It took a few hours, but Star Wars Outlaws eventually began winning over our staff scoundrel Morgan Park when he got his hands on a preview build earlier this month. Despite an “unmistakable sluggishness to the action,” Morgan eventually found that as in previous Ubisoft games, “no one aspect is exceptional, but when it all comes together, I’m having a really good time.”
Apart from the obvious reason Star Wars Outlaws feels similar to other open world Ubisoft games—because it’s another open world Ubisoft game—there’s an even more direct connection. Speaking to GamesRadar, Star Wars Outlaws creative director Julian Gerighty said Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was one of his favorite AC games “without a doubt.”
Praising its “freedom of approach in a very large environment” and the “curiosity at its heart,” Gerighty told GR he would “pick up the phone” and ask members of Odyssey’s development team specific questions while making Outlaws. “Okay, how did you do this? What was too big for you? What was too long a distance for traversal?”
Odyssey wasn’t the only influence on Outlaws. Gerighty also told GamesRadar that “my biggest reference was Ghost of Tsushima, which is more on the Kurosawa side of inspiration than the Western, the John Ford side of the inspiration for George Lucas.”
Red Dead Redemption was another influence, because it treats “the world as a world, not as a checklist of activities that are repeated often,” Gerighty said. “But I think that Ghost of Tsushima, what I loved about it was this purity of having a player fantasy and really leaning into it.
“This is the story, the world, the character, everything fits together with the gameplay guiding everything,” he said. “That’s the fantasy of ‘you are a samurai ninja in Japan.’ That was one of the guiding lights for [Star Wars Outlaws].”
It’s not quite the same theme in Outlaws—as Morgan points out, Ubisoft and LucasArts have repeatedly called it a “scoundrel fantasy.” As far as its inspirations like AC Odyssey, RDR, and Ghost of Tsushima, we don’t have much longer to wait to see if their influence can really be felt in Gerighty’s open world. Star Wars Outlaws releases on August 30.
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https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1722476986_Star-Wars-Outlaws-director-was-inspired-by-a-samurai-action.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2024-07-31 23:51:222024-07-31 23:51:22Star Wars Outlaws director was inspired by a samurai action game more than Red Dead or Assassin’s Creed: ‘My biggest reference was Ghost of Tsushima’
Biddum. Biddee. Biddum. Biddee. “So, as I was say—” Biddum. Biddee. Biddum. Biddee. Biddum. Biddee. Biddum. “Sorry, my PC is having a meltdown.” Biddum. Biddee. Biddum. “This is infuriating.” Biddum. Biddee. Biddum. “Forget it.”
This was me only yesterday, when I was caught out trying to talk to my fellow PCG hardwarers in a Google Meet. Every second my PC was playing a sound to notify me that a USB device was connected, and then another sound that it was disconnected. And then connected again. And then disconnected again. Then connected. Then disconnected.
For three hours I was trapped inside this hellish cycle of Windows f***ery.
Biddum. Biddee.
First, I trudged through Windows Event Viewer to see if I could find some log of which device might be causing the issue. No dice. Event Viewer doesn’t offer a clear picture of USB connections and if and when they’re connected/disconnected. You’d think it would do that, but if it does, I couldn’t see it.
Then onwards to Device Manager to see if I could physically catch the perpetrator in the act. This was a bit of a long shot—I’ve been here before—it’s tough to keep track of which USB device is coming and going.
Device Manager flashes blank every time a device is connected or disconnected, which means it’s partially a memory game to remember what was once there and has since disappeared. Considering none of the named USB devices were going anywhere as I watched on intently, that meant it was one of the devices with a generic title, such as ‘Human Interface Device’ or ‘USB Input Device’. Of which, I have many.
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(Image credit: Microsoft)
Biddum. Biddee.
Through which I proceeded to remove every USB device from my PC, one by one. That’s sure to weed out the nasty little culprit. I’d pull a cord, wait, see if the sound starts up again, and if it did, plug the cable back in again. Twenty minutes later and the sound didn’t cease for more than a second. It wasn’t any of my external USB devices that caused the issue. S**t.
Biddum. Biddee.
