Amplitude’s giving you another shot to jump in on its in-development action RPG wave defense roguelite… thing… Endless Dungeon. (opens in new tab) Anyway, it’s a kind of isometric shooter-RPG with friends and turrets, is what I’m saying, a cooperative or solo wave d efense where you explore a large space-station complex and defend a little walking crystal in the delightfully-designed world of the Endless series.
Players can sign up on Amplitude’s games2gether website (opens in new tab) in order to download and get running in the OpenDev, which is what Amplitude calls their sprints of open beta used to gather player feedback and data. This round of the playtest includes both multiplayer co-op and singleplayer, as well as meta-progression stuff like buff-up beverages and permanent upgrade “chips” for the heroes and the crystal-carrying robot.
It’ll also have a new family of monsters, the blobs, as well as delightfully weird hero Shroom—who you’ll have to unlock, who narrates the trailer, and who’s apparently a healing and support character.
The original Dungeon of the Endless was a surprise hit for Amplitude, first developed as a “skunkworks” project alongside their fantasy 4X Endless Legend. (opens in new tab) Though this game isn’t a direct sequel, nor is it meant to be the same as the prior game, it’s still got a lot of the same DNA. DNA which, Amplitude developers told us back in June (opens in new tab), was conceived in “a drunken night that was going wrong.”
We’ve learned a lot about the game since it debuted, mostly that it’s not super appealing in screenshots but looks great in motion. You can read everything we know about Endless Dungeon (opens in new tab) on the site.
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I’ve never taken games very seriously. I’m not competitive, I don’t min/max, and I steer well clear of anything that involves ranking my skill. At least, until I tried my first savage raid in Final Fantasy 14.
I’ve played the MMO on and off since 2014, but I would always comfortably stop right before things got too difficult. Saying that, I do have vague recollections of queueing for Leviathan Extreme in goddamn duty finder back in A Realm Reborn—an endeavour that took 90 minutes to queue for and then a further 90 minutes to complete. I had no concept of “high-end” content back then, blinded by my desire for a fiery blue horse mount. I would never grind for the best gear, and never stray too far from my comfortable, casual path.
Then came Endwalker. Things were different. I wasn’t the sole remaining member of a dead guild once occupied by my old work colleagues. I was on a new server, with a new guild that actually played the game. We journeyed through the expansion’s story together, wrapping up in a little over a week. Then came the question: “When are we doing the extreme trials?” Again, my only experience of these was a single run motivated by a horse.
Tentatively, I agreed. We began with the second extreme trial, spending our Christmas week together clearing. I wasn’t very good. My fear of healing outside of casual content had me switch from my white mage main to dancer. I didn’t have my rotation down, mindlessly smacking whichever button was lit up, but I realised I wasn’t too bad at memorising boss patterns. It was actually pretty damn thrilling.
January 2022 came and with it savage raids. Harder versions of normal story-based raids, and the second-hardest thing in the game after ultimate raids. This time, I was prepared. I’d spent time brushing up on my rotation, practising on striking dummies and lurking in Discord server The Balance. I meticulously researched mechanics, bought raid food and potions, and got ready to tackle the hardest thing I’d ever attempted in FF14.
I spent over a week dying to mechanics over and over, trying to figure out who was going wrong and where. Nailing my rotation and figuring out when to help the healers with mitigations. Adjusting to all the different strangers who we met in party finder, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and beliefs on how things should be done. Some parties went better than others, of course. We hit enrage numerous times—an invisible 10-minute timer that wipes the party when it runs out—and it was disheartening to die with the boss at less than 1% HP.
But then we did it. We frickin’ did it! The screen faded to black, and a cutscene of the boss being felled played. It’s exactly the same as the one that plays for the normal version, but seeing it this time around was so much sweeter. I’ve never considered myself capable enough to play ‘hard’ versions of the games I love, and yet here I was. The process of learning, improving and eventually defeating the boss was a surprisingly addictive journey. Seeing both myself and my friends progress, cheering each other on and consoling each other through fatal mistakes brought us all closer.
I’m still yet to clear a savage tier. The time commitment proved too much, and party finder burnout is real as hell. But nothing will beat the satisfaction I felt at clearing that first savage raid. Realising that yeah, I was actually good enough. Victory tasted sweet, but a newfound belief in myself was a whole lot sweeter.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1668979835_Great-moments-in-PC-gaming-Clearing-your-first-savage-raid.jpg5761024Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-20 20:47:162022-11-20 20:47:16Great moments in PC gaming: Clearing your first savage raid in Final Fantasy 14
Hearthstone’s new expansion, March of the Lich King, is introducing a whole new class with the long-awaited appearance of the Death Knight. But as always it’s giving the existing classes some new tools, including a set of cards that synergize around Shaman having big big beefy minions to dominate the battlefield into the late game. GameSpot can reveal not one or two but four of those cards, which all look to work together nicely.
