The Kerbals are doing some cute animations on the basics of spaceflight

Kerbal Space Program is releasing a series of tutorials in the weeks leading up to the February 24th, 2023 release of Kerbal Space Program 2 (opens in new tab). Rather than explicit game tutorials, however, these are primers in the very basics of spaceflight presented for those who might not be rocket design enthusiasts and/or actual NASA engineers and/or astrophysicists.

The video stars fan-favorite Valentina Kerman in an adventure about how to throw something into the sky so hard that it misses the ground on the way back down. Which is how you get to orbit around a planet.

“Missing the Ground is one of the early tutorials in KSP 2, part of a series of animated tutorial videos to improve the onboarding experience of KSP 2 while learning about various science concepts. These video tutorials are the introduction to concepts after which players will experience interactive tutorials to further learn the concepts shown in the videos,” says developer Intercept Games.

In short, these animations will be inside Kerbal Space Program itself, helping you to understand and design for spaceflight basics. Each one will be shown before an interactive tutorial that then executes the concept you’ve learned about. 

KSP 2 will be the sequel to the unlikely hit that was Kerbal Space Program (opens in new tab), a somewhat-comic and quite realistic simulation of rockets and aerospace flight. Kerbal Space Program is a consistent entry on our list of the best PC Games, but its always been pretty hard to get into for those who don’t have existing knowledge of what’s going on.

One of developer Intercept Games’ big steps, then, is to create tutorials that are both engaging and informative for people who don’t know jack about rockets. Rocket science, as we all know, is complicated, but it’s also pretty approachable when the game supplies all the cool parts for you to assemble. I highly recommend that part over exploding yourself in real life.

You can find out a lot more about Kerbal Space Program on its website (opens in new tab), and you can wishlist it or whatever on Epic (opens in new tab) or Steam (opens in new tab). It’ll be $50 on launch, or is $50 now that it’s out, if somehow you’re reading this from the future.

If you’re curious about what’s going to be in KSP2 at launch, check out our article of Everything We Know About Kerbal Space Program 2 (opens in new tab) and watch this nice gameplay presentation from last November either here, below, or on YouTube (opens in new tab).


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Intel is having a very bad time

Premier CPU manufacturer Intel (opens in new tab) had a bad 2022 that ended on one of its worst quarters since the apocalyptic days of dot-com collapse of 2000. Industry analysts already unhappy with Intel’s financial performance are now saying that 2023 could be just as hard for the company. The company’s bad end of 2022 and low projections on its 2023 earnings have knocked $8 billion off of the company’s market value.

To be pat: Intel is having one of those years where the red line on the money chart is going down very steeply.

“No words can portray or explain the historic collapse of Intel,” analyst Hans Mosesmann told US News. (opens in new tab)

Why has it happened? As the man said, it’s complex, but the current downturn in the market for PCs is a big reason. That has led to a massive overstock of chips (opens in new tab), and Intel’s customers aren’t going to buy too much new until they sell those. Intel’s CEO is now saying that the PC market will sell almost 100 million fewer computers than he predicted it would.

Intel’s multi-year downturn also comes alongside the rise of a massive rival outside the space gamers think of, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, now manufactures about as many chips as intel does. As AMD and Nvidia have taken shares of Intel’s market in other sectors, TSMC has also risen to compete in the manufacturing sector.

Still, there is a chance that Intel will do better than expected. Some analysts say just that (opens in new tab), even as Intel’s CEO Patrick Gelsinger admits the company has underperformed and lost important market share to AMD. The source of this strong Intel? Gelsinger is still referring to the company’s plan to deliver ever-improved chip technology, and has reiterated their commitment to “five nodes in four years” and the release of Meteor Lake processors in the second half of 2023. (opens in new tab)


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Wordle hint and answer today: Let’s solve #589, January 29

Whether you need a clue for today’s Wordle (opens in new tab), want to brush up on your general game-winning techniques, or need the answer to the January 29 (589) puzzle in a hurry, you’ll find all that and plenty more help on this very page.

