January 2024 - Page 7 of 8 - Gaming Army United

Wordle today: Hint and answer #931 for Saturday, January 6

There’s a hint for today’s Wordle waiting below if you need it, designed to give you a helpful nudge in the right direction without completely giving the game away. And if you would like someone to completely give the game away, you’re in luck. Just click or scroll your way down to the January 6 (931) Wordle answer.

I felt so proud of all my guesses today, certain each time I’d quickly solved Saturday’s Wordle. Obviously I was wrong for all of them bar the last one, and that was too far down the board for comfort, but at least I was consistently wrong in a way that turned out to be helpful in the end. That’s still kind of a win, isn’t it?

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Saturday, January 6

There are a few meanings for today’s answer. In some cases this word’s a thick steel rope, in others it’s a collection of electrical wires encased in rubber, or a wired way of receiving TV programs.

Is there a double letter in Wordle today?

No, there is no double letter in today’s puzzle.

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 not to treat the game like a casual newspaper crossword and come back to it later if you’re coming up blank.

Today’s Wordle answer

Wordle answers

(Image credit: Future)

What is today’s Wordle answer?

Your first win of the weekend. The answer to the January 6 (931) Wordle is CABLE.

Previous answers

The last 10 Wordle answers

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:

January 5: LUNGE
January 4: SCANT
January 3: TWIRL
January 2: AGING
January 1: MURAL
December 31: SALTY
December 30: THREE
December 29: CHILD
December 28: LEARN
December 27: DAISY

Learn more about Wordle

Today's Wordle being played on a phone

(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)

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 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, 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, 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, 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. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.

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There’s an Alex Jones game on Steam, and it’s just as much of an embarrassment as you’d expect

InfoWars host Alex Jones now has a game on Steam⁠—the same Alex Jones who fundraised for and attended the January 6 protests that led to the storming of the US Capitol building and who owes $1.5 billion to the families of murdered children over defamation.

It won’t surprise you to hear that Alex Jones: NWO Wars is not a good game, but its warmed over meme jokes have accrued over 400 positive reviews in just a few days. Reading them is awesome⁠—they have the energy of those commenters on Reddit all trying to be the funniest guy in the room by saying the same thing, and AJ:NWOW seems to be cresting a wave of memetic popularity, yucking it up on the platform after a more limited release last November.

The best thing I can say about the Alex Jones game is that it took me about 36 minutes to beat, well within Steam’s two-hour refund window. Also, fair is fair, the pixel art is bafflingly competent⁠—it has a kind of “corporate indie” look, something you might see in the okayest Steam releases of the mid-2010s. Otherwise? It’s kind of a piece of dogshit, and quality aside, it’s an embarrassment for the platform.

I guess we’re reviewing this thing

AJ:NWOW is a low-effort riff on Metal Slug. You can only aim directly up and down or side to side despite the game only supporting analogue stick movement and no d-pad controls⁠—it has a fiddly imprecision leaving you flailing about like somebody having a Garry’s Mod freakout. Add in some persistent input lag alongside mysterious and ineffable hitboxes and you’ve got a real sloppy piece of work. Thankfully it’s so easy and generous with lives you can just choke it down like you’re dry-swallowing one of InfoWars’ dubious nootropics.

The real draw is meant to be the Alex Jones-themed “anti-woke” comedy, but it struck me as this slavish, capering routine running through the greatest hits of Jones’ decade plus of internet virality, just as dated and feeble as the platforming. AJ:NWOW leans heavily on that “they’re turning the frogs gay” rant by Jones that blew up all the way back in 2015, with gay frog enemies exploding in rainbow pride blood and Jones himself intoning “they’re turning the frogs gay” or another room temperature quip every minute on the minute like some kind of latter-day, greatly diminished Gex the Gecko.

That’s about the extent of Jones’ capacity to laugh at himself though. Instead of facing his true greatest foes like alimony payments or the Sandy Hook parents, you get these lazy caricatures of Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, George Soros, the Clintons, you get the idea.

Alex Jones game on

(Image credit: SVGS LLC)

And man, there are funny ways to make fun of Bill Clinton but the quip “I did not have sexual relations with that saxophone” is not one of them. He repeats that line and like two others ad nauseam during his boss fight on Little St. James Island, referred to as “Epstein Island” in-game, as if the devs don’t trust their audience. Forget the Reddit front page, this crap is Imgur circa 2011: “I tip my hat to you sir, you win one(1) internets today!”