In the current meta, the Shaman typically focuses on smaller minions like Murlocs, or a midrange deck. The class is no stranger to big minions, but it has typically used Evolve tools to randomly borrow big minions from other classes. This new package gives Shaman some more high-cost tools to call its own, starting with Prescience. This four-cost spell is built to fetch your big minions while giving you the benefit of smaller Taunt minions to buy you time until you can roll out the power hitters.
Prescience (4) – Draw 2 minions. For each that costs (5) or more, summon a 2/3 Spirit with Taunt.
And what might such a spell grab? Two new big minions make their debut in this set. Blightblood Berserker is a big Taunt minion that also comes with Reborn and Lifesteal, and both times that it dies it does damage to an enemy minion, healing you in the process. That’s a big effect by itself, and it also comes with the new Undead synergy. Then there’s the new Shaman legendary, Overlord Drakuru, a big minion with Rush and Windfury that has the effect of summoning any minions it attacks and kills. Youch.
Blightblood Berserker (8) – Taunt, Lifesteal, Reborn, Deathrattle: Deal 3 damage to a random enemy.Overlord Drakuru – Rush, Windfury. After this attacks and kills a minion, resurrect it on your side.
That’s a lot of power packed into two cards. But if you want a serious one-two punch at a major combined discount, you can use the new spell From De Other Side. This 10-cost Shadow spell summons copies of every minion in your hand, has them each attack a minion, and then die. In the case of Blightblood Berserker, this means you get the Lifesteal benefit of both its attack and Deathrattle instantly, and you’re still left with it standing as a Reborn minion with Taunt. For Overlord Drakuru, this effect negates his Windfury, but still leaves you with a copy of whatever he killed. And since the spell summons copies of minions in your hand, rather than pulling them out of your hand entirely, you still have the original minions to play from hand whenever you want.
From De Other Side (10) – Summon a copy of each minion in your hand. They attack random enemy minions, then die.
Hearthstone’s March of the Lich King expansion launches on December 6. It will launch alongside a new Core set of 68 Death Knight cards, which use a new Rune system, along with the introduction of the new Undead minion type. Preorders are now available for Lich King bundles, and while you wait for the expansion, you can check out all of the March of the Lich King cards revealed so far.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
Hey, did you know that Bloodborne is still a PlayStation exclusive? Of course you do–the internet will never let you forget. Recently, Sony deleted a Bloodborne-related tweet after a legion of fans dogpiled it in the vain hope that an announcement was in the works. Indeed, it doesn’t take much for the 2015 game to trend on popular social media sites like Twitter. Even a pointed tweet from a noted figure in the Souls community like Lance McDonald can stir up the hornet’s nest.
But while the constant swirl of fan fervor can be annoying at times, it’s ultimately based on a fundamentally sound fact: Bloodborne is one of the few modern classics that’s limited by aging hardware. Regardless of where you stand on the console/PC divide, the fact that the version of Bloodborne that you can play on your shiny new PS5 is still locked to 1080p/30fps borders on publisher malpractice. But I would much rather play it at 144fps on my shiny gaming PC, and I’m far from the only fan who feels that way.
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Fellow high-profile PS exclusives like Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and even the humble Days Gone have received patches that improve their performance on PS5, supporting 4K and higher frame rates. And it’s clear that Sony is committed to porting its exclusives to PC, as God of War and Days Gone are both on Steam. Despite this, Bloodborne remains stuck in the past.
These games were all made by Sony’s own first-party studios, of course, but Elden Ring showed that developer From Software is more than able to deliver great performance on these new machines. As such, it’s clear that FromSoft has the technical expertise to make Bloodborne run well on a PS5, or a PC for that matter. Indeed, McDonald himself developed an unofficial 60fps patch for Bloodborne that is only playable on modded PS4 consoles. So what’s the holdup?
Bloodborne has some of the best video game art of the 2010’s, but the frame rate leaves a lot to be desired.
From a pure business perspective, you might make the argument that holding back or pausing certain IP is beneficial to a company as big as Sony. Building anticipation for new titles is a strategy that’s worked well in the past for some. That’s exactly what happened with From Software’s cult progenitor Demon’s Souls, which was stuck on the ancient PS3 until Bluepoint’s remake brought it to a whole new generation of gamers on the PS5. While that’s a decent point, even Sony’s big franchises that haven’t seen a new entry in a few years (like Uncharted) have received collections, ports, and remasters.
In the seven years since Bloodborne’s release, From Software’s legacy as an all-time great developer has only grown, with the immaculate Sekiro and the massively-ambitious Elden Ring pushing boundaries of their achievements even further. That said, many Souls fans insist the Bloodborne is still their finest achievement–including me. Surely Sony is leaving money on the table by ignoring Bloodborne to this extent?.
In a world where already good-looking games like The Last of Us Part 1 can receive full-blown remakes–after already being remastered once, mind you–it seems unthinkable that a game with Bloodborne’s popularity and reputation would lie fallow for so long. Yet that’s exactly the situation we’re in.