Is my Windows 11 installation b0rked beyond repair? I started to believe this to be the case, and the internet—in its infinite wisdom and troubleshooting expertise—told me that may be the case. So, I tried a registry edit as per some advice online. I patiently wait for my machine to reboot with the change in place and…
BIDDUM. BIDDEE.
“I can’t take it anymore!” I say, as I rip my f***ing headphones off.
The sound went on like this for around three hours, which for the most part saw me holding my head in my hands.
I did, however, discover the root cause of the issue eventually. And it was all thanks to a little app called USBLogView.
After talking to the PC Gamer Hardware team about my issue in no uncertain language (I’m not usually one to swear but this experience f***ing sucked). I was told by our Nick Evanson that there was some app that might be able to show me which device was disconnecting and reconnecting each time. He couldn’t remember the name, but I forgive him, as the mere knowledge of ‘an app that shows me which USB device is connected/disconnected’ was search term enough to bring up said app in Google Search.
USBLogView is a simple piece of freeware uploaded to a simple website seemingly running on a server untouched from the early 2000s. I’m not judging it on looks: I find most websites that look like this offer the best solution to whatever problem I’m having at the time. I might have been a little more cautious as to installing this application from a mysterious website had it not been for the biddum and biddee I knew was still going off, whether I could still hear it or not.
Here’s an example from USBLogView, showing one of my USB sticks. This device, however, is clearly named. I had to dig a little deeper to find my culprit. (Image credit: USBLogView)
So, I loaded up USBLogView, and waited patient—oh, there it is. Mysterious Human Interface Device with Vendor ID ‘1b1c’. I search around for a good database of vendor IDs, stumble across devicehunt.com, and find that it’s all Corsair’s fault.
No, it’s not. It was a Corsair device. The device in question is a fan controller inside my Corsair 5000T clad PC. I know this because as soon as I open the side panel on my PC and ensure the USB header connections are firmly in place, the notifications go away. One of the connections was loose and it’s probably my pristine cable management tugging on each cable that’s actually to blame. Damn these organised hands.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1722440931_Thank-you-Freeware-I-was-just-saved-from-USB-disconnectreconnect.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2024-07-31 16:45:252024-07-31 16:45:25Thank you, Freeware: I was just saved from USB disconnect/reconnect hell by a simple logging tool
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Sigurd-ja-nao-confia-em-Eivor-assassinscreedvalhalla-assassincreed-ps5-gameplay.jpg7201280DecayeD20https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngDecayeD202024-07-31 16:22:212024-07-31 16:22:21Sigurd já não confia em Eivor? #assassinscreedvalhalla #assassincreed #ps5 #gameplay #eivor #sigurd
Come take a look at our fresh clue for today’s Wordle, and give your guesses a little nudge in the right direction. Or jump straight to the July 31 (1138) answer if you’d prefer. However you’d like to win Wednesday’s Wordle, we can help make it happen.
Last row. No clues. And no letters left to try, surely. I’d wiped out most of the alphabet on the way down, so what could possibly be lef-oh, of course. I wish I’d seen that three guesses earlier. It’s obvious now I’m looking at it. I can re-do today’s Wordle, can’t I?
Today’s Wordle hint
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)
Wordle today: A hint for Wednesday, July 31
Thinking with your stomach will help today, as today’s answer is the name of a type of pasta. This is tubular, with an angled edge to it.
Is there a double letter in Wordle today?
Yes, there is a 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
(Image credit: Future)
What is today’s Wordle answer?
Help is here. The answer to the July 31 (1138) Wordle is PENNE.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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:
July 30: FERAL
July 29: SUPER
July 28: SMOCK
July 27: JUICE
July 26: AWASH
July 25: PORCH
July 24: FORTE
July 23: PRONG
July 22: CADET
July 21: SPECK
Learn more about Wordle
(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.
When everyone said they wanted Sims to have more interesting lives, I don’t think any of us meant incest. Nor did EA intend it, so a Sims 4 patch yesterday has addressed the sudden tendency for Sims to try pursuing a romance with their relations.
A few different bugs cropped up after the romance-focused Sims 4 Lovestruck expansion and a base game update last week but the two most prominent were Sims being way too mean to each other for no particular reason and Sims deciding to develop illicit relationships with their family members. It was happening through the “Neighborhood Stories” feature which allows Sims outside your played family to have life milestones of their own like marriages, pregnancies, job changes, or accidental deaths without your direction. Nice, in theory, if you want a more lively neighborhood developing around you that you don’t have to micromanage.