It feels fruitless to talk about giving and receiving offence when it comes to a guy and fanbase for whom that’s kinda the point, but I do have to shout out the one time my general tired disgust rose into something more acute: the level where you mow down homeless people throwing shit at you in San Francisco. Stay classy, man.

What did we learn?

Alex Jones gameplay vs.

(Image credit: SVGS LLC)

I don’t know either, but this thing probably shouldn’t be on Steam. The tension of thousands of low-quality games releasing on the platform and Valve’s uniquely laissez faire moderation is one of the Big Conversations of PC gaming, and it’s one that I don’t think will ever reach a definitive conclusion.

I do know that I generally prefer Valve’s approach to other tech giants’ ceaseless, fruitless fidgeting with their moderation policies. Twitch constantly passing judgment on new types of implied nudity that either are or are not okay to appease the most annoying men on the planet, or YouTube‘s arcane de- and re-monetizing of speedrun history videos for alleged adult content with no internal consistency. Give me a deluge of really bad hentai visual novels with genuinely incredible stuff like Cruelty Squad bubbling to the surface here and there any day of the week.

Alex Jones game with Tucker Carlson stand in

(Image credit: SVGS LLC)

That being said, Alex Jones:NWOW has less value than a free Flash game while asking for about $20. Those dudes leaving le epic troll positive reviews have absolutely called better games with more to offer “scams.” What’s more, I’d argue this game is in pretty clear violation of entries from Valve’s guidelines for what you shouldn’t publish on Steam, namely:

Hate speech, i.e. speech that promotes hatred, violence or discrimination against groups of people based on ethnicity, religion, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation.
Libelous or defamatory statements. (the game refers to its George Soros effigy as a Nazi multiple times)
Content that is patently offensive or intended to shock or disgust viewers.

Whatever the case, I’m worse off for the 36 minutes I spent with AJ:NWOW, and I don’t recommend playing it even if you’re just going to refund it. Jones and InfoWars remain banned off most major social networks and digital storefronts, including Apple, YouTube, Spotify, and Facebook, though he was recently reinstated on Twitter, a bastion of quality direction and moderation. If everyone’s disallowing something, allowing it is a statement whether it’s intended to be or not—not in support of Jones’ warped worldview, but perhaps for the same notion of ‘platform neutrality’ that Spotify has used in response to criticism of its relationship with Joe Rogan. Even Spotify won’t touch Jones, though.

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There’s a touching tribute in Baldur’s Gate 3 to a BG2-loving dad with Alzheimer’s: ‘he listened to my description with a child-like glee I haven’t seen in a while’

Back in the early access of Baldur’s Gate 3, a player by the name of Solfalia wrote a heartfelt thank-you to Larian Studios. His father had been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and it was unlikely that he would be able to play the full game: “This is more than an Early Access for me, it’s another adventure I can go on with my old man and make some good memories.”

In a follow-up post on the game’s forums, Solfalia confirmed that he “did end up playing with him that Christmas, and it was good fun—we enjoyed remembering the old BG2 days and getting into trouble in the new one.”

What’s more, Solfalia explained that after his initial post, one of the writers from the game reached out: “It turns out my message had resonated with quite a few of you, as many of us have experienced the struggle of a family member with Alzheimer’s or Dementia, and superwriter”—a name he chooses to respect the writer’s privacy—”was emailing me to ask if I would be open to having something included in the game to honour my father.”

Once the game launched, Solfalia asked where he could find the tribute, saying that he didn’t want to miss it during his playthrough. “I was expecting a mention in a random book, or a plaque, but I was secretly hoping for a NPC with a one-liner”—but it turns out that the superwriter had gone above and beyond.

They directed Solfalia to the home of one illithid hunter Golbraith, “where the mighty Golbraith Stredivas can be found. A mindflayer hunter of great renown, he has since retired and now spends his days writing—in the hopes of passing his knowledge on to future generations.” Journeying there, he discovered Golbraith not only had multiple lines of dialogue, but that the house was littered with heartfelt details.

“‘The stack of letters between Golbraith and his son put a lump in my throat.” I decided to boot up the game and head on over myself, having a save in the Lower City—the letters themselves simply read: “A bulging binder of correspondence between Golbraith and his son, lovingly preserved.” I also spoke with the NPC himself, whose words are deeply touching.

