This makes BattleBit a rarity on the platform: many multiplayer games that would otherwise be playable on a Steam Deck have been deemed “unsupported” due to their associated anti-cheat software being incompatible with Proton, the tool Valve uses to run Windows apps on the Linux-based Deck. BattleBit has been functional on Deck up to now because it uses a version of Easy Anti-Cheat that works with Proton.

When the devs announced that it’d soon move over to FaceIT, an anti-cheat software favored by CS:GO players for unofficial matches that isn’t typically Linux-compatible, players feared it’d spell the end for handheld BattleBit. Instead, BattleBit will use a “new version of FaceIT that supports Linux,” according to a moderator in the game’s Discord. They also say BattleBit will be the first game to support this Linux-friendly version of FaceIT.

BattleBit’s moderators have spent the last month banning players by the thousands for cheating and toxicity through both manual and automatic processes, often to the delight of players when massive ban waves are announced on everyone’s screens at once. Considering the game’s small team and its explosive popularity, it makes sense that they’d want to automate the process as much as possible.

Lead dev SgtOkiDoki has suggested that FaceIT will be a better fit for BattleBit than Easy Anti-Cheat. Thankfully, that won’t mean having to leave Steam Deck players behind. 

While there was an HD version of Stronghold released in 2013 complete with cloud saves, higher resolutions, embiggened unit caps, and other tweaks, this will be a more dramatic update. Stronghold: Definitive Edition is adding a 14-mission narrative campaign in which players “march across the devastated English hinterland in search of Sir Longarm’s captured kin,” as well as a 10-mission Castle Trail based around famous castles of history including Warwick, Dunnottar, and Marksburg. 

The original game’s military and economic campaigns return as well, so there’ll be no getting away from that one objective to bake 300 loaves of bread, which your peasants will immediately eat unless you remember to tell them not to because hot damn do peasants love eating bread.

Stronghold: Definitive Edition will also have visuals that have been “rebuilt using the source artwork”, as well remastered music, and new audio that some of the original voice actors returned for. It’ll have multiplayer via Steam, as well as Steam Workshop support for sharing maps.

Developers Firefly Studios add that, “In addition to a host of technical enhancements and player-requested quality of life improvements, Stronghold: Definitive Edition will allow fans old and new to customise their experience with individual settings for many of their preferred game features and controls.” It’ll be out on November 7 via Steam, my liege. 

In addition to revealing the final full-on launch class, the Monk, Larian’s final preview of Baldur’s Gate 3 sketched out the remaining subclasses to be added to the game, as well as what to expect from pre-existing subclasses past early access’ puny level 5 cap.

Like Divinity: Original Sin 2, Baldur’s Gate 3 looks like a game that will celebrate lateral thinking and weird choices, playstyles that are maybe more fun than optimal. To that end we’ve gathered our list of the six subclasses we’re most excited to try in Baldur’s Gate 3.

College of Swords Bard

What is it? A jack-of-all-trades spellcaster/melee damage dealer, also known as a “Blade”

Pick this class if you want: Extensive dialogue and non-combat options, and to hold your own in melee

Baldur’s Gate series fans might recognize this alt Fighter/Mage, a Fighter/Mage with a septum piercing if you will, from its appearance in Baldur’s Gate 2 as a player option and the chosen class of companion Haer’Dalis. The Blade Bard in BG3 seems to have a broadly similar kit to the early access-available Valour Bard, but the Blade is a little less tanky and support-focused, with more capacity to deal out its own damage with dual rapiers or the like.

There’s a distinct swashbuckler’s flair to the Blade’s Dexterity-focused, flashy fighting. They gain certain martial bonuses like a Fighting Style (I’d go with dual wielding since they lack shield proficiency) and Extra Attack alongside the Bard’s spellcasting and support kit, as well as the unique ability “Blade Flourish.” That last one is a special attack that deals extra damage and can either boost your own AC, deal damage to a second enemy, or knock an enemy back. All together, I’m imagining the fun and versatility of a Bard with more serious front line damage dealing capabilities, and that sounds like a great time.

Most powergamey D&D forum types are not big on Blades, but it strikes me as a more than viable playstyle on most difficulty settings. One thing that’d really take the Blade from “you can have fun with it” to a “you can really kick ass with it” is if Larian moved up the tabletop class’ “Master’s Flourish” ability from level 14 to within BG3’s 12-level range. That ability decouples College of Swords Bards’ flourish ability from their limited Bardic Inspiration uses, letting you use your Inspirations the way they were meant to while flourishing about all the live-long day.

Circle of Spores Druid

What is it? Stinky mushroom man

Pick this class if you want: To enact the will of the spore gods

Stinky boys rise up. This Druid subclass is permanently surrounded by a “Halo of Spores” like goddamn Pigpen in Peanuts. Your spores can defend you when you’re approached in combat, give you temporary hit points, or even infest your weapons. Eventually, Spore Druids can use their fungal friends to raise zombies in combat, and their stinky guy abilities all come in addition to the standard Druid spread of support and damaging spells.