Fans have a variety of theories that explain this radio silence, and they run the gamut from plausible to ludicrous. For years, rumors have circulated that Bluepoint is secretly working on a Demon’s Souls 2020-style Bloodborne remake, or perhaps even a sequel. Given that Sony owns the rights to Bloodborne, and Bluepoint just delivered a well-received FromSoft remake, this seems well within the realm of possibility. But some fans go so far as to claim that Sony has specifically halted production on a 4K patch in order to drum up hype for such a hypothetical remake. Needless to say, this seems pretty far-fetched as a business strategy.
Even the lowly Cleric Beast would look a lot better in 4K.
Recent reports from reliable insiders like Jeff Grubb indicate that Bluepoint is working on an original project rather than another remake. Grubb also stated that Bloodborne’s messy code would make it difficult for any developer other than From Software to actually craft a remaster, and that From itself is too busy with Elden Ring to tackle such a project.
The PS3 was a notoriously difficult console to work with, yet Bluepoint managed to capture many of the original Demon’s Souls’ eccentricities in its remake with minimal input from FromSoft. It’s hard to know for sure, but I think it’s within the studio’s abilities–it’s just whether or not management wants to commit to it.
For my own part, I think Miyazaki’s well-established love for Bloodborne has likely contributed to the current situation. Considering that it’s Miyazaki’s favorite project, it makes sense that the director would want to craft a remaster or remake for himself. However, given that DLC for Elden Ring is no doubt in the works, it’s likely that the developer is prioritizing it over any hypothetical Bloodborne-related project.
Regardless of the peculiarities of the situation, the bottom line is that Sony could issue a patch to fix Bloodborne’s performance on PS5 to modern standards. We’ve seen the fan-patch in action–we know it’s possible.
Even if you aren’t a fan of the game, there’s no denying that Bloodborne is an important exclusive for Sony, as well as one of the most critically-acclaimed games of the past 10 years. And so, though the fans might annoy you with their memes and overreactions to every breadcrumb of news, it’s important to remember that they really do have a point here. Bring Bloodborne to PC, cowards. The Old Blood demands it.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
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All the Wordle help you could possibly need is on this very page. Newcomers to the internet’s favourite word game will find tips and links to our guides just below, those after a quick daily clue have one waiting for them, and anyone looking for the answer to the November 20 (519) puzzle are just a short scroll away from victory.
Today’s Wordle was a frustrating one for me, a sprinkle of yellow letters that just wouldn’t come together at all. I knew when I got to my final guess I had no hope of hitting the answer, and tried to console myself with the thought that at least I was just a button push away from the solution either way.
Wordle hint
A Wordle hint for Sunday, November 20
The word you’re looking for today is often used to describe someone who shows courage or a lack of fear. It can also describe someone enduring harsh conditions, even if only for a short period of time. You could be said to _____ the elements on a cold and rainy day, for example.
Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day
If there’s one thing better than playing Wordle, it’s playing Wordle well, which is why I’m going to share a few quick tips to help set you on the path to success:
A good opener contains a balanced mix of unique vowels and consonants.
A tactical second guess helps to narrow down the pool of letters quickly.
The solution may contain repeat letters.
There’s no time pressure beyond making sure it’s done by midnight. So there’s no reason to not treat the game like a casual newspaper crossword and come back to it later if you’re coming up blank.
Today’s Wordle answer
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)
What is the Wordle 519 answer?
Guess what? Sunday’s are for winning too. The answer to the November 20 (519) Wordle is BRAVE.
Previous answers
Wordle archive: Which words have been used
The more past Wordle answers you can cram into your memory banks, the better your chances of guessing today’s Wordle answer without accidentally picking a solution that’s already been used. Past Wordle answers can also give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle solving fresh.
Here are some recent Wordle solutions:
November 19: AVERT
November 18: GLYPH
November 17: THERE
November 16: BAKER
November 15: SNARL
November 14: MAPLE
November 13: INANE
November 12: VALET
November 11: MEDAL
November 10: UNITE
Learn more about Wordle
Every day Wordle presents you with six rows of five boxes, and it’s up to you to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them.
You’ll want to start with a strong word (opens in new tab) like ALERT—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters. Hit Enter and the boxes will show you which letters you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns ⬛️, it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. 🟨 means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 🟩 means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.
You’ll want your second go to compliment the first, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer.
After that it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there’s an E). Don’t forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).
If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips (opens in new tab), and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used you’ll find those below.
Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle (opens in new tab), as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle (opens in new tab), refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures (opens in new tab). Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1668932082_Todays-Wordle-answer-and-hint-for-Sunday-November-20.jpg6071200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-20 08:05:462022-11-20 08:05:46Today’s Wordle answer and hint for Sunday, November 20
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is currently in beta, accessible to anyone who preordered it. That means everything about it is subject to change. Quite a lot of change, if the roadmap to launch is anything to go by. Still, plenty of people are playing it already and we’re among them. Here are some of the potentially heretical things we’ve learned already that’ll help you survive in Tertium Hive, at least for a little longer than you would otherwise.
You can buy items you can’t use
Jody Macgregor, Weekend/AU Editor: If there’s something for sale in the armory exchange but it’s grayed-out, that means it’s beyond your current trust level and can’t be wielded. That doesn’t mean you can’t buy it. If you see some real sweet kit and don’t want to risk it being cycled out of the shop (which refreshes every hour) before you can earn enough tokens to afford it, bag that thing now.
