I thought today would be a normal, boring Monday in the office. I reply to some emails, write a news post, and check Twitter to see if anything’s popping off, only to discover that the de-evolution of man has now officially begun. Our descent into apehood starts now, with the new McDonald’s gaming chair—AKA: The McCrispy.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m subscribed to the right press lists. And then McDonald’s makes a gaming chair. pic.twitter.com/pzmQiy16cdNovember 7, 2022
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No, you’ve not slipped into an alternate universe where Ronald McDonald is a famous esports athlete. The McCrispy is a real, palpable gaming chair that you can win by entering an official McDonald’s Facebook competition (opens in new tab)—because of course it’s a Facebook competition.
There are only four in the entire world, which means we shouldn’t be seeing every Streamer with questionable revenue streams sporting one of these babies, though this may yet open up a terrifying opportunity for corporations to follow suit.
I dread to think.
The design is a vomit-inducing black and yellow, with McCrispy printed slantily across the leather and even a matching lumbar support pillow. Of course, there’s a giant M on the black headrest and even the wheels have the McDonald’s yellow slapped on them.
It comes complete with a fries holder, two dip holders and “burger ‘heat zone’ to keep your McCrispy warm.”
(Image credit: McDonalds)
Never, in my 30 years on this earth, have I felt the need to keep my McCrispy warm. Imagine all those germs, fermenting your burger for hours on end. Moreover, never have I (nor anyone I know) expressed a wish for a heat-emanating gaming chair. Gaming chairs are already warm enough with us sitting in them, working up a juicy gaming sweat. Normally gaming chairs are advertising the opposite (opens in new tab) feature.
The worst part is that McDonald’s is selling the seat on its grease resistant leather treatment “so no need to worry about spills and stains.” Ah yeah, just gobble it down, folks. No need for table manners, and you can forget about all that work you put in cleaning your gaming keyboard (opens in new tab).
Welp, time to wave goodbye to the dignity of the human race. And no, we won’t be getting one in for testing so don’t expect a review.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667829020_McDonalds-bring-us-the-McCrispy-gaming-chair-to-mark-the.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 13:13:112022-11-07 13:13:11McDonald’s bring us the McCrispy gaming chair to mark the downfall of man
If you’re in need of a new wallpaper for your desktop or cell, but can’t find one that’s just right, why not get an AI to generate one for you? That way you know when you show it off to your buddies no one will be able to say, “Yo, I saw that on Reddit like last year, fam. Lame.”
The apps title, This Wallpaper does NOT exist (opens in new tab), plays on the bespoke nature of its offering, in that the wallpaper does not, in fact, exist—not until you generate it.
While it’s a fantastic little gem of a generator, This Wallpaper does NOT exist is still in beta, and there are some things I find a little off about it. First of all, there’s no way to decide the image ratio, colour or subject of your image. It’s entirely random when you click the generate button.
Below the image generator, it’s possible to select features of previously generated images for you to then browse, but there doesn’t appear to be any way to inform the generator itself.
It’s great that the devs have included a link that lets you translate your generated design to 8K. It does so through upscale.media (opens in new tab), a site which also uses AI to process images into a higher resolution. There you can make sure your generated image fits whatever size screen you’re using.
Just make sure you don’t try and send a second image to the upscale app without saving your first one. You risk losing it if you don’t open the ‘Get 8k Image’ link in a new tab.
(Image credit: This Wallpaper does not exist)
The most worrying thing as always with an AI image generator, is that we can’t be totally sure of the image usage rights. There’s no info on the site about what datasets the image generator is drawing its inspiration from. There’s been a lot of uproar recently about AI image generation (opens in new tab) and image rights, since many are fed on datasets that include images with strict usage rights.
Scraping is what they call it, and it’s a problem for hardworking artists. It could also get you in a lot of trouble if the generated image isn’t sufficiently distinguishable from the original. Just something to keep in mind if you’re thinking of using an AI image generator to design your startup logo, lo-fi album cover, or anything else you plan to make money off.
Wallpapers, however, you should be safe with.
On that note, here’s a list of image generators (opens in new tab) that might be of interest. I discovered this the other day and I’ve been rinsing through them like there’s no tomorrow. If you’ve got some images or generators to share, I’d love to hear about them on the PCG forum (opens in new tab), too.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667825350_This-wallpaper-does-NOT-exist-since-the-AI-has-yet.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 11:59:472022-11-07 11:59:47‘This wallpaper does NOT exist’ since the AI has yet to design it
You’ll find all the Wordle help you need just below, whether you’re looking for a clue designed to point you in the right direction, general tips and tricks, a beginner’s guide, or the answer to the November 7 (506) puzzle in easy-to-read capital letters.