This was all confirmed recently by Rachel Quirke (a writer at Larian Studios) yesterday on Twitter, who wrote: “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when we read that letter … Really happy we got to honour the mighty mindflayer hunter.” Swen Vincke, the studio’s founder and CEO, also added: “They’re shit diseases. My father and my grandmother had Parkinson’s. Also, superwriter is an amazing human being”

When Solfalia had finished combing the house from top to bottom, he went to visit his father outside the Sword Coast. “He’s in a care home now, so can’t play the game, but he listened to my description with a child-like glee I haven’t seen in a while. He loved every moment of it. He loved the idea that his character has a monocle, and was proud his character has a secret cellar with weapons. He still talks about it from time to time during our weekly chats.”

“Thank you Larian. Truly. It was so much more than I was expecting, and was extremely touching. Both my Dad and me loved it.”

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Wordle today: Hint and answer #930 for Friday, January 5

Whether you’re bravely battling through today’s Wordle challenge, or would just like to get to the part where you win already, there’s something on this page for you. Take some time mulling over today’s clue if you’d like a little direction, or click your way to the January 5 (930) answer—just make sure you enjoy your win.

Wow, that actually worked. I had a tricky yellow today that didn’t seem to want to turn green anywhere, and I ended up trying what turned out to be today’s winning word more out of desperation than anything else—and I won. We’ll call this “subconscious problem solving” and not “dumb luck”, OK?

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Friday, January 5

You’ll need to think of physical actions to win today. This word describes a sudden forward body movement, often with arms outstretched. For example, a goalkeeper might _____ for a ball.

Is there a double letter in Wordle today?

No, there is no double letter in today’s puzzle.

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day

A good starting word can be the difference between victory and defeat with the daily puzzle, but once you’ve got the basics, it’s much easier to nail down those Wordle wins. And as there’s nothing quite like a small victory to set you up for the rest of the day, here are a few tips to help set you on the right path:

A good opening guess should contain a mix of unique consonants and vowels.
Narrow down the pool of letters quickly with a tactical second guess.
Watch out for letters appearing more than once in the answer.

There’s no racing against the clock with Wordle so you don’t need to rush for the answer. Treating the game like a casual newspaper crossword can be a good tactic; that way, you can come back to it later if you’re coming up blank. Stepping away for a while might mean the difference between a win and a line of grey squares.

Today’s Wordle answer

Wordle answer

(Image credit: Future)

What is today’s Wordle answer?

Better safe than sorry. The answer to the January 5 (930) Wordle is LUNGE.

Previous Wordle 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 answers:

January 4: SCANT
January 3: TWIRL
January 2: AGING
January 1: MURAL
December 31: SALTY
December 30: THREE
December 29: CHILD
December 28: LEARN
December 27: DAISY
December 26: PHONE

Learn more about Wordle

Today's Wordle being played on a phone

(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)

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 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.

Your second guess should compliment the starting word, 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. With a bit of luck, you should have some coloured squares to work with and set you on the right path.

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, 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, 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, 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. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.

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The big PC gaming events in 2024

E3 is gone—may it rest in peace—but although the games industry no longer crams itself into the LA Convention Center every June, we’re not at all short on events. The year ahead is packed with showcases, esports tournaments, conventions, and fan gatherings, some new, some that have been going for decades.

Dates haven’t been announced for all of 2024’s events—we’ll update this article with specifics and new events as they’re announced.

January

CES | January 9-12 | Las Vegas

The biggest trade show for consumer tech. We’ll be there covering all the PC gaming peripherals, chips, and gadgets on display—follow our coverage here.

Annual speedrunning charity marathon. Check the streaming schedule here.

20-year-old trade show and exhibition in Taiwan. We’ll be looking out for new details on upcoming games—the show included a big Elden Ring video feature in 2022, for instance.

IEM Katowice (CS2 tournament) | Jan 31-Feb 11 | Katowice

The first of two ESL Pro Tour Championship finals this year. See the full schedule of 2024 IEM Counter-Strike 2 events here.

February

The biggest Rainbow Six: Siege event of the year will be hosted in Brazil for the first time.

A major industry networking event (not to be confused with Swedish developer DICE, maker of the Battlefield games). Includes the D.I.C.E Awards.

March

SXSW 2024 | March 8-16 | Austin

The famous South-by-Southwest arts festival is primarily focused on music, film, TV, and comedy, but includes some interactive arts and entertainment talks.

