Hardware accelerated ray tracing, variable rate shading, advanced image reconstruction techniques driven by machine learning: these are all cutting edge rendering technologies likely to be a seriously big deal once the next generation console era is upon us. However, PC owners today have the ability to preview all of these technologies running in tandem in one of the most impressive and performant game engines around. Yes, Wolfenstein Youngblood has been patched to support the gamut of Nvidia RTX features and the results are highly impressive.

So what do users of RTX cards get with this new update to the latest and possibly last id Tech 6 title? Taking centre stage is ray tracing support, where the developers target one of the most challenging and expensive RT techniques: reflections. Much like Control or Battlefield 5, ray tracing replaces the game's use of cube maps and screen-space reflections on nearly every surface. In addition to increased realism, you also get the ability to 'see' reflections of the in-game world that don't exist in screen-space - like the player characters themselves, for example. However, the implementation is much wider ranging than you might imagine.

The embedded video on this page illustrates a couple of key aspects. First of all, you get to see how standard cube maps and screen-space reflections actually work - and then you get to see the more accurate ray traced alternative. It's quite fascinating how as players we've become accustomed to what are fundamentally compromised results. Game makers have got really good at 'faking' these effects and I also suspect that as virtually every major engine uses similar techniques, we've grown accustomed to their lack of realism. So when you sit down and study how those reflections should actually look, the results are eye-opening.Youngblood's effect is realistic right down to the most incidental details in the tiniest reflections.

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Bethesda is giving players more ways to put Nazis in their place today, with the advent of Wolfenstein: Youngblood's free 1.07 content update, which adds two new locations to the game, new abilities, new end-game activities, and more.

Youngblood's new areas - a Parisian reservoir and secret Nazi bunker to be precise - can be accessed once players have completed the Da'at Yichud Artifacts end-game side quest. With this out the way, the new Treasure Hunt side mission will unlock, sending players off in search of a Da'at Yichud chest, reported to be hidden away in a secret Nazi hideout.

As noted in Bethesda's 1.07 release notes, the new Parisian reservoir and Nazi bunker are home to three new enemy types: the Wurmlochsoldat (Teleporting bersoldier), the Electrodrohne (Tesla Drone), and the Turmhund (Laserhund with a turret).

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A Nazi-infested world crafted by Arkane looks exactly as you think it should.

Dishonored's Dunwall excelled at polarity, its pomp and majesty juxtaposed with decay and death. Neu-Paris, too, echoes Arkane's masterfully macabre world-building. But where Dunwall's untold stories swam in the eyes of its dead and dying, Wolfenstein: Youngblood's Neu-Paris has no time for such sentiment. It is a city ravaged by war, yes, but there are no survivors padding these cobbled streets. There are only the self-indulgent trappings of the Reich, the endless pageantry of polished mahogany and billowing banners and scarlet soft furnishings... all swastika-branded, naturally.

Whether I was two, 12, or 20 hours in, it never failed to surprise me - shock me, even - to explore this alternate timeline and happen across another interrogation room, its tools and weapons and torture devices stamped with Nazi branding. While it might not quite rival that of Dishonored, take the time to look, and the detail in Youngblood's playsets is really quite extraordinary, especially if you cast your gaze upwards.

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Having sampled Wolfenstein: Youngblood across all platforms now, it's fair to say that technologically speaking at least, Machine Games' latest is very a side-step from its excellent work in Wolfenstein: The New Colossus. There's the sense that the id Tech 6 feature set hasn't evolved beyond the additional enhancements to the engine found in TNC and that this time around, Innovation comes from gameplay, with cooperative play the key new mechanic, paired with more thoughtful level design likely due to the influence of co-developer Arkane Studios.

Youngblood launched at the tail-end of last week with little to no fanfare, which is surprising as this is a full-blooded multiplatform roll-out with considerable resources and talent put behind it. Not only do we get PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 releases, but Switch received a day and date release too with Austin-based developer Panic Button once again at the conn. The turnout for the game across consoles is diverse and although genuine surprises are limited, performance isn't quite the same as it was on the last Wolfenstein release.