And if you’re running low on tokens, you can always earn some by salvaging old stuff you don’t want any more. Select something in your inventory then hold down x on your keyboard to recycle it for several hundred grimdollars.
If you’re not feeling the Psyker you’re not alone
Fraser Brown, Online Editor: After seeing how much fun Sean was having with the Psyker in the previous beta, I absolutely had to take this brain-popping killer for a spin. Conceptually, the Psykinetic class is brilliant. You’re a psychic sniper that’s always on the cusp of losing your shit and exploding, because each time you use your power you generate Peril—a deadly resource that you’ll want to keep low, low down.
Unfortunately, the Psyker was deemed far too powerful last time, and Fatshark overcompensated, nerfing the hell out of it so that popping a brain generates more Peril, and your ultimate only discharges half of it. A recent hotfix (opens in new tab) rebalanced the Psyker a little, and the class can shine in certain situations, but it definitely feels in need of another pass.
Don’t forget every weapon has a special action
Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: This is an easy point to forget from Darktide’s quick training mode—every weapon has an alternate ability, which is by default bound to one of your extra mouse buttons. With my Ogryn’s starting gear I can do a bash attack with the barrel of my shotgun or a big open-palm slap on a whole line of enemies with my melee weapon equipped. For some weapons, this alternate ability is especially useful, like revving up the blade of a chainsword for more damage. Gotta rev your chainsword, man.
Jody Macgregor, Weekend/AU Editor: Some of the Ogryn’s hand-to-hand weapons do an uppercut on mouse-five that staggers enemies, making it easy to get in a heavy attack and knock them down. It’s great for taking melee elites out.
Meanwhile, the Veteran Sharpshooter’s rifles have a lamp that turns on when you press the special action key. It’s a running joke in 40K that lasguns are basically flashlights, but in the darker levels that light is pretty handy.
Rise and (meat) grind for weapon practice
(Image credit: Fatshark)
Jody Macgregor, Weekend/AU Editor: After the psychic tutorial ends there’s a menu called “Meat Grinder” you can’t access until you hit trust level 2. Return to Sefoni in the Psykhanium when you do, because the Meat Grinder is where you can safely test the new weapons you’ll unlock against enemies who don’t fight back. Learn each new axe and sword’s combo chains, practice your grenade throw, and get used to the kick from big guns. You can even see the DPS (damage per second) number pop up after each hit.
While you’re at it, practice shooting at armored enemies to see which bits are the most protected. Scab Maulers, the guys with chain axes who wear welding-mask helmets, don’t take much damage when you aim for the head. Unless you’re a Psyker of course, in which case no amount of metal’s going to stop you from popping their brains. (We haven’t encountered any enemies hiding tattoos of hexagrammatic wards under there, yet.)
Stay close… like, really close
(Image credit: Fatshark)
Sean Martin, Guides Writer: In Vermintide 2 it was always important to stick together—you never knew when a sneaky assassin might jump on your back and need to be blasted away by your team-mates. Darktide has even more special enemies that can grab and pin you, from charging mutants to the net-firing trappers that will wipe your whole squad if left to their business. You need to watch each others’ backs. But sticking together plays an even more important role in Darktide—replenishing toughness, which is effectively your shield against damage. Even though melee kills can replenish this shield, Darktide is significantly harder if you head off on your own, so stick close to your squad and keep your toughness topped up.
Jody Macgregor, Weekend/AU Editor: Staying in Coherency keeps your aura feats working too. The Veteran Sharpshooter’s feat scavenger hunt gives hands out free ammo for every elite killed to anyone in Coherency range, for instance, and other classes have similar passive auras. On the subject of passives, take it away, Wes…
Learn your passives
(Image credit: Fatshark)
Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: Every character class in Darktide comes with a number of passive abilities that should guide how you play your character and your role on the team. For example, the Ogryn has an innate 25% buff to melee stagger damage, making him an ideal up-close-and-personal bruiser. But more important is his passive skill Loyal Protector, which allows you to take damage while reviving allies without being interrupted. Being the one to revive an ally in an intense firefight could make the difference between a loss and survival.
The Veteran deals increased damage to weak spots, making them clutch against big boss enemies. The Preacher can survive a deathblow and gain temporary invincibility once every 90 seconds. Whichever class you play, remember how these passive skills can benefit you and the team.
Wounds are different to health
(Image credit: Fatshark)
Jody Macgregor, Weekend/AU Editor: Your health is represented by a row of white bars, and you get less bars on harder difficulty missions. (Toughness, the protection that refills when you score melee kills or maintain coherency with allies, is the blue bar above that.) Those bars are called “wounds”, and each time you come back after being revived by an ally, one of those wounds turns purple and is lost. Corruption, which you can get by carrying grimoires or being hit by certain attacks like a Pox Hound’s pounce or a Pox Burster’s detonation, also chips away at them, turning your health purple by degrees.
