It’s the second week of November. The leaves are turning, the days are getting shorter, the stress of the approaching holidays has begun gnawing at your nerves. This is all very familiar, but doesn’t it feel like something is missing this year? What could it be?
Oh right, it’s Starfield, Bethesda’s space RPG. Originally supposed to be released this Friday, 11/11/22, Starfield’s release was sadly postponed into 2023. On the plus side, even if we can’t play it this week, we can still talk about it.
Via GameSpot (opens in new tab): Here’s Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, who was recently interviewed by the Friends Per Second podcast (opens in new tab) presented on Skillup’s YouTube channel (opens in new tab). Booty answered questions about Halo, Game Pass, what it’s like managing the game studios Microsoft owns, and finally, fielded a few questions about Bethesda’s delayed space RPG.
After noting the reception to the Starfield trailers has been largely positive, SkillUp’s Ralph Panebianco observes that others have dismissed it as simply “Skyrim in space.”
“Do you think it’s Skyrim in space?” Panebianco asks. “If it’s not Skyrim in space, what do you think really sets it apart? Where are you seeing that really evolves that Bethesda Game Studios model?”
“Having had the chance over the last year and a half or so to spend more time with Todd Howard and see how he works and see what he brings to game design, I’m confident he’s not going to sit still on what was built before. It’s just not his approach to come in and reskin something, right?” says Booty.
“The things that excite me first are the visual style. For lack of something better I’d call this NASA-punk,” Booty says, a look inspired by the retro concept art of sci-fi in the ’70s and ’80s. He goes on to list some of Starfield’s systems like ship-building, space combat, and planetary exploration. “I think there’s gonna be an awful lot of new stuff Bethesda fans and Todd Howard fans have not seen brought to the game,” Booty says.
(Image credit: Bethesda)
At the end of the interview Panebianco does his due diligence, casually asking for Starfield’s release date. I mean, you never know, someone might slip up and let it fly one of these days. “3/3/23? Todd loves that shit,” Panebianco says.
Alas, Booty just laughs. “3/3/23, no,” he says. “No 4/4/24.” So, at least we can rule out two dates for sure.
You can check out the interview with Matt Booty below, starting around 1:25:17.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Starfield-isnt-just-a-Skyrim-reskin-says-head-of-Xbox.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 20:46:552022-11-07 20:46:55Starfield isn’t just a Skyrim ‘reskin’ says head of Xbox Game Studios
Gears of War, the third-person shooter about bizarrely proportioned men and women wielding Volkswagen-sized machine guns with chainsaws attached to them in a never-ending war against a horde of mutant super-soldiers gone bad, is headed to Netflix.
The streaming service revealed on Twitter today that it has partnered with Gears of War developer The Coalition to develop “a live action feature film” as well as an “adult animated series” based on the games. And that may not be all: Netflix said there’s “the potential for more stories to follow,” presumably if these first two efforts are successful.
Gears of War was released 16 years ago today and to mark the occasion, Netflix has partnered with The Coalition to adapt the @GearsofWar video game saga into a live action feature film, followed by an adult animated series — with the potential for more stories to follow! pic.twitter.com/3zInFSnUu4November 7, 2022
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Gears feels like the sort of thing that could do quite well as a big, bombastic blockbuster on Netflix, perhaps directed (or at least executive produced) by Zack Snyder: Guns, muscles, explosions, inhuman enemies that can be slaughtered by the thousands with no feeling of guilt or remorse, a clear divide between the good guys and the bad guys, and maybe some superficial handwaving toward a greater message about the folly of hubris, not playing God, or, you know, whatever.
There’s no sign of when any of this is going to show up on Netflix, but the next obvious step in the process is to begin the fan campaign to sign Dave Bautista to play Gears of War lead guy Marcus Fenix. It’s a natural fit: Aside from the obvious physical similarity, Bautista has previously expressed interest in playing the character, and he actually appeared as himself (more or less) a few years ago in Gears 5.
Oh, the requests have already started.
Dear @netflix, hire @DaveBautista for @GearsofWar. pic.twitter.com/t1FCyFsbVCNovember 7, 2022
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The man they call The Animal hasn’t yet commented on the Gears announcement, but original lead designer Cliff Blesinski had some thoughts about it:
(Image credit: Cliff Bleszinski)
We’ll let you know when we have more info about Gears on Netflix, including when we’ve got some hint of a release date.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667858622_Gears-of-War-live-action-film-and-adult-animated-series-coming.jpg6741200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 20:37:522022-11-07 20:37:52Gears of War live-action film and ‘adult animated series’ coming to Netflix
N7 Day, BioWare’s annual celebration of all things Mass Effect, used to be a pretty big deal. Its significance has waned in the post-Mass Effect 3 years, though, and the lukewarm reception to Andromeda did not do much to reverse that trend. This year’s November 7 event didn’t seem to bring much in the way of big news either—but a little audio decoding revealed a big surprise.