Today’s Wordle was an unexpected nightmare for me—and worst of all it was my own fault. I had almost every letter and even a few of them in the right places, I just couldn’t see the answer for the life of me until I came back to it a little later—and when I did I could’ve curled up and hid in a closet for missing something so obvious.
Wordle hint
A Wordle hint for Monday, November 7
This term’s a common word used to describe something that has just started or the act of performing the first part of anything you can think of. There are two vowels to find today.
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 506 answer?
Here’s to another week of wins. The answer to the November 7 (506) Wordle is BEGIN.
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 6: STALE
November 5: DREAM
November 4: PHOTO
November 3: ALOUD
November 2: INEPT
November 1: PINEY
October 31: APTLY
October 30: WALTZ
October 29: LIBEL
October 28: SNEAK
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/2022/11/1667810712_Todays-Wordle-answer-and-hint-for-Monday-November-7.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 08:01:262022-11-07 08:01:26Today’s Wordle answer and hint for Monday, November 7
On Saturday night, two esports heroes and their teams fought each other tooth and nail for over five million viewers in the League of Legends Worlds finals, backed by a plot better than any concocted by a team of scriptwriters. While there were no villains in Riot Games’ massive esports spectacle, after battling the full distance of the five game set there were winners—and unfortunately, losers—as the fourth seed Korean underdogs DRX raised the Summoner’s Cup while second seed T1 looked on.
While the five games that T1 and DRX wrestled over the championship did generate a half dozen truly fantastic moments, the story behind their meeting outshines them. It’s the kind of unbelievable plot no movie audience would buy. The star players from each team are the same age, started their pro League of Legends careers in February 2013, and even went to the same high school—Mapo High School in Seoul, South Korea. While the play of their teammates was the heart of the battle for Worlds 2022, the soul was all about the rivalry of T1’s Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and DRX’s Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu coming to a head in the grand finals. Let me take you on a short journey through the story of the two esports veterans.
The Demon-King and the Hard Luck Hero
(Image credit: Riot)
While Faker and Deft shared remarkably similar starting points, their careers went in markedly different directions, orbiting each other in the Korean league like a pair of meteors.
With Faker being the core signing and mid laner of the brand new SK Telecom T1 K in early 2013, he went on to lead the Korean team to a shocking run throughout the year, including dual victories over KT Rolster Bullets (opens in new tab) to earn a spot at the Season 3 World Championships, where he would help SKT crush the opposition to cruise to a 3-0 Grand Finals victory over Chinese team Royal Club for his first of three titles as a World Champion in League of Legends. In a single year, Faker was plucked from the Korean solo queue and fought his way to the top of the mountain.
But for Deft, his first year was a struggle, joining newly formed MVP Blue as their bottom laner, MVP Blue failed to make it out of the group stage at several tournaments before being acquired by Samsung Blue and playing in the 2013-2014 Champions Winter tournament. This was the first time Deft and Faker would have a showdown, and it ended in an SKT 3-0 victory. Despite accolades and celebration of Deft as a regular candidate or runner up for most valuable player of the Korean league and several appearances at worlds—including a brutal loss (opens in new tab) in five games to eventual World Champion team Invictus Gaming in 2018 in the first round of knockouts—Deft had never made it to the Grand Finals once, where by 2016, Faker had already won it all in them three times. In fact, over the years, both Deft and Faker have been to the World Championships seven times apiece, but while Faker has been with SKT since his debut, Deft has moved around to do it with five different teams—Samsung Blue, Edward Gaming, KT Rolster, Hanwha Life Esports, and DragonX.
But by 2022, Deft and Faker had come to a different stage of their career, one where even Faker was being questioned and whispered about as past his prime by some. Despite Deft being on a competitive team at Worlds most years, the last time he even played in the semifinals was 2014, whereas Faker has never been eliminated before the semis. Most esports players are considered venerable at 26, where the average age of League of Legends pros is around 21 and most retire by 25 (opens in new tab).
For Deft, who had never been able to fight his way into the ring for a title bout, the question seemed to be “when will you retire?” and not the “will he ever retire?” usually pointed at Faker. In fact in an interview with Invenglobal in May he even had that attitude himself, saying: “I feel that there isn’t much time left in my career, but there’s a big difference between ‘not much time’ and ‘no time’. I want to do my best so that I can show what the fans and I both want to see in my remaining time.” The spirit and competitive drive was still there, but Deft was acknowledging that in the world of esports—he was a mortal.
