I caught the recent reveal trailer for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and proceeded to make finding out exactly what’s going on in the new RPG’s dark fantasy world, which is dripping with the sort of ‘end of days’ vibe commonly found in Final Fantasy and Persona games, a top priority as, simply put, it’s a bit bonkers. As such, recently being able to sit down with the game’s creative director, Guillaume Broche, to see the game in action and ask him about it was a real boon.

In Expedition 33’s city of Lumière, once a year the mysterious and seemingly all-powerful being called the Paintress wakes up and, approaching a large monolith in the middle of everything, paints upon it a cursed number, ticking it down. As soon as the Paintress paints it, everyone of that age turns to smoke and fades away immediately.

As such, the population’s maximum age is in decline. To solve this, an expedition from the city is tasked with venturing forth into the unknown every year to try a…

PCG Gamer of the Year Let Me Solo Her is back at it again, baby. As reported by Kotaku, LMSH, famous for his nude, dual katana-wielding, pot-helmed avatar and repeated shepherding of other players past secret megaboss Malenia, has started streaming a run of Elden Ring where every enemy is, in fact, Malenia.

I’m not sure what mod LMSH is using to make the swap⁠—maybe some custom parameters on the Item and Enemy Randomizer by thefifthmatt⁠—but he’s also rocking FiftyTifty’s simply-titled Aggression Mod, which makes enemies immediately home in on you from any range once spawned. An entire countryside of forbidden sword technique goddesses of decay immediately lock on and pursue LMSH on entering an area, making for this almost Risk of Rain-like ratcheting up of the peril as he scurries from Grace to Grace.

LMSH’s goals for the run are to collect his signature pot helm from Alexander’s quest, never level up Vigor, and beat the game. Currently he’s got …

When it comes to covering Rainbow Six Siege on the internet, there are two types of commenters: those with strong opinions about balancing decisions, and those who like to reminisce about classic Rainbow Six. 

Despite never playing the original singleplayer Rainbow Six trilogy myself, through osmosis I’ve learned of the legendary exploits of John Clark, Ding Chavez, and Daniel Bogart—names left to gather dust in the Tom Clancy archives since Rainbow Six went to Vegas and became a 5v5 hero shooter.

Well break out your feather duster and alert your nearest CD-ROM appreciator, because Rainbow Six Siege’s next season includes a nod to the original tactical shooter trilogy. Siege’s newest attacker, the mysterious Deimos, has been unmasked as ex-Rainbow operative Gerald Morris. In Siege lore, Morris has been presumed dead since 2012. In real life, he hasn’t been seen in over 20 years.

Series veterans might recognize Morris as one of the on-call operat…

More than six years after it was first teased, Legacy, the ironically-titled new game from once-legendary designer Peter Molyneux, finally has a release date. The blockchain-based business simulator developed by Molyneux’s 22 Cans studio is set to go live on October 26.

“Legacy will be seamlessly integrated with GalaChain, providing smooth and secure gameplay backed by a games-first blockchain that allows real ownership and real rewards,” publisher Gala Games said. “This includes the ability to bridge items to and from Ethereum for trade on secondary markets like OpenSea.

“Ownership and creativity take center stage as you get the chance to build and manage your business on your very own land!”

Molyneux was a true force in the early days of the videogame industry, with groundbreaking games including Populous—the great-granddaddy of the “god game” genre—Syndicate, Theme Park, Magic Carpet, and Dungeon Keeper to his credit. His run continued through the tu…

Looking for the best Prime Day VR headset deals might not be at the top of your to-do list when it comes to upgrading your gaming setup,  but if you’ve been looking for an excuse to splash out, the Meta Quest 3 is on sale right now at Amazon. It scored an impressive 91% in our review, and this Prime Day deal knocks $70 off the list price coming in at $430, which is the lowest we’ve seen it. And while a VR headset is certainly a luxury, this deal takes some of the sting out of the cost of what is, after all, an expensive bit of kit.

• We’re curating the best Prime Day PC gaming deals right here.