When all your wounds turn purple, or if you aren’t revived in time when you fall, you’ll be captured. The other players can still bring you back, but they’ll have to fight a couple of guards and untie you after finding where you’re being held. Healing at a medicae station gets rid of corruption, so be nice to your local surgery servitor.
Don’t go chasing penances
(Image credit: Fatshark)
Jody Macgregor, Weekend/AU Editor: I get it, you want to change out of your prison pants. Chasing cosmetics and achievements by trying to earn every single penance is a bad idea, however. Some of them are distractions from achieving the objective and best tackled with friends (or bots when the singleplayer mode arrives) rather than a poor group of randos. Others are a waste of time chasing until you hit level 30 and unlock endgame feats.
Take the Veteran Sharpshooter’s penance that demands you kill five tagged enemies by shooting their weak spots in a single volley fire. (Please, take the etcetera.) One of the Veteran’s level-30 options is called counterfire and it lets you tag basic rifle-toting Scab Shooters, plus it extends the duration of the volley fire ability whenever you kill one. We all want the Killshot’s Duty trousers now, but unless you fluke it you’re better off waiting until level 30 rather than wasting time and effort now.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1668924791_Tips-for-the-tip-throne-Things-you-should-know-about.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-20 05:22:442022-11-20 05:22:44Tips for the tip throne: Things you should know about Warhammer 40K: Darktide
The real-time strategy genre has always been near and dear to my heart. Red Alert 2 battles at LANs, playing Herzog Zwei head-to-head on my buddy’s Sega, taking time off from painting my 40k figs to play Dawn of War—it’s always been a big part of my gaming diet. It hasn’t always been easy to be a fan, however. By the time Starcraft 2 rolled out in 2010, enthusiasm for RTS games had hit an all-time low. While strategy games in general are experiencing a beautiful renaissance, it’s been a long time since the real-timers had a reason to celebrate.
There may be cause for optimism, because it looks like the RTS is back from the brink of death. With established studios and newcomers alike taking a crack at it, we might just be in for some exciting times. In the meantime, however, I have a list of some obscure classics from the vault of my lizard brain to tide you over. From time-traveling tanks to magical ninjas, here are five real-time strategy games the world forgot.
(Image credit: Bohemia Interactive)
Developed by a tiny Czech studio and released in 2001, Original War follows the story of US and Russian troops sent back through time to secure an extra-terrestrial mineral called Siberite. While it features the usual base building and resource gathering you’d expect from an RTS, it also focuses on the personnel you brought with you—after all, it’s not like you can train up some new recruits from Fort Bragg two million years in the past. Your humans gain levels as soldiers, mechanics, scientists, or engineers and get better at various tasks as they progress. If you lose them in combat, however, they’re gone forever. You can train the regrettably named prehistoric apemen to perform their tasks, but they’re never quite as good.
Original War has some innovative systems. Supply crates get warped in from the future and push the pace of missions as you race to secure them before the other faction. Vehicles can use different power sources from oil to solar to strange crystals, each with benefits and drawbacks (there’s even a system for getting out and pushing your jeep if it runs out of gas). These features, combined with a fascinating concept and the fun of developing your team of doomed time travelers, makes this well worth a playthrough even decades later.
(Image credit: Rebellion)
Have you ever been playing an RTS and found yourself screaming at whatever knucklehead was driving that tank because his pathing took him the wrong way and got him (and his whole squadron) killed? Or have you watched helplessly as your siege tanks got shredded by zerglings cause they took a wrong turn?
In Battlezone 2: Combat Commander this becomes much less of an issue. You play from the cockpit of a space tank, and while it still has base building and resource harvesting, a lot of the focus is on hands-on vehicle combat.
There aren’t a ton of games that blend real-time strategy with shooter or action elements, but boy are they satisfying when they work. The same frantic thrill I got playing Herzog Zwei all those years ago, scrambling into jet form to defend a base while trying to macro my production at the same time, I felt here. Building your base up so you can start producing Sasquatch walkers while trying to keep an eye on your suicidally oblivious scavengers keeps your brain going a million miles an hour in the best possible way. Check out the remaster on Steam (opens in new tab), confusingly just called Battlezone: Combat Commander.
(Image credit: Crave)
Battle Realms gives me everything I’ve ever wanted all in one package: ninjas and werewolves vying for dominance, evil dragon necromancers, beautifully ripped low-poly FF7 lookin’ dudes with giant hammers.
This 2001 RTS explores a battle between ninja clans in a system that feels familiar while still managing to delve into unexplored territory. Resource gathering is limited to rice, water, and horses, all of which are grabbed by automatically generated peasants. These form the backbone of your fighting force, too—put a peasant in the dojo and you get a spearman, put a spearman in the archery range you get a samurai, and so on. This means you have to carefully balance upgrading peasants to make an army with keeping your logistics going, because there’s no other way to create units.
Armies gather Yin or Yang energy while battling depending on their actions, and hero units can be summoned by expending it. With four factions, charming sprites, and a lot of time spent teaching your lowly worker units slash-you-in-the-face-no-jutsu, this game is an underappreciated gem. There’s a remaster on Steam (opens in new tab) too, in early access at the moment.
