Doom designer John Romero is releasing a new Doom II level to help support the people of Ukraine and related humanitarian efforts following Russia’s invasion of the country.

Romero announced on Twitter that he is releasing the new level for the 1994 game for €5. 100% of proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross and UN Central Emergency Response Fund.

The level is called One Humanity, and it’s the first Doom II level from Romero since the game was originally released in 1994. An original copy of Doom II and a modern source port are required. You can buy the new level from Romero’s website here.

In the wake of the attacks, Ukraine has asked PlayStation, Xbox, and eSports organizations to stop supporting Russia. Multiple movie studios have stopped releasing new films in the country, while Apple no longer sells any products there.

Additionally, Ukrainian developer GSC Game World has announced that development on Stalker 2 has “shifted to the sidelines” as the company focuses more on protecting themselves and their families during this time.

If you want to help relief efforts, we’ve assembled a list of humanitarian organizations like the Ukrainian Red Cross and Unicef that you can donate to.

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Depending on what you’re playing, Valve’s new Steam Deck battery can last as long as eight hours or as little as two. More graphically demanding games require more power to drive the hardware that enables them, with SteamOS doing a pretty decent job of load-balancing everything dynamically in the background. If you are looking for a few other settings you can tinker with to get the best out of your Steam Deck’s battery life, we’ve got a few hints.

Limit your framerate

The Steam Deck’s 1200×800 display is beautiful and bright, featuring a native 60Hz refresh rate that benefits less graphically intensive games. But running at a higher refresh rate requires more power for both the display and the APU spitting out each frame. Thankfully, SteamOS features a system-level 30fps frame rate cap in its quick settings menu, letting you bypass any similar settings in games that might not work as well.

It’s a useful feature that can be toggled on at any time, and you’ll likely see a significant uptick in your expected battery life as a result. This setting alone can claw back an hour or two when playing some smaller games like Spelunky 2 or Celeste, and a little less with more demanding games like God of War (where just running at 30fps is the target anyway).

Turn down your in-game settings

This might go hand-in-hand with the recommendation above, but like any other PC the Steam Deck will draw less power if the game you’re playing isn’t demanding it. That means some changes to your graphical settings can yield some better battery life, and without as much of a visual hit as you might think.

Although the display is of a fairly high resolution, the 7-inch size means you’re less likely to notice smaller changes in overall detail in the same way that you might on a 27-inch monitor. That means knocking down settings like anti-aliasing and shadow quality, for example, will require less processing power and not greatly impact the visual quality. It’s worth messing around with this in each game you play to find a balance that suits you.

Limit your total TDP

If you’re looking for a more brute-force method of forcing the Steam Deck to consume less power, you can set a new maximum TDP (Thermal Design Power) for the handheld within the system settings menu. TDP refers to the thermal performance of a processor, and is often used as a basic indicator for power consumption. The more watts, or higher TDP, a processor uses, the more heat it produces and more power it consumes. Reducing the maximum TDP will force the APU to adapt in turn, turning down its base operating clock speed with respect to the amount of power it now has access to.

The Steam Deck’s battery life varies quite a lot depending on a number of factors.

Of course, you have to be careful with how you use this setting. Setting a TDP value too low will negatively impact performance in a big way, and, in some cases, crash games altogether. But if you want really granular control over how the Steam Deck operates, this is one of the two easiest ways to achieve that.

Set a maximum base clock speed

The other thing, predictably, is setting your GPU’s basic clock speed to a static value, preventing the APU from boosting up and down dynamically. This can, in some cases, make battery life worse if you’re not careful, forcing the APU to run at a higher speed than is necessary for lighter games.

In more demanding titles, the opposite can be true. Performance can degrade based on how low you set the clock value, but this in turn can help you extend battery life without a small performance hit. If you aren’t keen on tinkering around with values for each new game you try, limiting your Steam Deck to 30fps will almost always do enough to allow the Steam Deck to react dynamically in this regard, but it’s still nice to have this option.

Tone down screen brightness

Like pretty much any other electronic device with a screen, the brighter you set the Steam Deck’s screen, the more power it’s going to drain. So this isn’t so much a hint as it is a reminder: ake sure to have the Steam Deck’s screen brightness set to automatic so that it can properly dim depending on the ambient light in the room you’re playing it in.

The good thing is that, unlike some other portable gaming devices, the Steam Deck’s screen retains a lot of its detail without much brightness. It also scales down very low, letting you get a comfortable viewing experience in bed, for example. Never discount how much more gaming you can get in just by dimming your screen. For more on Valve’s impressive new toy, read our Steam Deck review.

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The appeal of Xbox cloud gaming is further coming into focus. Microsoft Flight Simulator, a very ambitious title with significant hardware requirements, is now playable on original Xbox One hardware thanks to Xbox Cloud Gaming. It’s the Xbox Series X version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, so players can expect a high-end, good experience, provided their internet connection is strong and stable enough to support it. A trailer announcing the cloud version shows off more of what to expect, including how it supports all manner of wireless controllers, including Sony’s DualShock.

Over the cloud, Microsoft Flight Simulator runs at a maximum of 1080p/30fps, while there is of course no need for a local install because it’s being played over the cloud. Additionally, Microsoft Flight Simulator is now playable beyond consoles through mobile phones, tablets, and PCs with lower specs that otherwise wouldn’t be able to support it.

Microsoft also clarified that the multiplayer experience for Microsoft Flight Simulator over the cloud compared to PC and Xbox Series X|S is “identical.” All players, no matter what platform they’re on, will be flying in the same airspace.

Additionally, Microsoft Flight Simulator’s World Updates 1-VI are available over the cloud, and any and all purchases made on another device carry over to the cloud.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is available through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which also includes access to cloud streaming.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is such a big focus for Microsoft because there is a limited audience for traditional consoles. There are far, far more mobile phones, tablets, and PCs in the market, and Microsoft is keen to grow the Xbox brand by meeting players where they are. That’s why Microsoft sorta doesn’t really care if you buy an Xbox console or not.

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Nintendo Switch Sports, a spiritual successor to the Wii Sports franchise, releases on Switch on April 29. Though it definitely makes sense that Nintendo would return to the world of motion-controlled sports on Switch, no one likely expected the announcement during February’s Nintendo Direct. Nintendo Switch Sports is available to preorder now, with t the digital edition costing $40 and the physical edition going for $50.

If you’re a soccer fan, you may want to opt for the physical edition of Nintendo Switch Sports. The physical edition comes with a leg strap accessory for the Joy-Con controllers that can be used to mimic kicking a ball in a Soccer Shoot-Out.

Nintendo Switch Sports preorder bonus

No preorder bonuses have been announced at this time. Major retailers tend to have exclusive bonus items for a lot of first-party Switch games, so we’ll make sure to update this article if any bonuses are revealed.

Nintendo Switch Sports will feature six sports at launch: soccer, bowling, volleyball, tennis, badminton, and a sword-fighting game called Chambara. Bowling and tennis were Wii Sports staples, but where’s golf? Thankfully, motion-controlled golf is also returning this fall as a free update. The graphics look a lot different than they did back on the Wii, because ditched the Mii characters with floating hands in favor of more realistic avatars (they are still cartoonish, though).

Nintendo Switch Sports will have local and online multiplayer. But please make sure to wear the Joy-Con wrist straps–we say this fully expecting to see YouTube clips of people chucking their Joy-Con controllers at their nice TVs.

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