“Regardless of when you joined us, through four games and more expansions, I can say with certainty that we’re in this because of you, and every N7 Day is a wonderful reminder of that,” project director Mike Gamble said in his annual N7 Day message.
“As we look forward, each day is a fun and exciting challenge for the team. We love bringing this universe to life, and although there’s much more we want to share with you, that’ll have to be for another time.
“For now, there is something we want you to have a look at. We’ve intercepted some strange footage from one of the monitoring stations in known space. It could be nothing, but…”
And here it is:
Happy #N7Day from across the stars! 💫 We found this interesting footage you may want to 🔍 a bit more closely. Download in HD ⬇️https://t.co/gyydhuuT1e pic.twitter.com/h97zjH5C1GNovember 7, 2022
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Those of you with good memories (or who take the time to google these things) will note that this is nearly a direct lift from BioWare’s 25th anniversary book (opens in new tab), which was released in 2020, but rendered in greater detail than we’ve previously seen. There’s also some text attached to this one, though: “Vacuum-dock Relay Construction Record / Monitoring Station Operated by Green Dagger Ltd. Property of Deepspace Dhow SAV / Ship Captain: Sub-Navarch Soa’Rhal Zhilian-Jones.”
I played and enjoyed the Mass Effect trilogy, but I’m not enough of a committed fan that I can suss out any secrets or surprises in the image. It continues to look like an under-construction mass relay to me, which doesn’t tell us much. When the image was first seen two years ago, some fans speculated that the relay could suggest that new locations in Andromeda would be opened for exploration—only the Heleus cluster is available in Mass Effect: Andromeda—or might even be used as a way to return to the Milky Way galaxy.
Gamble actually commented on a spot of that speculation in 2020, although—of course—with no detail, or even to specify which part of it is “wrong.”
(Image credit: Mike Gamble (Twitter))
The Derek in question is presumably Derek Watts, the original Mass Effect art director, who returned to BioWare (opens in new tab) to take part in the new project.
Gamble did, however, suggest in a follow-up tweet that this is a mass relay, and that it’s going somewhere new:
Now, this is where it gets really interesting. The concept art is old, but as BioWare suggested in its tweet, there’s more to it than meets the eye—or the ear, in this particular case. Soundcloud user Mosaic Horse (opens in new tab) worked some audio magic on the video and discovered a hidden audio message:
“Exactly, the council will be furious, although they should know by now not to underestimate human defiance.”
Our in-house audio enthusiast Tyler Wilde duplicated the effort described by _baundiesel_ and confirmed that the hidden voice track is in there. It sure sounds like Liara T’Soni, one of the high-profile companions of the original trilogy, with Geth sounds in the background. BioWare—or, more specifically, Liara face model Jillian Murray—has previously stated that Liara will return for the new game (opens in new tab), but ironically voice actor Ali Hillis was unaware of any such development. Two years later, it seems that either BioWare has found an impressive soundalike, or Hillis has been looped in.
In case there was any doubt, Gamble confirmed on Twitter that the voice in the message is Liara. I think that concept art is new, too.
“Although, they should know by now not to underestimate human defiance!” – Liara T’Soni (Doctor, Shadow Broker and ). #N7Day pic.twitter.com/9Zup3YPNgaNovember 7, 2022
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So it’s a deeper tease than it first appeared, but even so it’s disappointing that we don’t have anything more substantial to see at this point, especially since we still don’t know much about the next Mass Effect game except that it’s happening, may see the return of at least some characters from the trilogy, and will apparently be made in Unreal Engine 5 (opens in new tab). In case you missed it, here’s BioWare’s N7 Day tease from 2021, which apparently has “at least five surprises (opens in new tab), all of which point to an amazing future in the Mass Effect universe.”
For a closer look at the embedded N7 Day image, here it is in full resolution, but without the animation. To see it in all its glory, click the icon in the upper-right corner:
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Mass-Effect-fan-decodes-hidden-message-from-Liara-in-N7.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 20:23:522022-11-07 20:23:52Mass Effect fan decodes hidden message from Liara in N7 Day teaser
CD Projekt Red’s original The Witcher RPG from 2007 is getting on in years, but the Witcher universe itself just keeps growing. We’re due for more Netflix shows, several more games from CDPR, and other adaptations likely too. The first game is even getting a remake, CDPR has announced. Until that remake arrives in several years, though, The Witcher: Enhanced Edition from 2008 is where you’ll find the roots of Geralt’s current popularity.
