fri 6:00am - 8:00 pm (PST) and Sat 9:30am - 3pm (PST). Desktop systems comes with a three year limited warranty (covering three years labor one year parts). That plan can be upgraded:

• Four years labor, two years parts extended service plan: $199.
• Five years labor, three years parts extended service plan: $349.

Systems are covered by a 30-day money back guarantee (excluding shipping costs and custom engraving), with returns made between 31 and 45 days subject to a 15% restocking fee. No refund, credit, or exchange is allowed after 45 days. Four and five year (with two and three years parts) extended service plans are also available.

While I like CyberpowerPC's variety of cases, it suffers from the same issues as iBuyPower: it overwhelms you with options without offering much info to help make component choices. I count 19 motherboard options to choose from—all X99 variations, at that—so again, if you don't know exactly what you want, it can be quite confusing.

Velocity Micro

Like many custom PC builders, Velocity Micro builds its systems by hand. They are then subjected to a rigorous testing process, including a 200-point checklist, 60 cycles of testing system resources, overnight burn-in, and many others. After sale, systems are covered with lifetime in-house tech support. Standard tech support is available 11:00am to 8:00pm EST Monday through Friday, while 24/7 emergency support (covering things like boot failure, system failure, and issues that keep the PC from functioning) is available for certain warranty packages.

Velocity Micro systems come with a one-year limited warranty, covering parts and labor, with two- and three-year options available, with price dependent on the system.

• Low-end system warranties: $99 for two years, $199 for three years of coverage.
• High-end system warranties: $199 for two years, $399 for three years of coverage.

Sales come with a 30-day money back guarantee, subject to a 15% restocking fee. Any special or custom-ordered component (things not listed in the configuration options) are not eligible for refunds.

Velocity also offers a lifetime upgrade plan, allowing users to purchase new components for their system at discounted prices. Upgraded hardware comes with an additional one-year warranty. The company's build offerings are a nice combination of pre-designed systems with the option for further customization.

Digital Storm

Digital Storm systems come with a three year limited warranty, covering three years of labor and one year parts. 

• Four year labor, two year parts extended warranty: $99.
• Five year labor, three year parts extended warranty: $299.
• Six year labor, four year parts extended warranty: $499.

Warranty service within the first 45 days also comes with free two-way shipping. Digital Storm offers a full refund, excluding shipping costs, only in the case of hardware issues and within 30 days of original delivery.

Digital Storm provides lifetime US-based tech support (hours are listed as Monday through Friday, 9:00am - 5pm PST). The company offers overclocking and other services to boost performance, as well as "extensive" stress testing, though it doesn't say exactly how long the burn-in period is.

Digital Storm's build interface is solid—fairly similar to Velocity Micro. Lots of choices for where you want to start out, namely case and pre-configured watercooling options, then pre-configured options that can be further customized. 

That's an overview of the major PC builders and what they have to offer in terms of warranties, support, overclocking, and other special services. On the next page, I put each configuration tool to the test to build a high-end rig and compare prices across all nine builders.

To try out the configuration system for each PC builder, I put together a high-end rig, customizing one of the most expensive default builds. I tried to use identical parts whenever possible to establish a baseline: an Intel i7-5820K processor, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and a single Nvidia GTX Titan X graphics card. Of course, these systems are NOT exactly the same. Motherboard and power supply options differ the most between the builders and case prices vary. Each builder also offers different options in specialized cooling and overclocking, with varying prices to match.

While the prices I ended up with don't reflect identical rigs, they give you a pretty good idea of how much it costs to configure a high-end system with each PC builder.

Below you can see exactly which parts are in each rig.

Alienware Area-51

Price: $4,049 Motherboard: Intel X99 Express Chipset w/ Unlocked BIOS for Overclocking CPU: Intel Core i7 5820K 3.3GHz (3.6GHz TurboBoost) Power Supply: Alienware™ 1500 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply GPU: Single 12GB NVIDIA GTX Titan X Memory: 32GB Quad Channel DDR4 at 2133MHz Storage: 256GB SSD, 4TB 5400rpm SATA HDD Cooling: Alienware Premium CPU Liquid Cooling

Origin PC Genesis

Price: $3,683 Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99-UD4 CPU: Intel Core i7 5820K 3.3GHz (3.5GHz TurboBoost) Power Supply: 650 Watt Corsair RM650 GPU: Single 12GB NVIDIA GTX Titan X Memory: 32GB Corsair LPX 2400MHz (4x8GB) Storage: 240GB ORIGIN PC Approved Solid State Drive Cooling: ORIGIN High-Performance Ultra Silent Fans, ORIGIN FROSTBYTE 120 Sealed Liquid Cooling System for 2011 Socket Additional Stuff: Remote Controlled Multi-Colored LED

Falcon Northwest Mach-V

Price: $3,943 Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99-UD4 CPU: Intel Core i7 5820K 3.3GHz (3.6GHz TurboBoost) Power Supply: SilverStone 750 Watt Modular GPU: Single 12GB NVIDIA GTX Titan X Memory: 32GB G.Skill 2400MHz (4x8GB) Storage: Micron M600 SSD 256GB Cooling: Performance Fan Pack, Asetek Liquid Cooling - Mach V