(Image credit: Activision)
When Command & Conquer first released, the RTS genre exploded like a tac nuke. In its radioactive fallout we got tons of clones, arguably the best of which was Dark Reign. With two asymmetrical factions, cool things happening with line of sight and terrain, and a soundtrack from the best guy in the business (Jeehun Hwang, who also did MechWarrior 2), it stands head and shoulders above its contemporaries.
Dark Reign and its excellent expansion, Rise of the Shadowhand, are available on GOG (opens in new tab). Even if you’re a multiplayer purist, take some time and play through the campaign—you take command of a force trying to earn the trust of a surviving band of humans as they determine who is the best choice to go back in time and save themselves from ruin.
(Image credit: Microsoft Game Studios)
Speaking of obscure games, if you’re like me and loved the SNES classic EVO: Search for Eden, this one’s for you. Impossible Creatures, Relic’s second game after Homeworld, is an RTS about smooshing animals together and making giant armies of them. Tigers with crab claws? Flying lobsters? Kanga-mooses? Yes, please.
The campaign puts you in the capable hands of Rex Chance, a disgraced war reporter whose father just happened to create a revolutionary technology that allowed for splicing two animals into a single organism. With this Sigma Technology, you create chimeric creatures and battle against the evil tycoon Upton Julius to avenge your father and ensure this dangerous technology doesn’t get into the wrong hands.
With a Steam release (opens in new tab) in 2015, it may be possible to find a multiplayer match here and there. The campaign itself is the main draw, though. It’s a fun romp through different environments as you unlock new creatures to experiment with. Fun fact—the engine they built Dawn of War on was developed for this game. Without anteater zebras and wolverine fish we may never have had one of the greatest RTS series of all time.
If you’re a fan of the RTS genre, check these games out. All of them are worth your time and will keep you up to your eyeballs in battles and base-building until what’s hopefully the next great real-time renaissance.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Obscure-RTSes-the-world-forgot-about.jpeg7681024Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-20 01:18:272022-11-20 01:18:27Obscure RTSes the world forgot about
The action-fueled bros of Broforce are coming back for one last ride, with one of 2014’s best indies posting an announcement that a new update, Broforce Forever, will hit in early 2023. All we truly know so far is that it will contain “New Bros, New Missions, New Freedoms.”
In a teaser trailer posted to YouTube (opens in new tab) by publisher Devolver Digital, an array of Broforce’s top Bros appear to be fighting the devil, Satan himself, and though many are defeated some pull through: And counterattack to defeat him by flexing their rippling muscles.
Not really that much of a surprise if you’re familiar with Broforce, frankly.
Broforce released in 2014 to Steam Early Access before explosively reaching full release (opens in new tab) in 2015. It’s an action-comedy game about a team of extremely hardcore action movie parody operatives that the evil enemies of Freedom in singleplayer, bro-operative, and pvp gameplay. It’s an extremely wild run and gun sidescrolling shooter where teamkilling is extremely common, but also hilarious. It also received a lot of updates post-release, all of them free, and apparently developers Free Lives were not done yet.
Plus, you can be “Bronan the Brobarian” which is a joke that has stuck with me for quite a long time at this point. It’s otherwise rife with madness, as every piece of terrain can be destroyed and every barrel is red, which I think you understand what I mean by that but if you don’t understand it’s that the barrels blow up big time.
If you love 80s and 90s action movies, frankly, you owe it to yourself to play Broforce. It’s the video game equivalent of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers clasping hands. You can find Broforce on GOG (opens in new tab), Steam (opens in new tab), and probably a bunch of other places that didn’t show up when I searched for where to buy it.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1668906419_Broforce-is-coming-back-for-one-last-job-will-probably.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-20 00:31:352022-11-20 00:31:35Broforce is coming back for one last job, will probably punch Satan
After nearly two years in post-release development, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla (opens in new tab) will launch its last update on December 6th, 2022. The final update will include The Last Chapter (opens in new tab), which Ubisoft describes as “a touching and intimate conclusion to Eivor’s saga.”
“This epilogue will tie up some of the storylines developed throughout the game and offer closure to your time among the Raven Clan,” says the announcement. (opens in new tab)
The update will also include the ability for players to keep Eivor’s hood up at all times—even when not wearing a cloak. It’s a purely cosmetic option for those players who’d rather keep their mysterious assassin vibe going at all times and/or keep their hair dry in the rain.
Ubisoft also offered a pretty thorough, for a large publisher, explanation of why players’ commonly requested addition of a New Game+ feature won’t be coming to Valhalla. In investigating the implementation of that feature, the team concluded that the game had limited options to make replayability unique and rewarding.
“We understand this news will come as a disappointment; however, we hope that the new content released in the past months, including never-before-seen experiences like Forgotten Saga, has provided an exciting and challenging experience for those seeking more replayable content,” said the development team.