I’m less up on Druids and their arsenal, but nothing in the Circle of Spores’ repertoire seems like an OP, home run beast mode choice (applying necrotic damage to your weapons seems pretty sick though). I think you pick this class more for the flavor: the flavor of mushrooms and rotting flesh. In the spirit of low-intelligence Fallout characters or Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines Malkavians, sometimes you just want to roleplay a stinky weirdo freak no one likes and that’s okay.

Way of the Shadow Monk

What is it? A stealth and ninja-themed martial artist.

Pick this class if you want: To move around that battlefield quickly, hitting enemies from the shadows

Alongside a typical Monk’s assorted martial arts abilities, Shadow Monks get an added focus on hit-and-run tactics and stealth. One of their most exciting abilities to my eye is Shadow Step, a teleport ability that’s restricted to “dim light or darkness.” I’m curious how that’ll be handled in the full game, but positioning abilities are always a winner in Larian’s typically restrictive turn-based action economies. 

I seriously considered the Shadow Monk’s multiclass capabilities with Gloom Stalker Rangers or Assassin Rogues (or even both, if you want to get freaky), but Baldur’s Gate 3’s level cap of 12 seems a little restrictive for that, especially given the Monk’s reliance on their ki pool to fire off special abilities.

Gloom Stalker Ranger

What is it? A shadows and darkness-focused edgelord

Pick this class if you want: To ambush enemies from stealth whenever possible.

Ranger’s definitely felt like one of the weaker classes in Baldur’s Gate 3’s early access, but that may be set to change with the Gloom Stalker. Their big advantage comes from their level three ability on picking the class: Dread Ambusher. Gloom Stalkers get bonus move speed, an extra attack, and bonus damage on their first turn of combat. Basically, you want to begin every battle by exploding out of stealth with a crazy-powerful ambush.

Gloom Stalker also seems like a strong multi-class candidate with the Rogue’s Assassin subclass, gaining advantage, sneak attack, and automatic criticals against opponents who haven’t taken a turn in combat yet, all on top of Dread Ambusher. The Gloom Stalker doesn’t seem to lose much after level 9 aside from a potential feat/attribute increase at the end of the game, so a Gloom Stalker 9/Assassin 3 strikes me as a real tempting choice for any DPS/stealth game nerdlingers out there. A character designed to eliminate as much opposition as possible right at the start of a battle, definitely Dexterity-focused and opting for either dual finesse weapons or a bow.

Oathbreaker Paladin

What is it? A Paladin subclass unlocked by breaking Paladin Law.

Pick this class if you want: To be a real sad sack, edgy guy with nothing to lose.

Oathbreaker‘s a weird one, and it’s really just so cool to see how Larian implemented it. Instead of the classic D&D Lawful Good alignment restriction, in 5E Paladins now have an “oath” that they can break based on their actions in the game (and the specific confines of your oath depend on which subclass you pick). If you break your oath by behaving in a manner unbecoming of a Paladin, you turn into an Oathbreaker, gaining different abilities accordingly.

The Oathbreaker reminds me a lot of earlier editions’ Blackguards, though Oathbreakers seem like they can be roleplayed as anything from a reluctant and haunted former Paladin to a full-on villain. Oathbreakers are more explicitly debuff/damage focused, losing out on other Paladins’ healing and support abilities. What’s more, the Oathbreakers’ Charisma focus, just like normal Paladins, leaves them primed to solve quests through dialogue options in addition to brawn.

Couple Paladin oaths with the Dark Urge origin giving you a freaky serial killer who lives in your head, all alongside a little Cthulhu worm who also lives in your head, and there’s some fun roleplay opportunities here for a seriously internally conflicted Dudley Do-Right holy warrior type.

Wild Magic Barbarian

What is it? A Barbarian who loves magic, but isn’t the best at controlling it

Pick this class if you want: To surprise both enemies and yourself

The Path of Wild Magic gives D&D 5e Barbarians the opportunity to add spellcasting to their rage-induced slicing and hammering, just without any of the finesse of a typical wizard or sorcerer. The standout feature is Wild Surge. Starting at level three, you cast a spell whenever you enter rage—but you don’t get to determine which spell. A d8 roll determines whether you’ll rend your enemies with necrotic damage, teleport to a random new location, or perhaps summon exploding spirits. These Barbarians can also detect nearby spells and magic items, and at higher levels can magically buff allies.

This subclass isn’t available in Baldur’s Gate 3’s early access version, so we don’t know exactly how it’s implemented. Larian could have created its own special spell table for Wild Surge, for example. I’m not sure Wild Magic Barbarians are necessarily a powerful class, if you’re optimizing, but they could be a fun one, especially if Larian finds ways to make their uncontrolled magic set off disastrous chain reactions now and then.

The big moment was noted by CD Projekt Red global community director Marcin Momot, who thanked fans “for acknowledging all the hard work the team has put in over the years since the release.”