It’s less nice if your Sim’s next door neighbor calls them up for some friendly advice about pursuing their crush and the crush is actually their sister. No, dear neighbor, please do not go for it. Somehow, this isn’t nearly the first time that Sims have accidentally wanted to date their family members.
Your Sims should now be safe from bearing witness to forbidden crushes and, specific to the Lovestruck expansion “Sims no longer receive inappropriate phone calls from relatives,” say The Sims 4 patch notes. This hotfix happened on Friday fr PC players and yesterday for consoles, so we should all be equally safe now.
If you’ve never messed with Neighborhood Stories, by the by, you can find them in the “Manage Households” menu by clicking that diverging arrows symbol and turn on individual autonomous changes you want other Sim families to be capable of. The “romance changes” toggle should now be safe to enable.
If you were leaving your EA app offline to avoid downloading the latest game update for fear of any new base game bugs that EA has recently announced it’s recommitted to fixing, let this be your sign that the more troubling ones are tackled.
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Keep your daily Wordle on track, and do it in your own way and at your own pace. We’ve got a few quick general tips if you need them, a juicy hint for the July 30 (1137) puzzle if you’d just like a little guidance, and the answer to today’s Wordle if you need to secure an instant win.
I had a heap of green and yellow letters right from the start of today’s Wordle, the only problem was working out exactly how they were supposed to fit together. Today the reshuffling didn’t take too long, but it definitely took one row longer than it had to, and I just know I’m going to feel sore about it all day.
Today’s Wordle hint
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)
Wordle today: A hint for Tuesday, July 30
Today’s answer describes something wild and animalistic. Think of the opposite of a cute, domesticated cat, something untamed.
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
Looking to extend your Wordle winning streak? Perhaps you’ve just started playing the popular daily puzzle game and are looking for some pointers. Whatever the reason you’re here, these quick tips can help push you in the right direction:
Start with a word that has a mix of common vowels and consonants.
The answer might repeat the same letter.
Try not to use guesses that include letters you’ve already eliminated.
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
(Image credit: Future)
What is today’s Wordle answer?
Need a little push? The answer to the July 30 (1137) Wordle is FERAL.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Previous Wordle answers
The last 10 Wordle answers
Wordle solutions that have already been used can help eliminate answers for today’s Wordle or give you inspiration for guesses to help uncover more of those greens. They can also give you some inspired ideas for starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh.
Here are some recent Wordle answers:
July 29: SUPER
July 28: SMOCK
July 27: JUICE
July 26: AWASH
July 25: PORCH
July 24: FORTE
July 23: PRONG
July 22: CADET
July 21: SPECK
July 20: SHAFT
Learn more about Wordle
(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)
Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and it’s up to you to work out which five-letter word is hiding among them to win the popular daily puzzle.
It’s usually a good plan to start with a strong word like ALERT—or any other word with a good mix of common consonants and multiple vowels—and you should be off to a flying start, with a little luck anyway. You should also avoid starting words with repeating letters, so you don’t waste the chance to confirm or eliminate an extra letter. Once you hit Enter, you’ll see 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 guess should compliment the first, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you might have missed on the first row—just don’t forget to leave out 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 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, 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.
World of Goo 2 will release later this week on August 2, and to celebrate the developers have released a new trailer showing off a bit more than we saw when they revealed it last fall. One of the early great digital distribution indies—and still fun today—World of Goo has players snatch up little weird goop balls and attach them into increasingly unwieldy constructions in order to get said little goop buddies to the end of each level on their journey through an increasingly absurd and equally unwieldy plot.
The trailer shows off all kinds of weird stuff, pretty much exactly what you’d expect from World of Goo, but most of all it definitely has the offputting aesthetic that developer 2DBoy and publisher Tomorrow Corporation are known for. Strange, goggle-eyed, vaguely upsetting people staring blankly at the world around them as terrible things happen. Just what the doctor ordered.
While the gameplay in the trailer is recognizably goo-ish, there’s definitely new stuff going on here. The action looks smoother than what we could get in 2008, and there’s definitely new simulation going on: Some scenes have black liquid goo that comes pouring out of the ground or from a strange octopus-worm and can apparently be caught up in shapes made from other goods that, if punctured, spill their contents everywhere. Seems like a good basis for more physics puzzling.