Valhalla was the third big release since Ubisoft took the main-line Assassin’s Creed games off of the yearly release schedule it kept from 2009 to 2015. That means that, since AC: Origins in 2017, AC games have been releasing for nearly as long in the new format as the old. For many, the wide diversity of content that released during Valhalla’s tenure shows the strength of the new format. For others, there’s hope that the next game in the series will be a return to form. (opens in new tab)
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1668902740_AC-Valhalla-comes-to-a-close-with-its-final-December.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-19 23:20:392022-11-19 23:20:39AC Valhalla comes to a close with its final, December update
“I love the idea of PCs as distinct from consoles in the sense that they’re like the Millennium Falcon,” says Evan Lahti, PC Gamer’s editor-in-chief. “Occasionally we have to kick them to keep them running.” Relying on a different sci-fi series for his analogy, Charlie Brooker (opens in new tab) once said “PCs are the ramshackle computers of the people”, explaining that “Sometimes you have to slap it to make it work properly, just like the Tardis”.
Especially if you built it yourself, your PC probably has the equivalent of a wonky hyperdrive motivator. It doesn’t work exactly the way it’s supposed to, but you’ve learned to live with it. Like aging cars, or indeed people, the less reliable they become the more personality they have.
What’s a weird quirk your PC has? Here are our answers, plus some from our forum.
Chris Livingston, Features Producer: Speaking of the Millennium Falcon, you know that scene in whichever Star Wars movie it was, where the Falcon is all shot up and C-3PO is writhing around all tangled in wires and cables (opens in new tab)? That’s my PC’s quirk. It’s a prebuilt, and I had to open it to add a new SSD at one point, and so I pulled all the neatly placed cables and wires out of the way and once I’d done that I couldn’t get them back in to close the side of the case again. I don’t know how they were arranged before I opened it, but once the seal was broken there was just no way to close that side panel again without something getting wedged or stuck or smooshed or touching a fan. There’s just not enough room. So to be honest I just left that side panel off and there’s some exposed cables sorta sticking out. Quirky!
Joshua Wolens, News Writer: My PC is still equipped with a cantankerous 1080 Ti with an all-in-one watercooler. Every so often, in what I can only assume is an act of rebellion or a fit of ennui, that cooler will develop an air bubble in one of its arteries that stops water from flowing and sends the GPU temperature skyrocketing up to a hundred degrees celsius. The only solution when that happens is to spin the entire PC upside down—just straight-up turn the tower on its head—and keep on trucking. The process somehow shakes the air bubble free and lets the card breathe, at least until I turn the PC back the right way up and, a few months later, run into the problem once all over again. Just one of life’s little rituals.
Jody Macgregor, Weekend/AU Editor: I thought my PC was messed-up because the coil whine is loud, and sometimes it shorts out if you plug in a USB-C cable that’s already hooked up to a device on the other end. Meanwhile, Joshua’s over here with a computer that needs to be flipped upside-down like a newborn baby to keep it from boiling. How do you even figure a solution like that out? (We asked, his dad suggested it. Dads just know things.) Honestly, what’s next?
Fraser Brown, Online Editor: My PC whispers.
I thought my speakers were hissing at first, but upon closer investigation it became clear that it was coming from inside my PC. And a hiss is more consistent than this. It’s more like quiet murmuring. I’ve opened it up and had it running to identify the source, but all my efforts have failed so far. It’s definitely not one of the fans. At this point, I’ve just resigned myself to the fact that it’s either cursed or haunted.
(Image credit: PonyWang)
Tim Clark, Brand Director: My girlfriend and I both have our PCs in the same office room. Any time she gets up from her chair, my dual monitors flicker to black three or four times before settling. Fine if you’re just toiling away in a spreadsheet, potentially ruinous if you’re in a DPS phase of a flawless Destiny raid run. You might assume the obvious answer is that there’s a loose display port connection, but I’ve triple checked and the cables are snug like sleeping princes. Here’s the real kicker: When I get up out of my chair, nothing happens. Logical conclusion: Girlfriend’s haunted.
Robin Valentine, Print Editor: I’ve probably told this story before, but as a teenager my friends once edited some of the core system sounds on the PC I had at the time to add about 30 seconds of silence, and then the creepy croaking sound from The Grudge. It was infrequent enough, and just long enough of a gap between doing something and hearing the noise, that it was impossible for me to figure out what was causing it. For months I was just baffled.
Coincidentally during this period I torrented a bunch of episodes of a pretty light-hearted anime, but somehow the files got corrupted in a way that I still can’t explain. When I first opened them they played fine, but when I then went back to watch them, they were replaced by live-action scenes of gore and torture that I didn’t recognise from any horror movie I had on the drive. The upshot is that I was pretty close to declaring my PC to be possessed for a number of weeks. Eventually my friends admitted to the noise prank, and I discovered the origin of the disturbing scenes—a movie I’d downloaded and forgotten about called The Devil’s Chair (incidentally a dreadful watch), though I still can’t explain how the files got intermingled.
On the plus side, I’ve been shot of that ‘quirky’ PC for a number of years now. On the downside, my current work laptop sometimes writes letters out backwards as I type them in Gmail, another bug that has left the PCG hardware department and trained IT professionals scratching their heads. It’s possible I’m the one who’s possessed.