You could argue that, as moments go, this one isn’t all that terribly big, and yeah, that’s fair. Despite its train wreck reputation, Cyberpunk 2077 was pretty okay on PC, especially if you had a fairly high-powered rig, and even when it first came out—which is to say, when it was in its worst condition—the Steam score never slipped below 70%, which counts as “mostly positive.” That’s not bad for most games, but Cyberpunk 2077 wasn’t most games, and the fact that it wasn’t bringing in universal praise was seen as a shock—and of course, the situation was far worse on consoles.

But as Momot said, CD Projekt has stuck with it, and things slowly turned around. The first real evidence of improvement came in November 2021, when new user reviews climbed to “very positive,” helped along by a flood of input from people who picked it up for half price in the Steam Autumn Sale. The overall rating remained stuck at “mostly positive,” but the new reviews continued to roll in, and the needle very slowly moved. Last year’s Edgerunners update, timed alongside the release of the highly-praised Netflix show, earned goodwill too by correcting some of the worst annoyances that’d persisted since launch, like the lack of cosmetic armor slots.

You may see, if you go to check the Steam page yourself, that Cyberpunk 2077 is still listed as “mostly positive.” If that’s the case (and it was for me, which is why I bring it up), it’s because of your user review settings: Steam enables users to exclude “off-topic reviews” from game ratings as a way to combat review bombs, but you can opt to include all reviews if you want—and I had. That meant the several thousand negative reviews that dropped through February and March 2022—and which Valve determined were off-topic—were included in the overall rating, which was enough to drag it back below 80%. Take those out of the equation, and you’ve made it to the top.

My guess is that unless the Phantom Liberty expansion literally changes the world (the actual real world, I mean, not the game world), this is as good as it will get for Cyberpunk 2077: Steam’s top rating, Overwhelmingly Positive, requires 95% positive user reviews, and all due respect to CD Projekt but that’s just not going to happen. Still, it’s an impressive turnaround for what was—no matter what CD Projekt says about it now—one of the most infamously ugly game launches of all time.

The idea behind the Lite series is simple. They’re otherwise identical to their existing Taichi counterparts, but with a simpler aesthetic. At Computex 2023, an Asrock rep told me the complicated cogs and wheels heatsinks of recent Taichi boards were quite expensive to make, and swapping these out for something simpler allowed it to sell the same motherboard at a cheaper price. Hoorah!

I’ve reviewed many Taichi boards, including the Z690 Taichi and B550 Taichi Razer Edition. I believe the first one I reviewed was the X99 Taichi in 2016 or 2017. This was during the era of excessive RGB and ‘gamification’ of entire product lines. Adding the word gaming to a board supposedly made it more appealing. The Taichi was a refreshing change.

At the time the Taichi really stood out with its blend of affordability, relatively simple non-gamer black and white aesthetic and solid feature set. In recent years, Asrock has elevated the Taichi brand, and it’s now its flagship series, with the exception of limited edition models like the Aqua. Taichis are typically very good boards, but their appeal has diminished a bit due to excessive pricing

The same can be said of all high end motherboards though. No matter the reason, whether its component shortages, electrical complexity, feature creep, or the need for bigger profit margins, high end motherboards are too expensive. Of course you can still buy cheap motherboards, but what I’d like to see is less emphasis on flashy designs, accessory bundles and an ‘everything plus the kitchen sink’ approach.

I’d love to see more ‘lite’ motherboards. For starters, ditch the sculpted heatsinks that serve as little more than glorified advertisements. M.2 and chipset cooling is usually hidden underneath a graphics card anyway. Make heatsinks functional with a large surface area (E.g. fins) while keeping a powerful VRM capable of handling K CPUs and their fastest turbo modes. Give me half a dozen fast USB ports, a couple of M.2, two SATA, 2.5G LAN and WiFi. Bang, I just saved a couple of hundred dollars. Sometimes less really is more.

As long as such a board has good BIOS support, you could install a 14900K and let it do its turbo thing for the next five years. Once you close your case you’d never know you don’t have a flagship board, it’ll just be one without superfluous expensive crap.

If you must have a board with Thunderbolt 4 or dual 10G LAN or an SSD add-in card, the makers will be all too happy to sell them to you, as they do now. But as a consumer, why can’t I have the option to buy a high end motherboard with an entry level bundle? 

It’ll never happen of course. The reasons are obvious. Money, profits and margins. Motherboard makers want you to buy more expensive boards. Capitalism! Yay.

The DIY PC market is struggling, and compelling users to spend ever more on high spec gaming motherboards isn’t conducive to a healthy ecosystem. Given there are already hundreds of different motherboards on the market, there is room for an unconventional motherboard product with a wish list like mine above, but will one of the manufacturers step up with such a product? It’s doubtful. But one can hope.

I applaud Asrock’s decision to release the Taichi Lite series, though their pricing hasn’t been announced. I hope they sell well and we see more products like them in the future.