I’m not gonna lie: The Witcher shows its years. I started the series there myself, stubbornly, playing the trilogy in order, and nowadays I typically caution friends to start with the newest game and only head back to the original once they’re well invested in the world. My first adventure with amnesiac Geralt was rife with bugs, crashes, and freezing and I eventually made it to the end fueled primarily by spite. There’s a great RPG buried under this old mess, though—let me help you find it.
Here’s my guide to making your own journey back in Witcher history a bit easier than mine was.
Buy this version
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)
Most of us PC gamers default to buying games on Steam, but if you know CD Projekt Red, you’ll know they’re sister companies with digital storefront GOG. This is important: ignore your preference for Steam and just buy the dang game on GOG.
I’ve yet to have any problems several hours into a new save game with my GOG installation of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. It goes on sale there plenty too, often down from its standard $10 price to under $2.
Why won’t The Witcher launch?
I played The Witcher through Steam my first time and although it was a headache with UI freezes and crashes, I did make it to the end. As of 2022 though, I can’t even get my Steam version of the game to launch at all. Courtesy of many other players struggling with The Witcher on Steam, here are some fixes:
If your Steam version won’t launch, try these tips:
Find the launcher at “Program Files (x86)/Steam/SteamApps/common/The Witcher Enhanced Edition,” and right click it, select Properties, and choose to “Run this program as an administrator” in the Compatibility settings.
In the same settings menu, click “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and choose “Windows 7.”
Right click the game in your Steam library and select “Properties” then add “-dontForceMinReqs” to the launch options text box.
Personally, none of the above have worked for me and I still can’t get my Steam copy of The Witcher to launch. If you don’t own a copy of the game yet and want to avoid a potential headache, seriously just grab it on GOG.
Install these mods
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)
A few years back I rounded up some of the best Witcher 1 mods to sparkle up your experience, most of which are still usable. Right now though, I’m just going to recommend some visual essentials. No combat overhaul here, sorry.
The Witcher font size mods
The number one thing I’d recommend if you’re playing The Witcher in this decade is that you install a mod for the fonts. I’m playing on a 2560×1440 monitor and have a corrective eye prescription worse than your mother’s, so the small, serif font of the original Witcher game is almost literally painful.
My personal favorite is the Text Size Increase for Higher Resolutions which, yeah, does exactly that. There are a few variations available, but the “Balanced Text Size” is my preference for keeping the vibe of the original while making everything from quest logs to subtitles to hover effects easier to read.
My second favorite choice is the Witcher 3 UI Font which is also exactly as it sounds. This trades out the original Witcher’s font for the Witcher 3’s sans-serif, readable option. It does make some things in the interface feel a bit meme-ish, I’ll be honest, but it’s likely the superior choice for anyone who really needs improved legibility.
The Witcher texture mods
The second visual upgrade most folks look for is higher resolution textures, which anyone who’s modded older games will be plenty familiar with. When it comes to The Witcher, I’ve found that the marginal gains on hi-res textures just don’t improve the experience much. No matter how many pixels you cram onto a barrel, it’s still going to be sitting in a huge open room in a way that screams “2007 environment limitations.” If you’re keen to go for it anyhow though, there are a few popular standard choices.
The Witcher Texturen Mod has been around for over a decade and is still a popular choice for sharpening up textures for the environment, animals, and armor. It doesn’t handle character models though, so you’ll want to pair it with The Witcher Hi-Res Character Models. Same as the environments, I personally find the extra pixels don’t do much to obscure The Witcher’s years when all the faces are still shaped like that. Alternatively there’s the newer AI Upscale Textures mod which upscales the resolution on characters and environments both.
The Witcher tips
(Image credit: CD Projekt RED)
Aside from all the setup, there are a few things you’ll want to know about how The Witcher works. Sometimes the tutorials gloss over specific details and other times you just don’t get tripped up by a thing until you’re 10 hours in and have forgotten that tutorial from hour one.
Fundamentally though, save often. That’s stock-standard advice for any older game, but seriously. The Witcher does have auto-saves, but you should also do a manual save (or quicksave with F5) before big fights and save every hour regardless. You really don’t want to wind up outside a boss fight you can’t seem to beat and look back at your save slots to see the last time you saved in town to meditate and make potions was four hours ago.
The Witcher’s combat system is fiddly
The Witcher is known for its particularly quirky sword combat system that relies on correctly timing your sword strikes to achieve combos. The tutorials early in the game gloss over an important detail: It’s rhythm-based, not random. You’re meant to click to swing when you see your sword icon flaming, which follows a recognizable cadence. You should get the feel for this in the first couple hours.