(Image credit: Pixabay)
Ted Litchfield, Associate Editor: For a few months my keyboard would turn off for a few seconds whenever I shifted it on the desk, which was a huge pain in the butt since I like to do a lot of my outlines and drafts in a notebook. I was terrified that this was the soldering repair I’d done on it getting wonky somehow, but the real culprit was more devious. I’d gotten a neat-looking coiled “aviator” cable on Amazon to complete the “mechanical keyboard nerd” look without ponying up for a more expensive option. Big mistake, because the $30 option I went with cut a few corners and wasn’t delivering enough power to my keyboard. I swapped back in the plain, matte grey rubber USB-C cable that came with the board and the problem disappeared overnight. I swear it’s the wild west out there for USB-C cords, I’ve never bought one off Amazon or at Walgreens and had it work right.
Imogen Mellor, Features Producer: My PC now is still the one I built back in 2019 just before I entered the games industry full time. This thing is a workhorse, I’ve only ever had to change one thing about it, the RAM, but it posed an interesting problem.
The build I followed was one recommended online, and my original chips were pretty small. Additionally my CPU fan is a massive be quiet! number that does the job but is almost the size of my head. Both fit perfectly fine together but when I needed an upgrade I bought some fancy RGB RAM, popped it in my machine and, oh, the fan’s front doesn’t quite fit. Oops.
Did I return the RAM? No. Did I replace the fan? Also no. They’re just shoved in there. The be quiet!’s front fan is balancing on one of my cards and though I always say I’ll fix it one day, it works fine so I refuse to touch what’s technically not broken.
(Image credit: Stardock)
Brian Boru: Only minor quirks with mine—I use it for work as well as play, so I iron out anything major asap. Sometimes Fences (opens in new tab) messes up on boot—icons all over the screen like a normal person’s *shudder*. Only happens maybe once a month, and restoring previous ‘snapshot’ sorts it out in 20 seconds, so… yeah, I live with it.
Reminders pop up on screen in the middle of gameplay, aargh! Can’t complain tho, their job after all is to pull me out of the game to do something useful—altho I still think useless is seriously underrated.
DXCHASE: My first build included a PSU that wouldnt hold its switch in the ‘off’ position. As soon as I let it go when I switched to the off position it went back. Never had any issues with my PSU but that switch not staying.
(Image credit: Fatshark)
Pifanjr: The front two USB ports don’t work. I don’t remember why, either there’s no way to connect them to the mother board or it won’t work even when connected. It’s quite inconvenient, especially one of the back USB ports is broken too, so I can’t plug in all of my devices at the same time, and the back doesn’t have the little cover around the USB ports so switching stuff around always makes me worried I’m going to break something else.
My friend recently had a far more interesting problem where his SSD would stop being recognized by Windows after playing Vermintide 2 for a bit since the last patch. It doesn’t do this with any other games as far as I’m aware and the SSD always comes back after a bit.
McStabStab: Every once in a while when I boot up my PC it doesn’t go past the mobo screen. I just hit the button again for a quick power down and then a third time for another boot up and everything’s gravy from there. It doesn’t happen often enough that I’ve tried troubleshooting it, but if anyone here thinks it may be a more serious problem let me know!
Zloth: My monitor does a weird thing once every month or two: a vertical column of pixels won’t display where it should. Instead, it shows up on the far right side of the screen! Depending on what wallpaper I’ve got (if any), it may not be easy to see until I start reading text. I can fix it just by turning the monitor off and back on again.
(Image credit: Future)
PointnClicker01: My computer does not have any noticeable quirks yet (it’s still quite new so maybe soon) but I do have some funny quirks with my internet browser sometimes. I’m using Opera and many many tabs at once and I’ve realized that my browser decides depending on his mood whether to show me the layout of a page correctly or in freestyle.
People around me keep telling me to use Firefox instead… But honestly? I like these quirks. After all, when I’m feeling stressed, I am also tending to squirl some of the phrases I’m saying. Also, the strange layout even made me curious to ask how the communication between a browser and a website does work. And being curious is one of the most important things to me.
When it comes to work though, I have started to use another browser for some parts to get my work done correctly. However, I know I will never feel as comfortable as with my own browser.
Frindis: I got this woman on my screen in a Santa outfit that appears when I least want it. I mean, I don’t really want her to appear at all, but when I try to uninstall her, she says “you are on my naughty list” and then she turns off my computer. Last night I was playing Warzone 2.0 and just as I was about to get my chicken dinner she slowly walks over the screen while blowing me a kiss. I did not get my chicken dinner! I am never installing freeware from ebaumsworld ever again!
Biggly: The RGB on my CPU liquid cooler* periodically switches off—only when I’m mid-game or in a browser, though. Also, my browser sometimes shows ads for Femfresh after the missus has been on my computer.
*No doubt a pointless extra expense but I was feeling flush at the time. Please don’t judge me.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1668913820_Whats-a-weird-quirk-your-PC-has.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-19 22:45:502022-11-19 22:45:50What’s a weird quirk your PC has?
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