So what do you get for your money? The Meta Quest 3 is more powerful than its predecessor the Quest 2, giving it at least double the graphical performance thanks to Qualcomm’s 2nd gen Snapdragon XR2 chip. It also sports 4K+ pancake lenses with a 2064 x 2208 resolution per eye, a 120Hz refresh rate, and …

Server issues continue to plague Diablo-like action RPG Last Epoch a day after its full release on Steam, but its offline mode seems to have kept many players fed.

Last Epoch had its full 1.0 release yesterday and immediately started suffering from its success. “Within 20 minutes of launch 150,000 people had joined us,” game director and founder of Eleventh Hour Games Judd Cobler wrote on Reddit yesterday. “This did mean that all of our scale testing efforts were immediately put to the test, and unfortunately a service failed in a way that we didn’t suspect, and we immediately went to work to investigate and resolve it.”

Players experienced disconnects and abnormally long loading times as they transitioned between areas. Despite the developer’s efforts throughout the last 24 hours, those issues persisted until a few hours ago when the servers seemingly shut down. I was able to connect to the online mode of the game shortly after, but area transitions still take up …

Songs of Conquest, the really quite good and really quite pretty Heroes of Might & Magic-like that first hit early access in 2022, has reached its final form. Well, kind of. The game has finally left early access for the sunlit uplands of a 1.0 release, but the devs promise more development to come: “This is merely the beginning of a new chapter in our epic saga,” they say.

If you’re not familiar, Songs of Conquest is a tactics game in the classic vein of stuff like Heroes of Might & Magic 3. You pick a faction and guide heroes around a sprawling world map, capturing resources, battling armies on a hex-based grid, and generally doing all you can to crush your enemies. At the same time, you have to defend your home base and guide it up a ladder of production from ‘dinky hamlet that spits out the occasional pikeman’ to ‘dread factory of war’.

It’s a good time, especially given the striking absence of HoMM-likes on the modern videogame market, and it earned the much…

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority says that if Microsoft is serious about acquiring Activision Blizzard, there’s one sure way to make it happen: Break up Activision Blizzard.

The bold suggestion came in a new “notice of possible remedies” update, a procedural document that lays out the CMA’s concerns, and the various possible ways that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard might address them.

There are two types of “remedies” available in situations like this, the CMA said: Structural, which changes the conditions of the proposed deal, and behavioral, in which the parties involved effectively promise to be good in exchange for getting permission to do what they want. In merger situations, the CMA prefers structural remedies because they “rarely require monitoring and enforcement”—once they’re done, there’s no going back, so you don’t have to worry about getting screwed three or four years down the road.

In the case of the Activision Blizzard acquisition,…

I’ve walked on nearly 200 different planets in Starfield in environments ranging from frozen tundra to baking infernos to toxic atmospheres. And in all that time I’ve only suffered one affliction that I felt a need to rush to a doctor to fix: I contracted a lung condition that eventually got so bad it made sprinting consume my oxygen supply in a matter of seconds, and I didn’t have the meds to cure it myself.

Just getting a single severe illness from all of those alien planets is a little weird, and it’s surprising how tame the environments on alien planets in Starfield really are—especially when you get regular warnings for hazardous weather, extreme heat and cold, and radiation. Turns out what we’re playing with in Starfield are the remnants of a more complex and challenging planetary survival system that Bethesda heavily scaled back before the game launched.

“The way the environmental damage works in the game on planets and on your suit, you have resistances to …

Ubisoft says Division 2 players who are “exploiting a bug” in the Descent game mode to gain “unfair amounts of XP” will be hit with two-week bans for their efforts, and could end up permanently banned if they persist in taking advantage of it.

The roguelike Descent mode went live in The Division 2 earlier this year, enabling 1-4 players to square off against multiple waves of enemies in a guns-blazing quest for skills, talents, and weapons. In the context of The Division’s story, it’s a training simulation for agents; in more practical gameplay terms, it serves as kind of a test bed for character builds because you begin the mode with no gear, perks, or specializations, and build out as you go.

