Beefcake shooter Space Marine 2 really dumps you into Warhammer 40,000 at the deep and spiky end. Not only does it expect you to remember the events of the previous game from 13 years ago, it also expects you to have kept up with everything that’s happened to the setting in-between. Primaris marines? Rubric marines? Even for someone who reads the novels like me there’s a lot to keep track of. What’s the difference between a zoanthrope and a neurothrope again?
If you’re coming in at the ground floor, here’s a fun way to learn what’s going on. Clive Standen, who plays Lieutenant Titus—the protagonist of Space Marine 2—is hosting a three-part video series called Titus Talks that goes right back to the basics. The first episode is up now, and it’s a basic-concept introduction to the Warhammer 40,000 universe. “This is not an age of optimistic exploration,” Standen says. “This is a new dark age.”
Standen’s square jaw is accompanied by glimpses of the videogame, some gorgeous miniatures from the tabletop wargame 40K began as, and playful animated segments on a chalkboard. The soldiers of the Imperium are labeled, “Good guys! (But not really) (It’s complicated)” and one planet’s weather is summed up as “Cloudy with a chance of tyrannocites.”
While this is a fine first step one into 40K as a whole, the next episode will begin to get into the details by explaining what exactly a space marine is. Let’s hope there’s time to explain that they sometimes eat flesh and pray to their guns.
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https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1726408101_Confused-by-Warhammer-40000-Now-you-can-learn-40K-lore.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2024-09-15 05:59:062024-09-15 05:59:06Confused by Warhammer 40,000? Now you can learn 40K lore with Space Marine 2’s lead voice actor
Tips, tricks, clues, and more—whatever you need to make your daily Wordle game a success, you’re sure to find it on this page. Cut to the chase with the answer to today’s game if you like the sound of a quick and easy win this Sunday, or spend a little time with our hint for the September 15 (1184) puzzle if you’re happiest when you take your time.
You may remember that yesterday I was adamant that I would solve Sunday’s Wordle in record time, just to make up for my poor performance. Well. Guess who had correctly pieced together today’s winning word, went to triumphantly type it in, and then realised just a fraction of a second too late that their finger had slipped? Yeah, me. I have never been so annoyed with myself.
Wordle today: A hint
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)
Wordle today: A hint for Sunday, September 15
A memory that often comes to mind, an old knee injury flaring up again, a subject a writer keeps coming back to—these are all examples of today’s answer.
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
If you’ve decided to play Wordle but you’re not sure where to start, I’ll help set you on the path to your first winning streak. Make all your guesses count and become a Wordle winner with these quick tips:
A good opener has a mix of common vowels and consonants.
The answer could contain the same letter, repeated.
Avoid words that include letters you’ve already eliminated.
You’re not racing against the clock so there’s no reason to rush. In fact, it’s not a bad idea 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: Future)
What is today’s Wordle answer?
And here’s your second win of the weekend. The answer to the September 15 (1184) Wordle is RECUR.
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Previous Wordle answers
The last 10 Wordle answers
Previous Wordle solutions can help to eliminate guesses for today’s Wordle, as the answer isn’t likely to be repeated. They can also give you some solid ideas for starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh.
Here are some recent Wordle answers:
September 14: BROAD
September 13: HARSH
September 12: BRASS
September 11: AISLE
September 10: REBEL
September 9: DEBIT
September 8: DRAWN
September 7: OWNER
September 6: RERUN
September 5: WIDEN
Learn more about Wordle
(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)
There are six rows of five boxes presented to you by Wordle each day, and you’ll need to work out which five-letter word is hiding among them to win the daily puzzle.
Start with a strong word like ALIVE—or any other word with a good mix of common consonants and multiple vowels. 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’ve typed your guess and 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 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 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.
Whether you prefer a little light guidance or really wish someone would just tell you the answer to today’s Wordle, we can help. Come take a look at our clue for Saturday’s game if you need a gentle nudge towards your latest win, or go straight for the September 14 (1183) answer if you’d like a straightforward shove instead.
Oh heck, I should’ve spotted today’s Wordle answer a whole row earlier. It was right there, sitting amongst the green and yellow letters I’d already found. It was so obvious after wasting a guess on something completely different. I’m going to solve tomorrow’s game in three—no, two—rows, just to make up for it.
Today’s Wordle hint
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)
Wordle today: A hint for Saturday, September 14
Something wide, or having a large range, could be called this. A muscular guy with shoulders a mile apart is just as much this as a discussion covering a large variety of topics.
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
(Image credit: Future)
What is today’s Wordle answer?
Your first win of the weekend. The answer to the September 14 (1183) Wordle is BROAD.
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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:
September 13: HARSH
September 12: BRASS
September 11: AISLE
September 10: REBEL
September 9: DEBIT
September 8: DRAWN
September 7: OWNER
September 6: RERUN
September 5: WIDEN
September 4: STERN
Learn more about Wordle
(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.
The videogame industry continues to be wracked by instability and chaos: Evening Star, the developer of the 3D platformer Penny’s Big Breakaway, has announced that “turbulence” in the business has forced it to lay off six employees.