After the tutorial, you’ll be off fighting glowing green Barghest dogs over and over with three-swing combos so you should acclimate to the swing pacing. Oh, and if you’re swinging and missing an enemy repeatedly, switch your combat style to either “strong” with Z or “fast” with X.
Remember to brew potions
When you start The Witcher for the first time, it will have you choose a difficulty and explain that the normal difficulty doesn’t require heavy potion usage while hard mode does. Be skeptical of this advice. A well-prepared witcher is a still-breathing witcher.
Even on normal you’ll find yourself in some tough fights that really benefit from health regen and other effects. Use oils on your swords that provide damage buffs against certain enemy types whenever you know what you’ll be fighting. Keep a handful of Swallow potions for health regen and Tawny Owl for endurance regen (to cast signs) on hand at all times and supplement with more specialized things like the Cat potion for night vision as needed.
Read your books
Speaking of specialty potions, don’t forget to read all those books in your inventory by right-clicking on them. It’s easy to ignore them by accident. Some will be potion recipes you’ve looted. Others are bestiary info required for specific contracts and quests. Check merchants for new books while you’re shopping too or else you may miss out on ones that unlock those prerequisite journal entries.
Day and night do matter
The Witcher does explain its day and night system, but you may forget its importance until you suddenly get to one of a few specific quests, wondering why on earth nothing is happening when you’re at the spot indicated by the quest marker. Check your quest details to be sure a time of day isn’t mentioned and get yourself to an inn or fire to meditate and pass the time faster if needed. Also, some quests can only be initiated at certain times of day (several in Chapter 2), so make sure you aren’t only exploring Vizima at night.
Don’t miss these quests
(Image credit: CD Projekt RED)
The Witcher’s quest log is pretty helpful, but there are several missable quests throughout the story that you’ll likely want to catch. A few don’t actually get added to your quest log when you’d expect, and others you’ll be locked out of by doing quests in the wrong order.
The King of the Wild Hunt
The Wild Hunt is a recurring theme in The Witcher series and you’ll find early on that Geralt seems to keep having brushes with the king of the hunt. If you want to steep in the lore and clues, you won’t want to miss these optional quests:
Dead Hand of the Past: Given by Declan Leuvaarden at the Outskirts Inn during chapter one.
Hunting the Wild Hunt: Given by the Hermit in the fields in chapter four.
Monster trophy quests
There are 10 special monastery trophy quests in The Witcher, two per chapter. The Royal Huntsman (and two other characters) will give you information on each, but they usually don’t get added to your quest log until after you’ve killed them, annoyingly. Here are all the major trophies you’ll want to check off:
Chapter 1: Nadir, a drowned dead near the old mill. Ozzrel, an alghoul in the crypt.
Chapter 2: The greater cockatrice in the Temple Quarter sewers. An archespore called Coccacidium that spawns all over the swamp.
Chapter 3: Voref the wolf at night in the swamp. Moa a royale wyvern near Wyvern Island in the swamp.
Chapter 4: Teyu, a vodyanoy priest outside Murky Waters. Ureus the cemetaur in the crypt in the fields.
Chapter 5: Vesper, a garkain on Cemetery Island. Lilly, a bruxa also on Cemetery Island at night.
Boxing and dice quests
Like in The Witcher 3, Geralt can fight a series of increasingly difficult boxing matches. Almost all take place in a tavern, one per chapter, so those are easy to find. The one you might miss (though it is optional) is a fist fight with Eskel in the prologue. Be sure to tell Triss you have more things to do after giving her a potion in Kaer Morhen and go find Eskel in the armory.
There’s no Gwent in the original Witcher game, but you can compete in dice poker instead. Make sure to take the dice box you’ll loot in the Outskirts to Zoltan and he’ll teach you the game. You’ll need to beat three novice players, four professional, and three sharpers throughout the game before challenging the reigning dice legend. Here’s who you can play against:
Novice: Zoltan, Mikul, Odo, Hasten Brogg, Elven convict, Carmen, Vaska, a Gardener.
Professional: Thaler, Munro Bruys, Roderick de Wett, Velerad, Hierophant, Tobias Hoffman, Julian, The Hermit.
Sharper: Koster, Dandelion, Chireadan, the Gambling Ghost.
Legend: met in the castle in chapter five.
Playing against three of the four Sharpers is the toughest to pull off. You can try to snag a match with Koster in chapter 3. You’ll find the rest in chapter 4. The gambling ghost specifically turns up during a main quest in chapter 4 if you’ve trusted Triss instead of Shani to care for Alvin.
Other missable side quests
Chapter 3: Complete Six Feet Under and Echoes of Yesterday before attending the Posh Reception quest, which will hurry you to the end of the chapter if done too quickly.
Beauty and the Beast (Chapter 3): A classic witcher monster quest given by Carmen at the swamp landing.