Everything came up grey in today’s opening pair, and that meant I was halfway down the board before I had two yellows to my name. I’d like to say the next go was the one that turned it all around, but all it could muster was one green and another yellow. Luckily all those greys meant I only had a few letters left to use, although the answer felt more cobbled together from leftover parts than cleverly discovered.

Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Sunday, January 29

You’re more likely to see this word used to describe something or someone suspicious or dishonest, although today’s answer can also be used to refer to any object that resembles a fish in some way. 

Is there a double letter in today’s Wordle? 

 No, you won’t find any double letters in today’s puzzle. 

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day 

Anyone can pick up and play Wordle, but if you want to do it well and make all of your guesses count, these quick tips will help get you started on your Wordle winning streak: 

  • Choose an opener with a balanced mix of unique vowels and consonants. 
  • The answer may contain the same letter, multiple times.
  • Try not to use guesses that contain letters you’ve already eliminated. 

Thankfully, there’s no time limit beyond ensuring it’s done by midnight. So there’s no reason not to treat the game like a casual newspaper crossword and come back to it later if you’re coming up blank. Sometimes stepping away for a while means you can come back with a fresh perspective. 

Today’s Wordle answer

(Image credit: Josh Wardle)

What is the Wordle 589 answer?

Keep your win streak going. The answer to the January 29 (589) Wordle is FISHY.

Previous answers

The last 10 Wordle answers 

Past Wordle answers can give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh. They are also a good way to eliminate guesses for today’s Wordle, as the answer is unlikely to be repeated. 

Here are some recent Wordle solutions:

  • January 28: FLIRT
  • January 27: WORRY
  • January 26: BEEFY
  • January 25: MAIZE
  • January 24: COUNT
  • January 23: ELUDE
  • January 22: MATEY
  • January 21: BLURB
  • January 20: ALTER
  • January 19: MUCKY

Learn more about Wordle 

Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and you’ll need to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them to keep up your winning streak.

You should start with a strong word (opens in new tab) like ARISE, or any other word that contains a good mix of common consonants and multiple vowels. You’ll also want to avoid starting words with repeating letters, as you’re wasting the chance to potentially eliminate or confirm an extra letter. Once you hit Enter, you’ll see which ones 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 next guess to compliment the first, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you might have 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 simply a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the correct word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words and don’t forget letters can repeat too (eg: 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 can scroll to the relevant section above. 

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. 


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Choose-your-own-murder game Loretta comes out next month

The store description calls Loretta, “a psychological thriller that makes the player an accessory to the heroine’s crimes, leading her through a self-crafted nightmare.” It’s essentially a point-and-click adventure where you’re a 1940s housewife who has committed murder, with flashbacks letting you decide how exactly that happened and then how you’re going to cover it up.

One section might have you figuring out how to deal with a nosy detective after the fact, while another bounces you back to before the murder happens to buy some rat poison. The story slowly unravels and, if you’re not careful, so do your lies.

There are minigames breaking up the chapters, simple puzzles and word association games, but mostly it’s about choosing the right thing to say and trying to hold things together. It’s a rural noir, with all the tension of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Diego Arguello gave some impressions of a demo last year, saying, “The way it deals with infidelity and marital problems from Loretta’s perspective sets a promising foundation, as does the way the writing shifts, increasing the profanity as a deliberate reflection of Loretta’s internal state after committing murder, and the way she chooses to remember everything that led to that moment. Whether or not her attitudes are not undermined by the rest of the game’s writing remains to be seen. Even with just a short glimpse of her deeds, though, I’m willing to hear her side of the story.”

According to the list of Loretta’s features, “Branching paths and multiple endings allow for a custom experience or opportunity for replay. Choose Loretta’s fate and explore the multiple opportunities as they present themselves to her.”

Loretta will be available on Steam (opens in new tab) and GOG (opens in new tab) from February 16.


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Ubisoft rumored to be working on multiplayer Far Cry as well as inevitable Far Cry 7

According to sources cited by Insider Gaming (opens in new tab), Ubisoft has two Far Cry games currently in development—a mainline singleplayer sequel, and a separate multiplayer spin-off, though they began as a single project.