But for the resident immortal demon king, Faker, the retooled T1 team’s lack of success was now his fault in the eyes of fans. Faker suffered substantial online harassment from a group of fans (opens in new tab) and was threatening to quit playing ranked due to players intentionally throwing games (opens in new tab), more challenges in a difficult year. Looking at the upcoming Worlds 2022, Faker was facing the fact that he was on the outside looking in statistically for the first time on the biggest stage of League of Legends. Faker’s performance throughout the year in the LCK was outshone by a number of other players—like Gen.G mid-laner Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon—which was changing Faker’s role into more of the veteran leader of a squad of young players with potential, and not the hyper-carry of old.
Worlds 2022 had arrived for Faker and Deft, and Faker was stoically contemplating restoring T1 to a glory that it hadn’t brushed since 2017’s crushing 3-0 defeat by Samsung Galaxy in the grand finals, a defeat that saw a humbled Faker dethroned and overcome by tears (opens in new tab). While Faker wanted to underline his reputation and bring a new generation of talent to the top, Deft was staring mortality and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune down. As usual, the climb for Deft would not be an easy one, as DRX was the Korean 4th seed, and could only qualify for Worlds by making it through the play-in stage: a ruthless round robin and knockout series of 12 hungry teams. But Deft set the stage for what was to come by helping DRX to a flawless 5-0 record in the play-in, guaranteeing them a spot in Worlds and a date with destiny for the two former schoolmates as both T1 and DRX fought their way to the grand finals.
At the nexus(es) of fate
(Image credit: Riot)
Game 1 (T1 0 – DRX 0)
After all the spectacle of the delayed opening ceremony (led by Lil Nas X, of all people), we get down to digital brass tacks with the first pick and ban phase—in which we see both T1 and DRX decide the tone for the series by choosing violence: not a single tank is picked by either team. This series is going to be two teams trying to make zero mistakes and amplify every mistake of the other.
T1 is put on their back foot early by a first blood kill on Faker in the mid-lane, but recover through a stolen dragon by Gumayusi and an ambush on DRX while they try to take herald in the top-side river. While DRX finishes the herald, they can’t claim the buff from it, which expires, and prevents DRX from getting the lane pressure they need to set them up for the second dragon—and T1 flexes their strategic muscles by securing it, then rotating to take the second herald as well to kill the first turret of the game in mid-lane.
The wheels start to fall off the wagon for DRX when the tug-of-war over vision around the third dragon leads to T1’s Zeus on Yone managing to pull four members of DRX down to bot-lane and distract them while the rest of T1 sneak the dragon under their noses. When they realize, DRX turn to start a fight, but Zeus collapses on them from below with the skirmish resulting in a Faker kill on Deft, and then another on DRX support BeryL.
T1 ramps their advantage up into an uncontested Baron kill and cracks open DRX’s base, downing two inhibitors, and despite some heroics from DRX, this eventually leads to T1 claiming the ocean soul buff from their fourth dragon kill, and closing the game out with a final fight at the nexus. The totally calm look on Faker’s face as he pushes back from the computer after the victory screen betrays zero nervousness—or excitement.
Best plays of the game:
(Image credit: Riot)
Game 2 (T1 1 – DRX 0)
On the heels of a commanding win by T1, DRX shows no fear during picks and bans for game two, but plenty of healthy respect for Faker—banning away both Azir and Ryze from him. Faker responds by taking Viktor, while Deft uses the opening to take Varus, setting up a DRX Varus & Heimerdinger vs. T1 Ashe & Lux bot-lane matchup.
This game stays calm for much longer than the first one, with the first real test of either team being the first herald, which T1 starts with five members present, and DRX moves in on with all five of their own. Oner makes a clever play in smiting the herald early to transform his smite summoner into empowered smite, and along with excellent zoning by Viktor to keep DRX away, the herald is secured. Everything seems again to be going T1’s way with superior map movement leading to the first dragon, three fresh kills in the top-lane, and a deep gank on Deft behind his outer turret.
But the cracks start to show for T1 as they lose Zeus and Faker in a top-lane fight and DRX secure the second herald. From there, Faker teleports into a death under bottom turret, and DRX starts to take over the macro game, securing vision on the map, pushing down additional turrets, and putting themselves up three dragons to one and equalize the gold between both teams. As both teams dance around Baron, Faker gets a pick on DRX mid-laner Zeka and the two teams continue to skirmish on the knife’s edge until T1 takes their second dragon, and disaster strikes. The fight after dragon sees T1 split apart and hunted down in a zero for five ace of T1, and a resulting Baron kill for DRX.