Steam Spring Sale | March 14-21 | Steam

The first big Steam seasonal sale of the year is usually a good opportunity to pick up some of last year’s best games at a small or sometimes substantial discount. Baldur’s Gate 3 was discounted for the first time in Steam’s 2023 Winter Sale, so it’s a good bet it’ll get another discount here. See all the known upcoming Steam sale dates here.

The first of two Counter-Strike 2 PGL Majors this year will take place in Denmark.

GDC 2024 | March 18-22 | San Francisco

The Game Developers Conference is one of our favorite events of the year at PC Gamer: an opportunity for us to share what game developers are talking about with each other, and to chat with them in-person about their work and the business. See, for example, our roundtable discussion with five veteran RPG designers from last year’s GDC.

PAX East | March 21-24 | Boston

The east coast edition of the long-running gaming fan convention, with panels, expo booths, a big tabletop gaming space, and a PC LAN area.

April

The Australian stop on the yearly, worldwide tour of DreamHack events, which feature esports, a cosplay competition, and LAN gaming. Last year’s was in Melbourne, but a specific venue for this year hasn’t been announced.

May

The Texas stop on the DreamHack tour will be “bigger than ever” according to the organizers of the annual esports, cosplay, and LAN event.

June

Film festival that has expanded to include interactive art.

DreamHack’s mid-year event takes place in Jönköping, Sweden.

Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest has so far comprised a big livestreamed showcase and a physical event for press—smaller than E3, but something—and is also used as an umbrella term to refer to the many livestreamed showcases that are still scattered throughout June.

Specifics on who’s putting on shows and when haven’t been announced yet, but the usual June lineup includes:

The PC Gaming Show (that’s us!)
Xbox and Bethesda Showcase (now with Activision Blizzard)
Ubisoft Forward
EA Play Live (EA has skipped the past couple years)
PlayStation Showcase (this was in May last year)
Capcom Showcase
Nintendo Direct
Future Games Show
Day of the Devs
Devolver Digital
Wholesome Games
Guerrilla Collective

A new Latin American Gamescom offshoot that has merged with the BIG Festival, an important independent games-focused event we attended in 2022.

Steam Summer Sale | June 27-July 11 | Steam

The second of Steam’s seasonal sales is usually one of the biggest. See all the known upcoming Steam sale dates here.

July

TennoCon 2024 | July 19-20 | London, Ontario

The yearly Warframe fan convention put on by developer Digital Extremes.

A Japanese independent games festival that started in 2012.

Comic-Con | July 25-28 | San Diego

An enormous fan event covering comic books, films, and games. Reliably a source for movie news, and sometimes for tidbits about upcoming superhero games.

SIGGRAPH 2024 | July 28-August 1 | Denver

Computer graphics and simulation developers get together to share their techniques, work, and research. Lots of cool tech demos to watch.

August

Gen Con | August 1-4 | Indianapolis

A huge tabletop gaming gathering that was founded by Gary Gygax himself.

QuakeCon | Dates TBA | Texas

Last year’s id Software-centric fan event brought back the in-person LAN party in Grapevine, Texas. Dates for the 2024 event haven’t been announced, but 2023’s gathering started on August 10. During last year’s QuakeCon, id Software announced and released the Quake 2 remaster.

IEM Cologne 2024 (CS2 tournament) | August 16-18 | Cologne

Finals of the year’s second ESL Pro Tour Championship.

For a few years running, Europe’s huge gaming trade show has kicked off with a Geoff Keigley-hosted livestream called Opening Night Live. Expect at least a couple major announcements during that showcase, and we typically attend the physical event for hands-on demos and developer interviews.

PAX West | August 30-September 2 | Seattle

Long-running fan convention featuring a big expo hall, panels, performers, and PC and tabletop gaming areas.

The conclusion of the 2024 Valorant Champions Tour. Specifics haven’t been announced yet, but you can find more on Riot’s 2024 Valorant esports plans in its 2023 end of year letter.

September

One of the year’s major industry events, TGS will include news and showcases from Japanese game studios, as well as publishers and developers from around the world.

October

The second-to-last DreamHack expo of the year will take place in Georgia.

PAX Aus | dates TBA | Melbourne

PAX’s Australia event is returning in 2024—no dates have been announced, but last year’s started on October 6.

The New York version of Comic-Con. Like the San Diego event, expect a few bits of news on comic-based and comic-adjacent games.