The early Far Cry games were quite different to each other, but with Far Cry 3 the formula set like cement. Ubisoft Montreal throws a dart at a globe and then combines a charismatic villain, some outposts, murderous local wildlife, and a crafting system where you take that murderous local wildlife and turn them into a slightly bigger wallet or whatever. The expansions and DLC are allowed to get a bit weird, but even they stick to the familiar gameplay format.

A purely multiplayer Far Cry might break the mold, at least a little. According to Insider Gaming, it would be “an extraction-based shooter with mechanics such as permadeath, a backpack system, contracts, and more”. The site says it’s seen screenshots that depict extraction zones and chests full of loot.

Extraction shooters like Escape From Tarkov and Hunt: Showdown are all the rage right now, challenging players to raid a map full of other players and AI threats, earn all the loot they can, and get out at a designated point, with the risk that whatever gear they bring with them will be lost if they die. Ubisoft helped inspire the subgenre with The Division’s Dark Zone, and previously tried to get in on the action with Rainbow Six Extraction.

Another detail mentioned by Insider Gaming’s sources is that the multiplayer Far Cry is “pitched as being set in the Alaskan wilderness”, which lines up with an old Ubisoft poll about potential settings for Far Cry games. “A Far Cry game in remote Alaska about surviving extreme wilderness” was the first suggestion presented.

Kotaku (opens in new tab) reported that its own sources at Ubisoft back up the existence of both games, claiming that the company’s CEO Yves Guillemot mentioned both in an internal memo. They also added the detail that the next Far Cry sequel would be made with the Snowdrop engine, which was used for The Division and will be used by several upcoming Ubisoft games like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, The Settlers: New Allies, the Splinter Cell remake, and its open world Star Wars game.

There’s no guarantee the next numbered Far Cry would share a spin-off’s setting, so let’s look back at some of the other options from that old Ubisoft poll. Which of these would you like to see filled with outposts and things you can grapple onto?

  • A Far Cry game in a futuristic, sci-fi setting on another planet
  • A Far Cry game set in the Vietnam war during the 1960s
  • A Far Cry game set in the cocaine trafficking jungles of Peru
  • A Far Cry game where you can fight against or join vampires
  • A Far Cry game in the Spaghetti Western style set in the late 19th century Americas
  • A Far Cry game that is set during a zombie outbreak
  • Blood Dragon 2: A sequel to Blood Dragon with more Rex Power Colt
  • A Far Cry game set in a Mad Max style post-apocalyptic world
  • A Far Cry game in the present day on a Jurassic Park style island of dinosaurs
  • A Far Cry game based on the world of Shangri-La from Far Cry


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Phil Spencer says ‘2022 was too light on games’

In 2021, Microsoft’s gaming division published games like Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite, Age of Empires 4, and Psychonauts 2. It was declared Metacritic’s publisher of the year (opens in new tab) thanks to its games receiving an average metascore of 87.4, helped also to the Xbox Series X port of Microsoft Flight Simulator releasing that year. While in 2022 Microsoft backed some well-received smaller games—Grounded, Pentiment, and As Dusk Falls—its biggest releases, Starfield and Redfall, were delayed into this year.

Xbox stans weren’t happy about this, though I think maybe we could do with less rushed videogame releases and maybe less videogames overall. During a recent interview with IGN (opens in new tab) following the Xbox/Bethesda Developer Direct livestream, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer agreed with the fans, saying, “The commitment we have to our customers to continue to deliver great games is something that I take seriously, the teams take seriously, and 2022 was too light on games.”

Spencer took the blame for this, adding, “our commitment to our fans is that we need to have a steady release of great games that people can play on our platform, and we didn’t do enough of that in 2022, there’s no doubt. And fundamentally, that’s on me. I’m the head of the business.”

As well as Starfield and Redfall, Microsoft-published games confirmed for release in 2023 include Minecraft Legends and the eighth Forza Motorsport, which is just called Forza Motorsport. “I know there were some questions on the date on Forza Motorsport,” Spencer said, “because we just revealed the year. Everybody should know just the quality that Turn 10 puts into Motorsport, if you look historically, is going to be there in this game. That’s the thing that, first and foremost, is most important, and we will come out with a date, no doubt when we’re a little bit closer. But we just wanted to reaffirm to people that this is a 2023 game.”