A heroic tempo swing by Faker and T1 lead to a third dragon kill, picks, a mid-lane push, and ocean dragon soul set the game up for a twist at a final Baron—DRX wipes T1 out in a fractured team fight, and rushes the nexus down under
Best plays of the game:
(Image credit: Riot)
Game 3 (T1 1 – DRX 1)
The third game is also the first violation of the gentleman’s agreement against tanks, with both Gragas and Ornn in the top-lane being the front line for T1 and DRX. Faker returns to Azir.
Early and mid-game are fairly even, with dragons splitting at one apiece, and T1 securing a slight gold lead. The bloodbath begins with Faker and Zeka both dying, but T1 gets the worst of the fight afterwards when Gumayusi flashes forward to try to secure a kill, but DRX turns the fight.
From there the mid-game becomes a back and forth, with the gold totals staying even despite the kill advantage going to DRX, and they seem to have Faker’s number—dropping him to a 1-3-1 stat line in the game. But DRX makes a risky play, starting a Baron that T1 is alive in time to respond to, and after lurking around the slowly dying objective like a pack of sharks, they pounce, and T1’s jungler Oner manages to dash in to steal it with a smite.
DRX looks shaky afterwards, with top-laner Kingen and Deft both dying during the resulting push, but they manage to stop T1 from getting dragon soul and pick up a kill on Oner. DRX makes the choice to rush Baron with T1’s jungler dead, but Gumayusi on Varus and the rest of the T1 crew trade kills in the pit before a Varus arrow steals the second Baron of the game away from the underdogs—and the second steal of the game proves to be too much for them, as T1 closes the game out in the immediate push.
Best plays of the game:
(Image credit: Riot)
Game 4 (T1 2 – DRX 1)
With DRX on the ropes, they target problem picks on Faker and Zeus, banning away Ryze, Viktor, and Yone using the opening to steal away Azir and Varus as well. Pushing Faker outside his most successful picks so far, and with Ashe and Varus gone from Gumayusi’s champion pool, Faker picks the assassin Akali—a flashy and exciting pick—and the bottom lane falls as Kalista and the surprise Soraka for Keria to support with. But the most interesting pick turned out to be DRX’s jungler Pyosik bringing out the beefy (barky?) tree himself: Maokai.
The bot-lane is the focus early for T1, with a 2v2 fight and a successful jungle gank resulting in two deaths on Deft and an early dragon—but mid-lane was getting away from Faker, and soon Zeus would be struggling too. With Zeka’s Azir winning the ranged vs melee matchup and keeping Faker’s Akali behind on farm and firmly in the lane, her ability to roam and start to get the kills she needed to snowball was nonexistent. In the top-lane, repeated pressure from DRX’s jungler—and a failed 3v2 by T1’s Oner on Sejuani—showed just how much havoc Kingen could unleash on Aatrox.
Worse than that, the pressure on the bottom half of the map didn’t pay off, with the second dragon and a pair of kills going to DRX as they pulled closer to even in gold. The strategic mastery that T1 had displayed seemed to falter over the course of the game, with DRX not only poised to take the last herald, but positioned for a team fight that they would win with a pair of kills, and a mounting gold lead. Faker seemed frustrated and more than a bit out of position on Akali, chasing Zeka down half the lane before dying to three other members of DRX, and then just minutes later being caught and killed by Kingen and Pyosik during a Baron attempt.
Though the four deaths did stop the Baron attempt for the moment, DRX simply reset, and waited for their side lanes to push to start the objective again—baiting out both T1 teleports, then walking away, presumably pulling down their sunglasses like steely-eyed missile men. Resetting once again, DRX secured the Baron and then walked their advantage down mid and bot to a smooth and relentless victory.
Best plays of the game:
(Image credit: Riot)
Game 5 (T1 2 – DRX 2)
Somehow, it was always fated to make it to this point between Faker and Deft, T1 and DRX, with the intense series boiled down to a single titanic game.
With nothing left to hide, and everything left to lose, T1 and DRX both went off the board with their strategies. DRX left Caitlyn off their bans, instead banning her usual partner Lux, and leaving one of the most contested carries for the bottom lane open. Seeming to suspect some kind of ploy by DRX, T1 instead picked Karma, trying to ensure they had the lane-pushing power they wanted, but giving up Azir and the unbanned Caitlyn to DRX, and seeing their top-laner Kingen back on his dominant Aatrox pick opposed by T1’s Zeus on Gwen.