Blue Eyes (Chapter 3): An investigation quest given by Patrick de Weyze at the New Narakort Inn.
Temptation (Chapter 4): Another classic quest given by the blacksmith’s wife in Murky Waters.
The Green March (Chapter 5): A quest that won’t appear in your log, completed by talking to and trading items with the elder druids in their cave in the Swamp Cemetery.
Mud and Velvet (Chapter 5): Speak with Antoinette before leaving the castle or else miss your chance for this quest.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667902978_How-to-have-the-best-experience-with-the-first-Witcher.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 20:05:302022-11-07 20:05:30How to have the best experience with the first Witcher game in 2022
Dead Cells has been incredibly well-supported with free and paid updates ever since launch, to the extent that its latest extravaganza is the sequel to a previous indie crossover. The snappily named “Everyone Is Here Vol. II” update introduces six character costumes and weapons from other indie games and, most impressively, makes their existing abilities operate within Dead Cells’ systems.
OK, some of them fit more easily than others. The Guide from Terraria is in here with the heavenly sword Starfury, which causes star fragments to scatter whenever you hit an enemy. There’s greatswords of various descriptions in Dead Cells already so this is a fairly straightforward addition, but we’re just getting started.
The ubiquitous Shovel Knight, who seems to have crossed-over into any indie that’ll have him, arrives here with a shoulder-bashing mechanic that you’re meant to chain for critical hits. Chaining enemies could apparently get too easy and cheesy in an earlier iteration, so Motion Twin says “the movement is quite sensitive to make it hard to master.”
Subject ZERO from Katan ZERO is next up: complete with majestic katana and the mystical art of chucking things at enemies. Throwables stun enemies, but you only get three before you’ll have to get a dash attack or killing blow in order to refill them.
The Commando from Risk of Rain arrives with a laser glaive which is “irresistibly drawn to enemy after enemy, rebounding around the screen dealing damage to as many foes as possible. It gains damage after each extra enemy it hits and will start dealing crits after hitting multiple enemies.”
Then my favourite, Hotline Miami’s Jacket, who comes complete with three masks and, of course, a baseball bat. Dead Cells already features a mechanic whereby kicking open doors stuns enemies. So Jacket’s playstyle is about stunning enemies and dealing crits with the baseball bat, whereupon you get the exact Hotline Miami VFX.
Finally there’s Slay the Spire, which sounds incredibly complex. The Diverse Deck is a weapon that translates each of StS’s four classes into skills which are passive, that can then be activated for a one-off boost, after which you become the next class skill.
There’s a lengthy explanation of how it all works in the patch notes, but the short version is: you start as Barricade with extra health and health-based bonuses; this becomes Catalyst, which makes you melee attacks poisonous; this becomes Electrodynamics, which creates lightning orbs that circle around you zapping things; finally comes Foresight, which lets you avoid damage regularly, but can be activated for a period of invulnerability, after which it cycles back to Barricade.
I mean, Motion Twin really does put the effort in. The new outfits and characters are unlocked via riddles in the book of clues found in the opening area.
“We haven’t forgotten about adding more ‘pure’ Dead Cells content,” says the developer at the end of these notes. “That adventure will continue in 2023 and keep an eye out for some news in December…”
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667851192_Dead-Cells-adds-the-Hotline-Miami-chicken-dude-who-crits.gif281500Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 18:57:292022-11-07 18:57:29Dead Cells adds the Hotline Miami chicken dude, who crits stunned enemies with a bat
Close your eyes and cast your mind back. Back to the sounds of your first gaming PC, and the noises emanating from its beautiful, beige (was it once white?) case. The gentle whirr of the fans, the bell-chime boot sound that welcomes you into a vast, digital world, and falling asleep to the incessant clicking of a merry, overnight defrag. Oh, the nostalgia.
If you’re having a hard week, or just fancy a little blast from the past, the HDD Clicker will let you enjoy the sounds of a spinning platter—even as the age of the hard disk wanes (opens in new tab).
We’ve been discovering the ins and outs of the HDD Clicker from Arne Schmitz of Root42 (via PC Watch (opens in new tab)). He’s dedicated to retro gaming and tinkering with old tech, and explains that the device is meant for retro gaming builds to simulate the noise of a hard disk.
“A lot of the old hard drives have failed, they’re cumbersome, they’re loud, they’re slow. So usually what we do nowadays: we take compact flash cards instead of hard disks. The advantage here being that many of these are more or less compatible to regular old ATA hard disks because it’s basically the same interface.”