An offshoot of the German expo that will take place at Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore.

The International (Dota 2 tournament) | Date TBA | Location TBA

Valve hasn’t announced a date or venue for this year’s big Dota 2 finals. Last year’s event took place at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena in late October.

TwitchCon | Dates TBA | Locations TBA

Twitch put on two events last year, one in Paris in July and another in Las Vegas in October. Locations and dates for 2024’s events haven’t been announced yet.

November

Blizzard’s big annual fan event, with announcements and esports. Last year’s BlizzCon was in early November, and this year’s should be around the same time.

The conclusion to this year’s LoL esports season.

Conclusion to a year-long Counter-Strike 2 tournament series.

The final DreamHack event of the year.

December

The year’s second Counter-Strike Major will take place in China.

Geoff Keighley’s annual awards show is about big reveals as much as it is awards. Last year we got our first look at Hello Games’ next big project, a teaser for Kojima’s horror collab with Jordan Peele, and dozens of other trailers—we compiled them all here.

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Sorry, Gale—unimaginable arcane power in Baldur’s Gate 3 is as simple as taking off your underwear

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a massive game, which makes for a wonderful experience filled with unexpected story beats. Unfortunately, this also means there are some bugs that are still kicking about, even after several patches.

A lot of them have been squashed, and Larian’s blistering pace has given us a whole new epilogue among other quality of life improvements: but some traces remain. One such bug is a hilarious interaction with Freecast, one of the illithid abilities obtained from chowing down on some brain worms. Minor Act 3 spoilers to follow.

Freecast is a toggleable passive that causes your next action to be (you guessed it) cast for free. No action cost, no bonus action cost, no spell slot expenditure, nada. It’s a powerful gift from your wormy roommate.

It’s also been bugged for several patches now. According to the tooltip, Freecast refreshes on a Long Rest. However, there are a lot of weird ways to refresh it. As someone who abstained from the power of the worm during my first playthrough, I had no idea—but a recent example on the game’s subreddit tipped me off.

Here’s how to use infinite Spell slots of any Level from r/BaldursGate3

Ant_of_Doom uses the Idol of Silvanus you can nick from the druid grove in Act 1. This item grants an aura that provides proficiency in the Animal Handling and Nature skills. Inexplicably, it also refreshes Freecast if it’s been used.

However, swiping the idol has some severe story consequences. After doing some digging, I also discovered that there’s another known way to trigger this exploit: taking off your underpants. Turns out, equipping or unequipping any item on your character will refresh Freecast. Here’s some video evidence of it working on the current patch with my paladin boy:

The only caveat? Freecast is a partial-illithid power. You can only get it if you turn your painstakingly-crafted character into a failed goth with too much eyeshadow and rotten teeth. It also takes an action to equip or unequip an item like this in combat: so you won’t be able to refresh Freecast in the middle of battle.

Still, this is an incredibly powerful way to apply buff spells like Aid, Heroes’ Feast, and Death Ward scott-free. Gale’s perusal of the Netherese Orb was all for naught—it turns out that the true secret to arcane power is to scarf down some worms, then take off your underpants (or a ring, if you’re boring).

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Warhammer co-creator Bryan Ansell has died

Bryan Ansell, photographed with his Chaos army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition. (Image credit: Games Workshop)

The Instagram account shared by miniatures game designer Bryan Ansell and his wife Diane has announced that he died at home with his family on December 30, 2023. He was 68 years old.

Ansell is known as the founder of Citadel, the miniatures arm of Games Workshop, which he created in 1978. At the time Games Workshop distributed and supported roleplaying games in Europe, as well as documenting them in its magazine White Dwarf. The creation of Citadel was followed by the wargame Warhammer Fantasy Battle, designed to make use of its line of miniatures. Warhammer’s success led to Ansell becoming managing director of Games Workshop and eventually shifting its focus entirely onto the tabletop wargaming hobby, which it still dominates today.

As a designer, Ansell was responsible for the 1980 sci-fi wargame Laserburn, a proto-Warhammer 40,000 with bolt guns and power armor. As well as co-creating Warhammer Fantasy Battle, he led the writing of Warhammer’s Realm of Chaos supplements, which not only detailed the setting’s Chaos gods but laid down much of the heavy metal horror-fantasy tone that would define them in the future.