T1 came out swinging with an aggressive jungle invade against Pyosik’s Hecarim, running him off his blue buff to start the game, and then with their own jungler Oner with a textbook gank on Zeka using their vision advantage to give him no chance to react for first blood and then a first dragon. But T1’s Zeus became the victim of a rare solo kill, feeding gold into the monstrously dangerous Aatrox that Kingen had used to such great effect in previous games for DRX, and they took advantage, decisively winning a teamfight when T1 challenged their early herald.
But T1 was anything but quiet—with Oner successfully counter ganking mid-lane and bottom over the next few minutes, evening the kills, pulling T1 slightly ahead in gold and looking like they were ready to shove DRX around to try to fight back into control of the game. But the resurgence wouldn’t hold long, as Kingen’s Aatrox proved an unstoppable juggernaut in a forced fight in the mid-lane, with DRX knocking off four members of T1 over the extended battle.
With so many down, DRX turned their eyes towards the Baron. But it had been such an extended fight—and such a slow-to-die early Baron at just 20 minutes—that T1’s bot-lane carry Gumayusi was able to respawn and make it to the river on Varus before the Baron was dead. And with Zeus standing by watching, no vision of the Baron, and all of DRX alive in the pit, Gumayusi fired off an arrow straight to the heart of Deft and DRX’s championship dreams, stealing the Baron and walking away alive.
As the crowd erupted, T1 made plans, and they used the pushing power of the buff to drag the game out and successfully eke out a slight lead by toppling DRX’s bot-lane inhibitor. Over the course of two more skirmishes, DRX’s Kingen and BeryL died, but a fight over dragon saw inconclusive trades, with deaths on both sides. T1 managed to secure a second Baron as the game dragged out past the 30 minute mark, but couldn’t make headway, losing the mountain dragon soul to DRX.
Just like Worlds 2022 eventually boiled down to a single game, so too would the final game be reduced to a single fight on the edge of the cliff. DRX contested T1’s attempt at killing the elder dragon, turning the attempt into a back and forth that saw Faker and Zeus run out of the fight and teleport to the open inhibitor in the bot-lane in a desperate attempt to backdoor. In a matter of seconds, they had crushed one of the two nexus turrets, but Kingen’s Aatrox was ready with his own teleport for a goal-line stand, rising to the occasion to kill Faker and then Zeka.
With T1 in shambles and the elder dragon in their pocket, DRX marched through T1’s base, and less than a minute later Deft and his teammates were a ball of frenetic energy as they celebrated together.
Best plays of the game:
As the storm recedes
(Image credit: Riot)
Over the course of their journey, DRX had crushed expectations, banished the demons in Deft’s past, and broken barriers as the first team to come from the play-in stage to make it to the grand finals. Now Deft stood on top of the world, able to say that he had reached as high as his one-time classmate ever had, and he did it on his own terms, in the most difficult climb to the top a League of Legends team ever managed.
It might not be three world championships, or winning one his first year as a pro, but for Deft, he has to know that he has something now that Faker doesn’t. With DRX as World Champions, he has his own collection of achievements and firsts to call his own.
And for the rest of us—including Faker—there is at least some solace in the fact that Mapo High School, at 403 Hwagok-ro in the Gangseo-gu ward of Seoul, now has more World Championships than all of North America managed wins at Worlds this year.
When you don’t have the big things in life, cling to the small things and enjoy the show—Riot Games puts on a great one, and there’s always next year.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667795973_The-League-of-Legends-Worlds-finals-showed-the-heart-and.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 04:22:302022-11-07 04:22:30The League of Legends Worlds finals showed the heart and soul of esports
Tender Claws, the studio responsible for sinister AI comedy Virtual Virtual Reality (which we dubbed one of the best VR games), has announced that it’s working on a Stranger Things tie-in horror game. Based on the brief teaser trailer, Stranger Things VR will be about exploring the Upside Down, encountering the monstrous denizens of that dimension, and doing psychic battle with the series’ protagonists, all from the perspective of season 4’s big bad, Vecna.
Like all the monsters of Stranger Things, including the Demogorgon we see a glimpse of in the trailer, Vecna is named after a classic enemy from Dungeons & Dragons. In this case, the archetypal lich whose eye and hand became powerful artifacts after his death. (His head too, if you believe certain tales (opens in new tab).)