He makes it clear that’s not always the case, but the main takeaway is that just because the HDD is pretty much defunct doesn’t mean you should be robbed of the joys of the hard drive ASMR as you use your device. This way, you’ll also be sure never to be subject to what Arne calls the “Dreaded clicks of death when the hard disk was dying.”
The device was designed by matze79 who posted their development on the Vogons forum (opens in new tab). The final design, now available on Serdashop (opens in new tab) is “directly pluggable on HDD molex power” according to dreamblaster, who helped matze79 make their design a reality.
The HDD Clicker is, by default, set to high volume Quantum mode, but the listing says you can “put some tape on the buzzer hole” for Medium volume LGR mode, or on the speaker directly for a Low volume modern HDD mode.
While writing this, I’m happy to say I rediscovered the soothing sounds of the PCs of old and am now on a bit of an ASMR journey. Now, I understand why people enjoy the nostalgic click of a HDD, or even tactile button clicking ASMR (opens in new tab), but much of the ASMR landscape (even those related to gaming PCs) still makes me rather uncomfortable (opens in new tab). Maybe, I’ll just stick to falling asleep to a little defrag.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667843774_Bring-that-retro-hard-drive-clicking-sound-back-into-your.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 17:28:262022-11-07 17:28:26Bring that retro hard drive clicking sound back into your life with this little device
We’re crawling closer to a flood of Black Friday gaming laptop deals this year, and it’s going to be a doozy. Once the big day rolls around on November 25, you can expect gaming laptops of all power-levels to come tumbling onto our radar. For now, we’ve sent our price detecting bots off to find some early Black Friday gaming laptop deals, and have scraped the Early Access barrel for left over deals, but we’ll be populating the hubs with flashy discounts as they appear.
Black Friday gaming laptop deals are going to be everywhere over the 2022 deal season. We should see last year’s stock being flushed out ready for portable versions of Nvidia’s 40-series graphics cards set to hit us next year. While we wait for Nvidia to figure out how to slim down those monsters, you can bet you’ll be able to find RTX 3060-powered gaming laptops on sale, all the way up to RTX 3080 machines if we’re lucky.
When it comes to AMD gaming laptop deals, they’ve always been less common. And although we are expecting announcements for RDNA 3 GPUs this month, portable versions won’t be around for a while yet. In other words, cheap AMD-powered gaming laptops will be fewer than Nvidia-powered ones. But keep an eye out for the odd all AMD gem.
For the best possible gaming laptop deals this Black Friday, we wholeheartedly recommend going for a more recent GPU—something in Nvidia’s RTX 30-series or equivalent, ideally. There will be retailers still trying to flog you an RTX 20-series laptop for over $1,000 no doubt, but don’t be fooled. You can easily find a low-end 30-series lappys for less than that, so double check before you get your wallet out for an older card. A 12th Gen Intel CPU or equivalent is your best bet to stay as current as possible. And you’ll want to watch out for single channel RAM configurations, which can impede performance (1x 8GB especially is a no-no).
Below are all the best gaming laptop deals our automatic price trawling bots have spotted so far in anticipation of Black Friday, along with a few hand picked gaming laptops. We will continue to update right up until Black Friday and beyond, and once the fun’s over, we’ll then make sure to link you through to any Cyber Monday hubs right here.
When is Black Friday 2022?
Black Friday 2022 begins on November 25 and we’re likely to see gaming laptop deals from heaps of retailers coming in.
The deals will run all the way through the weekend over November 26 and 27, and into Cyber Monday on November 28. Once the initial panic is over, you can bet to see leftover discounts spilling into Cyber Week, too.
So, buckle up for some great Black Friday gaming laptop deals, as we’re expecting a bunch of the best gaming laptops (opens in new tab) from 2022 to go on sale.
Where are the best Black Friday gaming laptop deals?
In the US:
In the UK:
What should I look out for in a Black Friday gaming laptop deal?
The best Black Friday gaming laptop deals will deliver high-performance hardware for a knockdown price, or at the very least not come with an overly inflated price tag.
But it doesn’t automatically scan that just because something has a three-figure discount that it will be worth the money. You need to keep an eye on what parts are being used, what else you get for your cash, and whether it’s actually right for you.
Things are tough for PC gaming hardware, as it stands today. But companies are still aiming to shift stock so expect some discounts on current-gen kit. Don’t be fooled into parting with money for anything beyond the last generation of GPUs, however. It’s unlikely there’ll be a laptop with an Nvidia 10-series graphics card inside it that’s worth buying this Black Friday, unless you can find a wonderfully cheap deal.
Keep an eye out for storage, and memory size too. That’s most true at the low end of the market, where manufacturers may aim to keep prices low by using single sticks of memory and therefore halving the potential memory bandwidth. That might not be a problem in the very cheapest of gaming laptops, however, where the GPU will make the most difference to your experience.