Not everything Ansell did was so well-received. As managing director of Games Workshop he was responsible for closing its London office and moving the business to Nottingham, where Citadel was based. The editorial staff of White Dwarf magazine, at the time run out of the London office, responded to this by writing an acrostic in the contents page of issue 77 that read “sod off Bryan Ansell”.

Ansell left Games Workshop in 1991, having overseen the company’s boom. In later years he ran a smaller manufacturer of historical miniatures called Wargames Foundry, which he’d initially created to give his father something to do after retiring. Ansell himself retired in 2005, and his family still runs Wargames Foundry today.

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The CCP softens its stance on live service games after plummeting stocks, reportedly removes official responsible for the panic

The Chinese Communist Party—who had taken aim at free-to-play monetisation schemes just before the holidays—softened its stance. This was after “nearly $80 billion in market value” bled from Tencent (League of Legends) and NetEase (Diablo: Immortal).

The draft rules intended to target the live service giant’s favourite toys (such as daily login bonuses) while also threatening a core species of player—the deep-pocketed ‘whale’—completely extinct, with harsh spending limits. While I’m sure us players are tired of these systems, they aren’t so easily toppled. The market panic was inevitable, in hindsight.

Despite analyst’s insistence that the draft rules wouldn’t be changed, adjustments were announced later in the month, according to a report from Reuters: “China’s video game regulator—the National Press and Publication Administration—has struck a more conciliatory tone, saying it would improve the rules by ‘earnestly studying’ public views.”

The report goes on to state that shares in Tencent proceeded to climb 5% (after a 12% dip), while NetEase’s shares rose 10% (after a 25% fall) after morning trades on Wednesday December 24. There are also reports that NetEase is in talks with Blizzard again—that’s after a spat saw the company dramatically smashing up a statue of Gorehowl early 2023. Maybe because it literally destroyed its axe to grind, who knows.

Furthermore, the CCP has also reportedly removed an official by the name of Feng Shixin, according to a Reuters follow-up. Shixin was head of the Communist Party’s Publicity Department, which oversees the country’s gaming industry via the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA).

The report cites five sources which all believe Shixin’s removal were related to the draft regulations and the disastrous stock plummets that followed—though it also states they “declined to be identified as authorities had yet to officially announce Feng’s departure”. Shixin has led the charge on similar regulations before, representing the (NPPA) at several events related to the government’s handling of its gaming industry.

Speaking with Bloomberg, a market strategist from Hong Kong’s Saxo Capital Markets said the official’s removal would help ease investor scepticism: “If the story is accurate, it will send a signal that what happened was not a reversal of policy direction … but overall, investors are still sceptical. The news is positive but is not big enough to move the needle.”

It’s noteworthy that the market response was so dramatic, seemingly causing the CPP to think twice. Especially since the digital curfews for gaming youngsters employed in 2021 were severe—even using facial recognition tech to enforce them.

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Wordle today: Hint and answer #928 for Wednesday, January 3

Whatever help you need with today’s Wordle, you’ll find everything you need and plenty more below. Go grab yourself an easy win with today’s answer if you like, ponder the January 3 (928) clue if you’re looking for a helping hand, or stick around and take a look at our everyday tips.

Today’s answer feels like the sort of word I shouldn’t have got as quickly as I did, but I’m not going to complain about an easy win after some of the spectacular struggles I’ve had in the past. It was my second guess that did all the heavy lifting this Wednesday, somehow leaving me with just a single letter to find to win today’s Wordle.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle hint - a grid with yellow, grey, and green letters — (Image credit: Josh Wardle)

Wordle today: A hint for Wednesday, January 3

Your clue today is an elegant spin, the sort of action you might see a ballroom dancer perform—or just somebody enjoying a new dress.

Is there a double letter in Wordle today?

No, there is no double letter in today’s puzzle.

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day

Playing Wordle well is like achieving a small victory every day—who doesn’t like a well-earned winning streak in a game you enjoy? If you’re new to the daily word game, or just want a refresher, I’m going to share a few quick tips to help set you on the path to success:

You want a balanced mix of unique consonants and vowels in your opening word.
A solid second guess helps to narrow down the pool of letters quickly.
The answer could contain letters more than once.

There’s no time pressure beyond making sure it’s done by the end of the day. If you’re struggling to find the answer or a tactical word for your next guess, there’s no harm in coming back to it later on.

Today’s Wordle answer

Wordle answers

(Image credit: Future)

What is today’s Wordle answer?