It’s been a good year for the Arch-Lich, who also figured in the first season of Critical Role cartoon The Legend of Vox machina, where he was coyly referred to as The Whispered One.
According to the Tender Claws website (opens in new tab), in Stranger Things VR players will “Become an explorer of unknown realities as you form the hive mind and tame the void. Invade minds and conjure nightmares in your quest to enact revenge on Eleven and Hawkins.” Sure sounds like what Vecna was getting up to behind the scenes during season 4. It’ll be interesting to see if it can make being Vecna seem scary, though the Upside Down certainly looks as grotesque as ever.
Tender Claws describe Stranger Things VR as a “psychological horror/action game” and say it’ll be “coming to major VR platforms in Winter 2023.”
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667788676_Stranger-Things-VR-game-casts-you-as-the-villainous-Vecna.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 02:30:432022-11-07 02:30:43Stranger Things VR game casts you as the villainous Vecna
Hell yeah friends it’s time for some art history with PC Gamer! Impasto is a horror game by student designers out of USC Games, the University of Southern California’s game design school, and it’s inspired by one of the greatest painters of all time: Francisco Goya. It’s named after the technique he used extensively, Impasto, of thickly-laid and textured paint which gives paintings physical depth.
If you already know what that is and what it means then all I need to give you is a link: Impasto is on Steam and completely free. (opens in new tab)
The action of the game revolves around the particular horrors that live on in Francisco Goya’s legacy, and the paintings left behind by his increasingly fragmenting mental state. Using a mixture of exploration, stealth, and your own wits you’ll have to navigate the dark walls of his hometown and paintings, all rendered after Goya’s own signature style, to find an end to a letter you’ve received and the mystery it entails.
It’s phenomenal for a student work, well-conceived and executed. Goya’s story is one of particular resonance. He saw horrors in his lifetime, and the especially bleak period which saw the creation of Goya’s Black Paintings (opens in new tab) is a superb basis for a supernatural horror game. There are things in those paintings nobody would like to see come to life.
For example, Saturn Devouring His Son (opens in new tab). For all that it’s a modern meme (opens in new tab), the painting remains a deeply upsetting and visually confronting image taken out of Greek Myth and rendered in a particularly gruesome style by someone who’d definitely seen a dismembered corpse in the previous decade’s conflict visited upon the Iberian peninsula during the Napoleonic wars.
Francisco Goya was a Spanish painter during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and eventually became the court painter to the Spanish crown. He became deaf in 1793, but lived through the Napoleonic wars and died in 1828. His paintings are increasingly dark and troubled over the course of his life, and his prints and sketches depict with unrelenting honesty the horrors of warfare. His paintings are considered national treasures in Spain, and I’m inclined to agree.
You should probably go read about Goya now and then play Impasto on Steam. (opens in new tab)
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667792316_Theres-a-free-Goya-themed-horror-game-and-someones-definitely-eating.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 02:21:542022-11-07 02:21:54There’s a free Goya-themed horror game and someone’s definitely eating their son
Amazon games’ MMO New World has opened up a suite of “Fresh Start” servers, letting you kick off a new character on an untapped server where there’re no long-established players from the game’s first year. The new servers come alongside an entirely reworked early game experience for the game, requiring less travel and grouping quests closer together along with requiring far less grinding.
The rework also has a “huge improvement to the overall pacing,” says the Amazon Games team. New World also recently released Brimstone Sands, a big expansion update with lots of Egyptian and Ancient Roman-themed action.
“It’s a great opportunity for new and lapsed players to experience all that has changed over the game’s first year,” said Amazon Games. Amazon games has also posted a video (opens in new tab) to YouTube—embedded above—highlighting what’s new in the past year.
That new content includes a boatload of new expedition dungeons: Tempest’s Heart, Barnacles & Black Powder, and the Ennead, alongside mutator versions of old expeditions and a group finder for them. That’s also not really including the new weapons, which are a bit like New World’s classes: the Greatsword, Void Gauntlet, and Blunderbuss weapons are all new, and have new abilities to go with.
New World has plenty of lapsed players, who may or may not remember that their one-time purchase of the game lets them go back whenever they please. It was a massive success at launch, selling a ton of copies and hitting a high of nearly a million players on Steam, but that high collapsed over time into a steady daily top concurrent count of about 15-25 thousand. Since the release of the Brimstone Sands in October that number has popped back up to 50-60 thousand, and a recent Twitch drop campaign saw peak concurrent numbers return to over 100 thousand.