Microsoft also won some goodwill with the unexpected release of Hi-Fi Rush, a rhythm action game that goes surprisingly hard. Being shadow-dropped during the livestream was developer Tango Gameworks’ own idea, Spencer said. “They’d been playing the game, felt good about their launch date and some of the early signals on quality, and said, ‘Hey, it would just be fun. It would just be fun to be able to launch this during the Developer Direct and say, ‘Play it now.” So we rolled with that. We’re always learning, always listening, and it seems like the community’s responding well, which I think is a good signal.”

Spencer emphasized that smaller, riskier games like Hi-Fi Rush and Obsidian’s excellent monastic mystery Pentiment were made possible by being available on the subscription service Game Pass. “[If] sales was the only way of gauging success,” he said, “they might not get to go do those games. So I like when we can create opportunity for teams to do some unique things that are maybe outside of what they’ve normally done, then really find either new customers for the studios or find just people that really enjoy the work that they’re doing.

“I think one of the benefits of Game Pass, not to turn into an ad for it, is that the risk as a gamer that you think you’re taking if you buy a game that maybe is outside of the things that you normally play…it’s pretty easy to click now to download and you click now to play, and then you can decide through your own choice, ‘Is this something I want to invest my time in?'”

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Spencer also discussed Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which was first announced in January of 2022. The European Union Commission subsequently began an investigation into the acquisition and, more recently, Microsoft laid off 10,000 employees worldwide, casting doubt on its ability to expand. 

“When we announced a year ago,” Spencer said of the acquisition, “we talked about an 18-month timeframe. We’re 12 months into that. I think we continue to stay focused on getting the deal closed.” He also said that he knows more about how regulatory boards work than he did when the announcement was made, and, “my confidence remains high. We’re actively working with the regulatory boards around the world that need to approve for this, and it’s been a learning experience for me. A lot of time spent, a lot of travel, a lot of conversations, but they’re conversations where I get to talk about our industry and the work that we do and why we do it. I think the more regulators are informed about what gaming is, how the business runs, who the players are, and what our aspiration is as Team Xbox is just a good thing for the industry itself.”


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Check out this Ultima-style RPG with a modern indie flair

Here’s an RPG I’m gonna toss out for you for an odd reason: It looks in many ways like a game that came straight out of the 90s. Aside from a more modern pixel art style and a lighting engine, Caves of Lore could well be a lost game from the Ultima generation. 

A straightforward, single-developer indie CRPG, Caves of Lore has grid-based tactical combat that spans a dungeon-crawling story of 70 to 100 hours spanning a central village of 30 NPCs and 20-some explorable areas. Though it’s definitely rich with a retro feel all the way down to the UI, there is a more approachably modern sensibility to the combat design and a lot of clarity in the visuals and lighting.

“Ultima 6, The Magic Candle, Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday and Final Fantasy all come to mind. These are just some of the games that I grew up with, and there are elements from each in Caves of Lore,” said the developer.

Your main character is customizable, and your party can hold up to six people—you can even change the party leader, letting someone other than the core character take the lead in conversations and comment on the surrounding as you explore. The party leader’s stats are used for exploring, and characters also have a unique trait that means you’ll want to swap around who’s taking the lead at times.

For a smaller indie it’s also rich with pretty neat options, not many of which double up on the same stuff.  The developer says there’s “65+ spells, 65+ abilities, 65+ traits” to use, and the item customization has a pretty robust system of enchantments allowing for thousands of combinations.

It is of course a solo-developed indie, and there’s a bit of jank to be found or rough edges and bugs to run up against. So far, at least, developer Red Plume has been very quick about fixing bugs, sometimes dropping several hotfixes in a day. That 90s-style UI will be nostalgically delightful for some, but for others will be an absolute dealbreaker.

You can find Caves of Lore on Steam (opens in new tab) for $10. It also has an official website, shockingly called cavesoflore.com (opens in new tab).