Need a win? You’ve got it. The answer to the January 3 (928) Wordle is TWIRL.

Previous Wordle answers

The last 10 Wordle answers

Knowing previous Wordle solutions can be helpful in eliminating current possibilities. It’s unlikely a word will be repeated and you can find inspiration for guesses or starting words that may be eluding you.

Here are some recent Wordle answers:

January 2: AGING
January 1: MURAL
December 31: SALTY
December 30: THREE
December 29: CHILD
December 28: LEARN
December 27: DAISY
December 26: PHONE
December 25: EVOKE
December 24: GRACE

Learn more about Wordle

Today's Wordle being played on a phone

(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)

Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and it’s your job to work out which five-letter word is hiding by eliminating or confirming the letters it contains.

Starting with a strong word like LEASH—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters—is a good place to start. Once you hit Enter, 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.

Your second go should compliment the starting word, using another “good” guess 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, 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, 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, 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. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.

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‘If [money] is an issue, pirate it and buy a copy later’: the devs of our favourite surprise horror hit want you to play it spoiler free—by any means necessary

Slay the Princess is one of our favourite unexpected hits from this year. It’s a choose-your-own adventure style narrative game about a dutiful mission to (you guessed it) slay a princess.

I’m too much of a wuss myself, but PC Gamer senior editor Robin Valentine highly recommended it back in November, calling it the year’s most fascinating horror game: “[The game’s] core structure is so compelling and fun, and such a good excuse for the game to throw in every wild, creative, and scary idea it can into a vibrant web of nastiness.”

He also said that experiencing it for yourself was vital—something that the game’s own developer has now officially echoed on Twitter (thanks, PCGamesN). “The game is at its best if your first experience is playing it yourself instead of watching someone else’s playthrough,” writes @blacktabbygames, the shared account between duo devs Abby Howard and Tony Howard.

This is something I’m admittedly guilty of, but only because I’m a big ol’ baby. I played a little of the cartoonishly slapstick Lethal Company with some mates recently, and even that was enough to get my heart rate up. I do, however, love to hear people talk about horror games. It’s like visiting a zoo: I’d be scared of a gorilla if I was in an enclosure with one, but looking through a glass pane is totally fine.

Still, I can see the point. The allure of Slay the Princess comes from your personal choices shaping the story—and you’re not shaping it watching a let’s play by definition. You can still get the heebie jeebies second-hand, sure, but you’re not living through that crucial ‘I did this’ vibe.

The devs go on to write: “you can only play for the first time once, and the experience won’t be the same if you’re looking through the lens of someone else’s choices.” What’s more, they even recommended piracy as an option in case your wallet’s too thin. “If $ is an issue, pirate it and buy a copy later when you have money if you liked it!”

While video game piracy causes plenty of problems—especially for smaller developers—it’s also sort of inevitable. The solo dev of Iron Lung shared a similar sentiment, saying that he’s fine with people taking to the high seas if they think his games are too expensive: “That’s completely ok. Don’t buy them, or wait for a deep sale, or go the sneaky route and get them for free or whatever.”

Still, it’s an admirable amount of dedication to creative intent. Especially considering an uncertain buyer’s first instinct nowadays is to swing by their favourite YouTuber to see if they’ve played it already. Still, Slay the Princess is pretty cool—and unless you’re totally allergic to jumpscares like yours truly, I’d hope any potential regicide committers would support the devs with some well-earned cash.

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Wordle today: Hint and answer #931 for Saturday, January 6

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Saturday, January 6

There’s an Alex Jones game on Steam, and it’s just as much of an embarrassment as you’d expect

There’s a touching tribute in Baldur’s Gate 3 to a BG2-loving dad with Alzheimer’s: ‘he listened to my description with a child-like glee I haven’t seen in a while’

Wordle today: Hint and answer #930 for Friday, January 5

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Friday, January 5

The big PC gaming events in 2024

January

CES | January 9-12 | Las Vegas

Sorry, Gale—unimaginable arcane power in Baldur’s Gate 3 is as simple as taking off your underwear

Warhammer co-creator Bryan Ansell has died

The CCP softens its stance on live service games after plummeting stocks, reportedly removes official responsible for the panic

Wordle today: Hint and answer #928 for Wednesday, January 3

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Wednesday, January 3

‘If [money] is an issue, pirate it and buy a copy later’: the devs of our favourite surprise horror hit want you to play it spoiler free—by any means necessary

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