Black Friday gaming laptop deals in the US
Our magic Black Friday price bots are searching the web, constantly tracking down the best gaming laptop deals.
Black Friday office laptop deals in the US
Our magic price searching bots regularly curate this list multiple times each day.
Black Friday gaming laptop deals in the UK
Our magic Black Friday price bots are searching the web, constantly tracking down the best gaming laptop deals.
Black Friday office laptop deals in the UK
Our magic Black Friday price bots are searching the web, constantly tracking down the best gaming laptop deals.
Black Friday officially starts on November 25 and for many of us that means a chance to grab a monitor upgrade. If you’ve been struggling along with a 24-inch 1080p for the longest of times, then the sales season can be a great time to finally pull the trigger on something not only bigger, but significantly better too.
Whether you’re looking at a shift to IPS, VA, or going down the OLED route, getting your esports game on with a high-refresh panel, or simply treating yourself to a big ol’ 4K monitor, there are plenty of quality monitors out there for gamers. It helps to go in focused though, work out what screen you want and don’t get distracted.
The good news is that monitor technology has come on a lot recently, with previously prohibitively expensive and hard-to-get combinations such as high-refresh, high-resolution panels, now available at reasonable price points. 120Hz 4K screens used to demand a serious premium, but you can already enjoy $200 off the Acer Nitro XV273K (opens in new tab), which is a 4K monitor that’ll hit 120Hz (144Hz with double DisplayPort connections) and can now be had for $500.
If you’re looking for inspiration as to the kind of screen you want to hunt down, don’t forget we’ll be here to help and will be highlighting the best deals we found over on our Black Friday gaming monitors hub (opens in new tab), then here’s a rundown of what we think is important for any new screen purchase:
Resolution: This provides the biggest impact on the fidelity of your gaming and the higher you go, the better. The downside is that you’ll need a top-tier graphics card to hit smooth frame rates with all the pretties turned up high. It can be a balancing act if you haven’t upgraded your graphics card for a while, but you’ve got your eye on the next generation—getting a monitor that will let you play smoothly today but absolutely rock when you do upgrade. It’s worth bearing in mind that a good monitor will last you a couple of GPU generations, so aim for tomorrow where possible.
Refresh rate: The higher the refresh rate, the smoother your gaming. Again though, you’ll need a good graphics card to produce all those frames. If you play competitive shooters, then you should see 120Hz as the minimum, with serious esport-types eyeing up 240Hz and even 360Hz. Faster 480Hz/500Hz panels are coming, although most mortals are going to be hard-pushed to feel the difference.
Panel Type: There was a time when gamers were only really interested in TN panels, simply because that was the only technology quick enough for our needs. Technological improvements mean that absolutely isn’t the case anymore though, and these days IPS and VA are just as speedy and offer much better color reproduction, contrast, and viewing angles. To the point where TN is being pushed out of the market.
OLED panels are starting to appear too, and these offer incredible response times (0.1ms), stunning color reproduction, and HDR that doesn’t fundamentally suck. The simply stunning Alienware QD-OLED AW3423DW (opens in new tab) is a great example of what these screens can do, and is currently available for $100-off over at Dell for $1,199 (opens in new tab).
Size: How big a screen do you need? A bigger screen can give you a more epic feel, especially if you’re looking at an ultrawide model, but you need to marry this with the screen’s native resolution so that you don’t end up with big blocky pixels. At the same time, you don’t want too tight a pixel pitch—Dell’s early 24-inch 4K panel was hard work in Windows when it first came out, although the scaling in Windows has improved a bit since then. You want at least 110 pixels per inch (PPI) for a reasonable experience for desktop use. Use a PPI calculator (opens in new tab) to help work out the PPI for any prospective screen.
G-Sync & FreeSync: These technologies prevent screen tearing by synchronising to the output of your graphics card as opposed to just updating at a predefined interval. The result is a much smoother experience and one that works well at high frame rates as it does at low ones. The Nvidia-backed G-Sync tends to be more expensive as it requires physical hardware in the monitor. The good news is that a lot of modern FreeSync monitors are G-Sync compatible—you can check on Nvidia’s site (opens in new tab).
Gaming monitor crib sheet
(Image credit: Future)
Unlike PCs, graphics cards, CPUs and plenty of other components, coming up with a list of what prices you can expect to pay for a good gaming monitor isn’t so easy. Instead, it’s better to highlight the monitors that we think are great examples of what is available right. Be sure to check out the best gaming monitor (opens in new tab) page for our fave displays though, and if you see one of those on sale, then it’s going to be worth grabbing.