You can find New World on Steam (opens in new tab), where it’s 50% off until November 8th. You can also go find their official website, newworld.com. (opens in new tab)
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667785026_New-World-opens-some-fresh-servers-to-celebrate-its-reworked.jpg6781200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 01:20:052022-11-07 01:20:05New World opens some fresh servers to celebrate its reworked game start
Back in June, Sony announced that RE-series-highlight-mashup-reel Resident Evil Village was going to get a PSVR2 release (opens in new tab) complete with 4K, eye-tracking, 3D audio, and all the other fanciness that a modern VR version brings. Much as we’d like one of the best horror games on PC to get the same treatment on our platform of choice, given that Resident Evil 7’s VR release has yet to make the jump it seemed unlikely.
Until now. Redditor u/LitheBeep has datamined a hint (opens in new tab) that Village VR might make it to PC after all. In the game’s executable they found references to PSVR followed by “OpenVR”, “OculusTouch”, “OculusVR”, and “OculusRemote”, as well as the string “autoLaunchSteamVROnButtonPress”.
They also point out that on October 28 Capcom updated Resident Evil Village’s Steam store tags (opens in new tab) to add one for “VR”. While store tags can be added by Steam users, publishers can also add or remove tags themselves. Doing so is an important bit of marketing as these tags determine whether a game will show up in the “more like this” section, as well as whether it will be highlighted in “recommended for you” boxes, themed sales, and so on.
However, to pour a little cold water of skepticism on the rumor fire before it gets fully burning, it’s worth noting that Capcom also added the VR tag to Resident Evil 7 (opens in new tab) in June of 2017 and we’re still waiting for that to amount to anything. What’s more, looking over its history on SteamDB shows the VR tag was first added to Village in May of 2021 (opens in new tab) before being removed (opens in new tab) and then added again (opens in new tab) multiple times alongside various other tags of dubious relevance like “hentai” and “dating sim”. Presumably there’s logic behind this constant tinkering with tags—maybe the mysterious Steam algorithm likes it? A lot of what goes on behind the scenes with Steam’s store pages is as much superstition as anything.
Until an official announcement is made we’ll have to make do with the mod that adds VR support to Resident Evil Village. It’s the work of modder Praydog, and it also works with Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 7. Which is nice.
The recently released Resident Evil Village DLC Winter’s Expansion included a third-person camera, extra characters for the Mercenaries mode, and a story scenario in which you play Ethan’s daughter Rose. We found it to be a satisfactory but sparse addition.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667781373_Resident-Evil-Village-VR-might-come-to-PC.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 00:09:382022-11-07 00:09:38Resident Evil Village VR might come to PC
On an average day about a dozen new games are released on Steam. And while we think that’s a good thing, it can be understandably hard to keep up with. Potentially exciting gems are sure to be lost in the deluge of new things to play unless you sort through every single game that is released on Steam. So that’s exactly what we’ve done. If nothing catches your fancy this week, we’ve gathered the best PC games (opens in new tab) you can play right now and a running list of the 2022 games (opens in new tab) that are launching this year.
TFM: The First Men
Steam page (opens in new tab) Release: November 3 Developer: Gathering Tree Launch price: $25 | £20 | AU$36.50
Launched into Early Access last week, TFM: The First Men is a real-time strategy and colony sim that takes its cues from the likes of Rimworld and Knights and Merchants. Its main point of difference is implied by its name: this simulation has you shaping the fate of the first humans. That means your every decision will basically shape humanity, both the quality of your peoples’ temperament, the kind of colony they’re capable of bringing to life and sustaining, as well as their performance in battle. Complexity is always the selling point for these colony sims so that description only scrapes the surface of what’s on offer with TFM, and that offering will probably expand a great deal during its projected two year Early Access stint.
Beneath Oresa
Steam page (opens in new tab) Release: November 4 Developer: Broken Spear Inc. Launch price: $25 | £21 | AU$36.50
Sound the roguelike deckbuilder klaxon, because there’s another for the pile. Beneath Oresa definitely stands out from the crowd though, because just look at it: it looks less like a card game, and more like the kind of cell-shaded brawler that Arc System Works would put out. Hand of Fate (opens in new tab) it ain’t though, because while those fighting animations are beautifully fluid, you’ll still be controlling the battle via the doling out of carefully chosen cards. Beneath Oresa is an Early Access affair, and over the next six to eight months it’ll get “additional factions, characters, card sets, and some sweet features to enhance gameplay”.