At launch, World of Goo 2 will be on Switch, Windows, and Mac. If you don’t have one of those, or want the game to be on the “heavy computer that’s strapped to my face and sprays pixels into my eyeballs” then the developer suggests you “throw your other platforms in the trash.”
There’s also a nice preview of the World of Goo 2 soundtrack by composers Kyle Gabler and Johnny Trengrove that’s posted to YouTube. I found it pleasant, but then, I’m a fan of some nicely used horn and classical guitar.
World of Goo 2 Soundtrack Preview – “Sloppy Walker” – YouTube
Developer 2DBoy first released World of Goo back in 2008, one of the first early experiments in letting games that weren’t made by Valve onto Steam. The physics plus construction puzzle gameplay was pretty novel stuff at the time, drawing wide acclaim—especially for an indie, where the standards of polish and relatively advanced tech usage were much lower.
You can find World of Goo 2 on its website, worldofgoo2.com. You’ll be able to buy it directly from the developer or on the Epic Games Store, seems like.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Game development is a tricky business, and one consequence of this is that games often take longer to make than anticipated. The nature of the creative process means such delays are not always avoidable, but according to writer and designer Josh Sawyer, known for games like Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, and medieval detective sim Pentiment, there are ways to identify when a game is going to get kicked down the calendar, and therefore set better expectations to avoid unnecessary stress, and overwork.
As reported by GamesRadar, Sawyer shared this “useful skill” on Twitter, starting off by admitting that he “can’t tell you when a game is going to be done”, but he “can tell you when it *won’t* be done with close to 100% accuracy.”
Sawyer followed this up with a thread where he explained his methodology. The most obvious indicator, he says, is when “data shows the trajectory of content completion leads so far past the [release] date that even cutting remaining content will require more work than available time.” He points out that “cutting content does save development time, but there are also costs to cutting”. In other words, developers can’t just remove whole chunks or features of a game and expect it to immediately work. The holes still need stitching together, which might take less time than pursuing those features to completion, but as Sawyer points out, “it’s not ‘free’.”
Sawyer then lists several other clues to when a game won’t be ready for its prospective shipping date. “Another indicator is that content [maps, missions etc] is being developed while primary gameplay features are still being taken to MVP (minimum viable product). If you don’t know how gameplay works, your content can’t be designed for it.”
Assuming that the goal of the publisher is *not* to make shovelware, i.e. they are not trying to just get *anything* out the door regardless of quality, there are a few clear indicators that a game is not going to ship at a stated date. https://t.co/qVimo8lYhGJuly 26, 2024
Finally, Sawyer says that “if any content pipeline (creatures, conversations, etc.) is not fully stood up end to end, predictions about when all the content going through that pipeline will be finished are guesswork.”
In summary, Sawyer says that the three keys to pinpointing an accurate release date is “a) predictable and reliable content creation b) all significant gameplay features at MVP c) all pipelines up and running”. He wraps up by pointing out that these things are not arcane knowledge within the industry, and that while delays are never ideal, it’s important to be realistic about them for the sake of developer health.
“What’s infuriating about silly exec and production dates is that anyone with a decent amount of experience knows that if a,b and c are not there, they can’t reliab[ly] predict an end point, but they will try to do so with confidence and mash schedules to make it happen,” he says. “All it does is burn out and demoralize the developers and (justifiably) erode confidence in management.”
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Although Sawyer’s advice was mainly targeted at fellow designers, he did share one tip for players to help them spot when a game is likely to be delayed. “There have been plenty of games that announce a date and I (correctly) predict they will not ship at that date,” he explains. “E.g. it’s a pretty reliable indicator that a game that has not publicly shown gameplay by summer will not ship that game by the end of that year.” So if you spy any CG trailers at Gamescom next month, don’t expect to be playing the game in question by Christmas.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1722260658_Fallout-New-Vegas-designer-slams-unrealistic-release-dates-that-burn.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2024-07-29 14:35:542024-07-29 14:35:54Fallout: New Vegas designer slams unrealistic release dates that ‘burn out and demoralize the developers’ as he shares tips on how to spot when a game needs more time in the oven
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