Xidax Annihilator X-8

Price: $3,259 Motherboard: MSI X99 SLI Plus CPU: Intel Core i7 5820K 3.3GHz (3.5GHz TurboBoost) Power Supply: Corsair 750W Semi-Modular Power Supply GPU: Single 12GB NVIDIA GTX Titan X Memory: 32GB Xidax Extreme DDR4 2400MHz Memory (8x4GB) Storage: 256GB XIDAX Performance SSD Cooling: ZALMAN CNPS10X OPTIMA 120mm FSB Additional Stuff: Free CPU Overclocking, shipping, or Xidax 24" 1080P LED Monitor

iBuypower Erebus GT-V3

Price: $3,529 Motherboard: MSI X99A SLI PLUS CPU: Intel Core i7 5820K 3.3GHz (3.5GHz TurboBoost) Power Supply: 750 Watt Thermaltake SMART SP-750M GPU: Single 12GB NVIDIA GTX Titan X Memory: 32 GB Corsair DDR4 - 2400MHz (8x4GB) Storage: 250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD Cooling: Custom Liquid Cooling Additional Stuff: Up to 10% overclocking, Includes Gaming mouse and keyboard

Maingear FORCE SUPER STOCK X99

Price: $5,238 Motherboard: ASUS X99-A CPU: Intel Core i7 5820K 3.3GHz (3.6GHz TurboBoost) Power Supply: 1200 Watt Corsair Professional Digital Series AX1200i 80+ Platinum Certified Modular Power Supply ROHS GPU: Single 12GB NVIDIA GTX Titan X Memory: 32 GB Corsair Vengeance™ DDR4- 2666MHz (8x4GB) Storage: 250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD Cooling: EK Supremacy - Nickel

CyberpowerPC Fang III - Black Mamba

Price: $4,424 Motherboard: ASUS X99-A ATX CPU: Intel Core i7 5820K 3.3GHz (3.5GHz TurboBoost) Power Supply: 750 Watts - Corsair RM750 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Fully Modular Ultra Quiet Power Supply GPU: Single 12GB NVIDIA GTX Titan X Memory: 32GB Corsair DDR4 2400MHz (8x4GB) Storage: 250 GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD Cooling: CYBERPOWERPC Xtreme Hydro 360mm Liquid CPU Cooling Additional Stuff: Multi-Color LED with Remote Controller, free Ultimate OC (Ultimate Overclock 30% or more)

Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition

Price: $4,029 Motherboard: Gigabyte X99-Gaming 5 CPU: Intel Core i7 5930K 3.5GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) Power Supply: 1000 Watt EVGA SuperNOVA Power Supply, 80Plus Gold Certified GPU: Single 12GB NVIDIA GTX Titan X Memory: 32GB Crucial Ballistix DDR4-2400MHz (4x8GB) Storage: 250GB Crucial MX200 SSD Cooling: Velocity Micro LiquiCool 6 Fluid Cooling System

Digital Storm AVENTUM II

Price: $5,204 Motherboard: ASUS X99-DELUXE CPU: Intel Core i7 5820K 3.3GHz (3.6GHz TurboBoost) Power Supply: 750W Corsair CX750M GPU: Single 12GB Nvidia GTX Titan X Memory: 32GB DDR4 2666MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX (4x8GB) Storage: 250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, 1TB Western Digital Black HDD Cooling: H20: HydroLux Level 1: Digital Storm Exotic Custom Cooling System Additional Stuff: Digital Storm RGB LED Lighting System, Stage 2 CPU Overclock to 4.5-4.8GHz

Have you ever pulled a gun on a convenience store clerk, but then found yourself stuck because some schmuck walked in for a Ding-Dong and a Slurpee before you could grab the cash and leg it out the back door? Hey, it happens to everyone now and then. Fortunately, Rockstar has the cure for what ails you.

I am of course talking about the Grand Theft Auto 5 patch 350.1, released today, which fixes a number of bugs, crashes, and other issues that keep crime from paying like it should. Behold!

Vehicles in your garage can no longer be accidentally replaced with vehicles from the street. 

Improved stability and fixed several crashes and hangs while transitioning between Jobs in GTA Online.

Fixed an issue where certain players were unable to exit their garages while inside of a personal vehicle.

Fixed an issue where the game could freeze if you were robbing a store while someone else was attempting to buy snacks there.

A rare issue has been fixed where some players received a Purchase Failed error when attempting to buy apartments.

Fixed an issue where players would be asked to quit the game while using text chat in Golf and pressing the E key.

GTA Online characters can now be added to your shortlist in the Rockstar Editor.

Fixed several clipping issues that occurred when taking Snapmatic selfies.

One-on-One Vehicle Deathmatches in Free Roam will now properly spawn all participants in vehicles.

Fixed a Steam-only issue where you could not alt-tab back into GTAV if you alt-tabbed out while the Steam overlay was active.

Various fixes to bring improved patch download speeds.

Improvements to matchmaking so players that have good connections to each other are matched together more frequently.

Fixed a Steam-only issue where players could not use Mexican Spanish as a subtitle language.

General stability fixes for director mode and video editor.

Various crash fixes.

Fixes for issues caused by launching the game in offline mode.

The one thing the patch notes doesn't cover is how a game that came out 16 days ago is up to version 350.1. And now, enjoy some ragdoll shenanigans!