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Who’s up for a bit of WW2 Tactics? Second Front releases this week



There are people of a certain kind who will play any game which is set in World War 2 and has hexagons at least once. I am one of them. Thus it is with excitement I tell you that Second Front, a tactical, turn-based WW2 strategy wargame from studio Hexdraw and publisher Microprose, will release on January 31, 2023.

Second Front will feature a laundry list of the best stuff in this genre, but emphasizes a competitive AI combined with a strong scenario builder. The AI is to be emergent, allowing it to adapt to player actions rather than to be set for any given scenario. Second Front will also focus on breadth of units, with 40-some infantry units of unique tactical function and 216 pieces of equipment from tanks and vehicles to mortars, anti-tank guns, and flamethrowers. It’ll launch with American, German, and Russian forces.



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17-year-old D&D Online is getting a ‘mini expansion’ this year

First spotted by Massively Overpowered (opens in new tab), Standing Stone Games, developer of the long-running D&D-based MMO, Dungeons & Dragons Online, just revealed its 2023 roadmap (opens in new tab) for the game. Standing Stone is celebrating D&D Online’s 17th anniversary with a new free dungeon and three character archetypes, as well as a “mini-expansion” launching sometime between April and June.

(Image credit: Standing Stone Games)

D&D Online news is a bit of a blast from the past for me⁠—I was still in middle school when this game first launched in 2006! Initially focused on D&D’s Eberron Campaign Setting, the game expanded in 2012 to include content for the juggernaut Forgotten Realms, home of Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter. Stewardship of the game was transferred from original developer Turbine to Standing Stone in 2016, and D&D Online has continued to see steady support. Its last expansion, Isle of Dread (opens in new tab), was released last June.

The centerpiece of D&D Online’s 2023 plans is Vecna Unleashed, that aforementioned mini-expansion and follow-up to the MMO’s ongoing story. Vecna, for those who need a brush-up on their D&D lore (how dare you) is a super archvillain lich bugaboo with origins in Gary Gygax’s original Greyhawk campaign setting. The nasty boy has since cropped up in other settings like Ravenloft and Forgotten Realms, and you may recall snagging his enchanted pajamas second hand in Baldur’s Gate (opens in new tab) and Neverwinter Nights.

To tackle Vecna, D&D Online has you teaming up with the Eberron-based adventurer/archeologist academy Morgrave University. My colleague, PC Gamer contributor Jon Bolding, described the plot setup as “basically Indiana Jones vs. The Multiverse-Traveling Lich King,” so that sounds pretty neat.

Even though I’m not a D&D Online player myself, there’s still something so heartening about seeing this generation of late ’00s, early ’10s MMOs continue to soldier on, even as contemporaries like Tabula Rasa (opens in new tab) closed shop while more recently-launched live service games like Marvel’s Avengers (opens in new tab) and Anthem have already entered an end-of-life, unsupported state. 

My favorite of this classic MMO cohort is probably the fan-made Star Wars Galaxies Revival (opens in new tab), which is keeping that ambitious, beloved MMO alive in the 2020s. Meanwhile, Galaxies’ killer, my dear old friend The Old Republic, is also keeping the dream alive. Its last full expansion, Legacy of the Sith (opens in new tab), dropped in 2021, while TOR got a Mandalorian-focused content update, Showdown on Rhunuk (opens in new tab), just last month.


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Slay some demons with the power of rock in Power Chord’s full release



Delightfully-themed Demonic Deckbuilder Power Chord (opens in new tab) has unleashed its mightiest lineups, arriving out of Early Access and into a full release. In Power Chord you “Assemble Earth’s mightiest musicians, each with their own unique cards and gear, to fight your way through the hordes and destroy the only guitar powerful enough to reopen the scratch between worlds.”

We first got a look (opens in new tab) at the uniquely-themed Power Chord in late 2021, when a demo first showed off its stylish aesthetics and explosively metal sounds. It stood out from the pack at the time because it was so clearly trying to do something new and interesting that others in the genre weren’t. It combines multiple characters, but isn’t purely class-based.



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