These are just some of the examples of what is already available. We’re expect plenty more monitor deals as Black Friday really kicks off, and whatever you’re in the market for, you should find something of interest.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667840027_How-to-spot-the-best-Black-Friday-gaming-monitor-deals.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 16:44:262022-11-07 16:44:26How to spot the best Black Friday gaming monitor deals this year
Riot Games has announced a new women’s League of Legends standalone tournament called Rising Stars. The goal is to “promote inclusion and opportunities in esports”, with each team having to be composed entirely of women over the age of 16.
This is very much an event with an eye on the future, rather than something on the scale of LoL Worlds. The teams will be competing for a £3,000 prize pool while the event broadcast will be produced in Nottingham by Esports Production students learning their trade. TIL you can do a degree in Esports Production.
The inaugural event will be held online on November 26 & 27 this year and is geared towards the Northern European region, which Riot defines as the UK, Republic of Ireland and Nordic nations, though it is also open to players from other European regions.
Those interested in participating can register here until November 22. “Player registration will include gender verification in collaboration with DivE, an organisation promoting gender diversity in esports who already assists in the EMEA operation of Riot Games’ [Valorant] Game Changers tournament and Wild Circuit Game Changers,” reads the press release. “Moderators will also be present throughout the tournament to ensure and support a safe space for all participants.”
The phrase ‘gender verification’ is not expanded upon in the official materials supplied. However Riot’s agreement with DiVE as regards the Valorant Game Changers program says that “Age, residency and gender will be checked by DivE in order to confirm your eligibility […] In particular, DivE will ask you to show on webcam documents as proof of your eligibility. DivE will not keep any record of the documents used to verify your age, gender and residency.”
Valorant’s ongoing Game Changers initiative started in 2021 and is a program meant to create “new opportunities and exposure for women within Valorant esports”.
“Riot Games is committed to creating more opportunities for women gamers,” said Riot’s Will Attwood. “Game Changers has been a huge success for Valorant and will continue to expand into other games. Rising Stars, as a local, standalone tournament, is another example of the work that we and our partners can do to promote diversity and inclusion in the esports community. The fact that we’re also able to support students taking their first professional steps in the industry is the cherry on top.”
A new law in New York City is giving us an unusual insight into the earnings of game developers at some of the world’s biggest game studios, Axios (opens in new tab) reports. The law requires that—as of November 1—companies in NYC must include a “good faith salary range (opens in new tab)” for the jobs they advertise, game studios included.
NYC isn’t exactly a hub for game development, but it is home to offices from heavy-hitters like Rockstar, Take-Two, Activision, and Epic. New York job listings posted by those companies have revealed what you can expect to earn working for some of the world’s biggest games companies in one of the most expensive cities on Earth (opens in new tab).
Rockstar is first up and most extensive, ranging widely—depending on job type and seniority—from $50k to $57k for an associate dialogue designer (opens in new tab) all the way up to nearly $200k for the company’s various open director positions (opens in new tab). Those are all above NYC’s median individual income (opens in new tab) for 2020 (about $34k), but with the city’s infamously extortionate rent prices (opens in new tab), I suspect Rockstar’s new associate dialogue designers have a lengthy commute in their future.
Take-Two, Rockstar’s parent company, offers comparable pay for similar positions. Activision only has a single NYC-based job open currently, so we can only tell that a measurement lead position (opens in new tab)—a marketing analytics job requiring five or more years of experience—will net you anywhere between $77k to $114k a year. Predictably, none of these companies have extended the new pay transparency policy to areas outside NYC, so we can’t even compare Activision’s pay in New York to the pay it offers people in similar positions elsewhere.
Anyway, get ready to be depressed, because if you want to make the big bucks in NYC, you need to work as a product marketing director of metaverse development (opens in new tab) for Epic. Pulling anywhere from $197k to over a quarter of a million dollars of a year, you’ll get to play a leading role in Epic’s metaverse ambitions, whatever they are and whatever that means (opens in new tab). Probably something to do with legs. (opens in new tab)
It’s not all bad: Epic does seem to pay relatively well even for positions that aren’t shepherding us toward dystopia. A data analyst (opens in new tab) can expect anything from $126k to $163k, while more senior roles (opens in new tab) start out at around $160k and hit $210k at the high end. Just, you know, someone is probably going to ask you to do some metaverse nonsense at some point.
The pay transparency law is a rare glimpse into the usually opaque world of games industry salaries, and similar laws are about to come into effect in Washington (opens in new tab) and California (opens in new tab). With any luck, they won’t be the last. We could all do with being more open about our salaries: It makes it a lot harder to get taken for a ride.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667832689_New-NYC-pay-law-gives-us-a-rare-insight-into.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 14:01:242022-11-07 14:01:24New NYC pay law gives us a rare insight into what game devs really make
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