But some players have been taking advantage of a glitch that lets them join others already in Descent mode in order to gain experience and SHD (Strategic Homeland Division) levels they’re not properly entitled to. Ubisoft said today that it is aware of the problem, and more import…

Some game announcements just immediately grab my attention, and Vampire Therapist is definitely one of them. Honestly, it had me at the title—I mean, Vampire Therapist, there’s no way you don’t want to know more about that—but the underlying concept looks genuinely interesting too: It’s a dark comedy narrative adventure about a cowboy who was turned into a vampire in the 1800s and is now seeking help coming to terms with immortality and finding meaning in his unlife.

The lead character in Vampire Therapist is Sam, who apparently still insists on dressing in his old-time cowboy duds. Guiding him on his journey to self-discovery is Andromachos, a 3,000-year-old vampire who’s left behind his life as a warrior and assassin in order to become a therapist for the undead. After some time together, the two team up to help a bizarre array of clients including “self-hating vampires, agoraphobic social media addicts, supernatural narcissists, and victims of centuries…

The Genshin Impact 4.7 livestream codes for this version have arrived. For those that aren’t aware, or maybe just started playing Genshin for the first time recently, miHoYo presents a livestream in advance of each new update. This shows off the new characters, quests, and events that are happening, and as a little bonus incentive to watch, there are three livestream codes that get you some Primogems.

For this version, it looks like the new characters are Hydro five-star, Sigewinne and Electro five-star Clorinde, plus potential reruns for Furina and Alhaitham. As usual, I’ll add each livestream code as it drops during the special program—these codes generally expire within a day, so you should redeem them as soon as you can. There’s also info on how to claim the rewards lower down the page.

Genshin Impact codes: All current livestream Primogems

• US2VLGSXCAT9 – 100 Primogems and ten Mystic Enhancement Or…
  

Whether you’re completely stuck on today’s Wordle or just need a little push, everything you need to solve the daily puzzle your way is waiting just below. Check out our handy tips, read the March 24 (643) clue, or save your win streak with today’s answer.

I’m not entirely sure how I went from one yellow to four greens in a single guess, but I’ll happily take that incredible turnaround—especially as today’s answer was only one more straightforward guess away. Maybe I got lucky. Maybe my subconscious spotted a combination I hadn’t. Either way, I won today’s Wordle with plenty of goes to spare.

Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Friday, March 24

You’ll need to think of DIY materials if you want to win today. This thick paste-like substance is often used to fill in gaps around the home—particularly in between bathroom tiles. 

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Is there a double letter in today’s Wordle? 

There are no repeat letters i…

Valve has made some big changes to the online conduct rules and rules and guidelines for Steam, which now break down in much greater detail what people are and are not allowed to do while using the service.

“Beginning today, you’ll see we’ve made some updates to Steam’s Rules and Guidelines and Steam’s Online Conduct Rules,” Valve said in the announcement of the rule changes. “These updates are intended to add context and specificity to how we already apply these in practice to all behaviors and content across Steam.”

Unfortunately, Valve did not say anything in the announcement about what had changed, so for that we need to rely on the eternally useful Internet Archive. The rules and guidelines page as it existed in March 2023 was very general, perhaps reflecting a more innocent time, with short lists of general rules and content rules, and a warning against “backseat moderating.” Users are asked to report rule-breaking posts to moderators, and repeat offend…

Finish your Wordle week with your kind of win. Maybe you’d like to freshen up your daily game with our general tips, or give today’s puzzle a push with the October 29 (862) clue. Whatever you want is right here—even if you’d like today’s Wordle answer delivered on a shiny, clickable, plate.

Stumbling upon two yellow letters in as many guesses didn’t exactly fill me with confidence today, but after the initial wave of despair had died down and I looked again, I realised how lucky I was. I had already ruled out a lot of common letters, and if my yellows were wrong there then they could only go in one other spot—the winning one. 

Wordle today: A hint

Wordle today: A hint for Sunday, October 29

A fake, a lie (or a liar), a counterfeit: these are all great alternatives for today’s word. In UK English this word would have six letters, and include an “E”. 

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Is there a double letter in Wordle today?