The PC version is the easiest to cover in that if you're au fait with The New Colossus, you'll know exactly what to expect here. There are no pretensions of new engine technology, the options selections are entirely identical, performance is much the same - although with two players in the same scene pushing out effects-heavy pyrotechnics, you can see some additional GPU load. The bottom line is that technologically speaking, it's more of the same - you're simply getting a bunch of new levels with a different design ethos, with the added benefit of cooperative play.

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Nintendo Switch exclusive Fire Emblem: Three Houses has topped the UK charts during its first week of release, beating Wolfenstein: Youngblood into second place.

Fire Emblem sold more than double the physical copies on Nintendo Switch than the Wolfenstein spin-off shifted across PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One.

Three Houses is the franchise's biggest release for a very long time - as far as our records go back. It sold a decent amount more than the combined launch sales of Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest/Birthright for 3DS, as well as those for previous 3DS entry Fire Emblem: Awakening. It sold around 15 times more than Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn did on Wii.

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Rather suitably for a game that features a hefty amount of flamethrowers, I recorded this week's episode of Ian's VR Corner on the hottest day of the year so far.

While the incredible heat of my office did compliment the nazi toasting action of Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot somewhat, I do wonder to what extent this unusually hot weather will have affected its first week of sales. As you'll be able to see in the video below, playing VR in a 40 C room is definitely not the most comfortable of experiences. I mean, who knew it was possible to sweat from your eyelids?

Cyberpilot is a spin-off of MachineGames' recent Wolfenstein titles, but you won't find yourself inhabiting the virtual shoes of any of the Blazkowicz clan. Instead you play as a nameless hacker who, thanks to some friendly resistance fighters, is able to control an assortment of nazi mechs from within the safety of a virtual cockpit.

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Green Man Gaming has launched a new promotion that allows you to save 20 per cent on a selection of new and upcoming game releases.

Probably the most exciting of the bunch is a chance to get Wolfenstein: Youngblood for 19.99. All you need to do is use the code 'NEW20' at the checkout.

The co-operative shooter takes place almost two decades after the rather brilliant New Colossus and follows BJ Blazckowicz's twin daughters as they attempt to take down the Nazi regime. It's scheduled for release on 25th July.

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It's fitting that a game about cooperation is itself the result of two studios collaborating. MachineGames have brought in the lauded Arkane Studios to assist on this new entry in the Wolfenstein series and their fingerprints are all over it. For better and for worse.

I got to play through the first two levels of Youngblood and there's a lot to take in with just that initial hour or two. It centres not on brooding BJ but his daughters, out on a mission to Paris to find him after he goes missing. I had some fears that the shifts in design would lead to the story, the previous two games' main strength, taking a back seat but senior game designer Andreas jerfors assures me otherwise. "I think there's quite a lot of story content, but it's probably told in a slightly different fashion," he explains. "Because we want to give more room for two players to interact and tell their own story."

Andreas is referring to the game's shift to a hub-based world where players can launch missions though the game's "metro system", primary and secondary, from the resistance HQ in the catacombs of Paris, to various different districts which can also be visited outside missions too.

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Wolfenstein: Youngblood executive producer Jerk Gustafsson has confirmed the upcoming game will have "open-ended" levels that players can complete in a variety of ways.

Gustafsson said that collaborating with Dishonored and Prey developer Arkane Studios has given MachineGames the opportunity to explore "open-ended structure" in a way that's "quite different from what [it has] done before". While the campaign will be "lighter" in both tone and length, the play-your-way mechanics means "the amount of gameplay time is greater".

"I think players will see a lot of similarities to level design in the Dishonored games, so in that sense it can be a little bit different as an experience but it can be for the benefit of the game, especially when it comes to finding different ways of approaching a combat scenario or a mission in general," Gustafsson said, talking to Official PlayStation Magazine this month (thanks, GamingBolt).

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QuakeCon is coming to Europe for the first time this year, in a kind of mirror event being held in London simultaneously with the traditional, age-old Dallas QuakeCon event on 26th-27th July.

The headline attraction: playing Doom Eternal for the first time outside of North America. The clincher: the event is free.

It will be located at the Printworks venue in south-east London.

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