The Chant
Steam page (opens in new tab) Release: November 4 Developer: Brass Token Launch price: $40 | £35 | AU$49.95
If you ever visit an idyllic remote island, do not chant. That’s the lesson of The Chant, a third-person survival horror about a bunch of hapless folk who have opened a portal into a “psychedelic dimension of terror that feeds off negative energy” thanks to their careless chanting. This one’s inspired by ’70s psychedelic horror (I’m guessing The Wicker Man (opens in new tab)?) but it otherwise appears to play like a fairly conventional survival horror in the vein of Resident Evil 4. So expect resource management, tense and awkward scraps with strange beasts, and pants-crapping atmosphere.
How to Say Goodbye
Steam page (opens in new tab) Release: November 4 Developer: Florian Veltman, Baptiste Portefaix, ARTE France Launch price: $11.69 | £9.26 | AU$16.65
Here’s a pleasantly laidback puzzle game about helping ghosts move into the afterlife. Stuck in a surreal grid-based limbo, it’s your job to maneuver these marooned ghosts through 15 chapters that range in theme from “your kitchen to the moon”. You’ll meet a variety of ghosts along the way, all with their own melancholy stories to tell, and the art style takes its cues from children’s literature classics by the likes of Tove Jansson and Maurice Sendak.
Eschaton
Steam page (opens in new tab) Release: November 4 Developer: jabuga Launch price: $2.69 | £2.06 | AU$4.05
This week’s lo-fi horror gem is Eschaton, a bleak and surreal exploration game set in the remote Scottish highlands. Yes, it’s another horror that plunders the uncanny splendours of early 3D games, but some of us (me) cannot get enough of these short and experimental works. Eschaton has an interesting take on sound design, utilising “binaural beats as an experimental game mechanic”. As a result, you’re really going to need to play headphones to appreciate Eschaton, but then, who plays horror games without headphones? Expect terrified confusion.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667799578_Five-new-Steam-games-you-probably-missed-November-7-2022.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-07 00:05:402022-11-07 00:05:40Five new Steam games you probably missed (November 7, 2022)
Japan’s PC gaming market has roughly doubled in three years, growing to nearly $896 million US between 2018 and 2021. The user base of active PC gamers has increased by 5 million from 2015 to 2021, with 4.5 million of those playing exclusively on PC—up more than 100% from 2015’s 2.2 million PC-exclusive Japanese gamers.
The new data comes from the latest report by Japanese game industry think tank Kadokawa ASCII Research Laboratories, a well-regarded publication which compiles yearly material about the performance of the gaming industry both domestically in Japan and abroad. Such clear data on growth in the industry will come as a surprise to many who’ve yet to discard the old wisdom that PC Gaming in Japan is a small niche.
The information comes from game industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto, whose comparison (opens in new tab) of the 2021 data to historical numbers from the same reporters highlights such significant growth. Toto is a German national, but has been based in Tokyo since 2004 and has worked as a game industry consultant at his company, Kantan Games, since 2013.
Toto attributes the huge growth to a storm of separate factors separately contributing to a single outcome. Toto cites the effect of Coronavirus lockdowns, lack of PS5 console availability in Japan, growing acceptance of foreign and indie games available cheaply on PC, much greater availability of Japan-made games on PC, and availability of popular Smartphone games at launch on PC. Toto also cites improvement in the quality of not just local PC gaming storefronts, but Steam’s Japanese version—which was once “terrible” but have improved, with physical Steam wallet cards now widely available.
“nNot every point set the PC gaming market in Japan on fire by itself,” writes Toto, “but the individual factors combined certainly have been and still are self-reinforcing themselves over time. I believe the trend to a bigger PC game industry in Japan will continue in the next several years.”
Valve, makers of dominant megaplatform Steam, have certainly put their eggs in that basket. They reported recently that Steam has a very high growth rate in Japan, and even gave it a mascot and the big-ticket treatment (opens in new tab)at Tokyo Game Show (opens in new tab) complete with absolutely adorable mascot. (opens in new tab)
And yeah, if the name of that research lab company up above sounds familiar, that’s because it’s a subsidiary of Japanese media megacorp Kadokawa, which also owns part of Elden Ring developers FromSoftware. And the developers of RPGMaker. (And a boatload of other things that come out of Japan.)
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1667803258_Japanese-PC-gaming-has-had-incredible-growth-in-the-last.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-11-06 23:56:482022-11-06 23:56:48Japanese PC gaming has had incredible growth in the last few years
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