“This was a post that I was hoping to not have to write, but Evening Star has been swept up in the same turbulence that has affected so many of our peers in the games industry for the last year and a half,” CEO and executive producer Dave Padilla wrote on LinkedIn.
“Despite our best efforts to secure another project to keep our team together, we are in the unfortunate situation of having to lay off some of the folks that have worked with us for the last few years on Penny’s Big Breakaway.”
“This isn’t a choice we wanted to make, as they are all very talented and valued individuals,” chief technology officer and game director Hunter Bridges wrote in his own post, saying the cuts were forced by “volatile market conditions in the games industry and operational realities of our business.”
This isn’t a choice we wanted to make, as they are all very talented and valued individuals. But for now, we want to do all we can to help them land on their feet.September 13, 2024
Evening Star was formed in 2018 by veterans of the Sonic Mania development team, and that heritage showed through in Penny’s Big Breakaway. But it was more than just a lookalike 3D platformer: “Instead, Penny’s Big Breakaway is a deeply compelling, replayable experiment drawing equal inspiration from modern Sonic, 3D Mario and more than a bit of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater,” we wrote in our 80% review, adding that the studio’s debut game is “proof that Evening Star is more than just the Sonic Mania crew.”
But while reviews were generally positive, Penny’s Big Breakaway was not—at least on Steam—a breakout success. Despite a “very positive” user rating, its all-time peak concurrent player count was just 563. That’s not the whole story, as Penny’s Big Breakaway is also available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch, but it’s not exactly indicative of a big hit, even for a singleplayer game.
Six employees isn’t a huge raw number, but it does represent a significant slice of the Evening Star team. The studio’s LinkedIn page indicates it has 11-50 employees, while the company website lists 19 employees, including the six who were let go, although it says the people on the page are just “some of our team members.”
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The layoffs at Evening Star are the latest in a nearly two-year bloodbath of cuts that have rocked the game development industry: More than 16,000 developers lost their jobs through early 2024, and the situation has not gotten any better in the last six months. This week alone has seen layoffs at Microsoft, Midnight Society, and Lost Boys Interactive; last week, on September 4, Until Dawn remake developer Ballistic Moon announced that it had made “the tough decision to significantly scale down our team to secure the future of our studio,” just one month before the game’s long-awaited release on PC.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1726335996_Pennys-Big-Breakaway-studio-announces-layoffs-Evening-Star-has-been.png6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2024-09-13 23:24:232024-09-13 23:24:23Penny’s Big Breakaway studio announces layoffs: ‘Evening Star has been swept up in the same turbulence that has affected so many of our peers in the games industry’
Getting your game noticed is a tricky business when you have to punch through the noise of the more than 10,000 new Steam games releasing each year. Young Horses, the developer of Bugsnax and Octodad, have found itself in an even trickier spot: Thanks to Google, people are expecting a Bugsnax sequel that doesn’t exist.
“We are not working on a Bugsnax sequel right now and I need AI bs to stop telling kids we are based on a wiki ideas fanfic,” Young Horses co-founder and president Philip Tibitoski tweeted earlier today. It turns out, through the wonders of algorithmic search result curation, Google’s featured snippets have been informing people that Bugsnax 2 will be releasing in October 2024, despite the fact that neither Young Horses or any other developer are making it.
I just checked myself, and sure enough, googling “bugsnax 2 release date” or “is there a bugsnax 2 coming out” presents me with the helpful information that “Bugsnax 2 the City is an American puzzle game developed by Young Horses and being released on October 15th, 2024.” Except, to reiterate, it isn’t. Because there is no Bugsnax 2 in development.
Google’s source for the spurious release date is a page someone wrote for Bugsnax 2 on Idea Wiki, a fan wiki for, well, ideas. “This is a fanon wiki, and just like fan-fiction wikis, this one has a variety of fan created ideas on here,” Idea Wiki’s home page reads. “These include potential sequels and new series that have yet to exist.” It’s just a wiki where people can dump whatever hypothetical piece of media they might dream up. In other words, I could add a page to Idea Wiki about a Sonic the Hedgehog sequel I just thought up where he goes so fast that he slips the tethers of spacetime and is cast adrift, alone, forever spiraling along whatever lightless corridor stretches between our universe and the next, and there’s a chance that Google’s featured snippets will mistake it for a genuine upcoming Sonic game.
(Image credit: Young Horses)
Of course, because there are plenty of people who aren’t expecting that Google might be scooping up info about pretend video games and presenting them as fact—because it probably shouldn’t be—they’re left without any immediate reason to doubt the truth of whatever’s put at the top of their search results. We’ve been trained to intuitively recognize whatever’s up there as the most important info, after all. Why would the text be slightly bigger, if not as proof of its authority?
In a follow-up tweet, Tibitoski posted a screenshot of a Google review for Bugsnax written by a player who says they “started playing when I was 6, November 24 2023 and now I’m 7” who, after describing playing the game with their dad, writes “I might talk to you soon when Bugsnax 2 The City is out.”
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“Like, this is very sweet,” Tibitosky said. “But also…what?”
Sure, it’s not as overtly absurd as the times when Google’s AI overview tells people to eat glue pizza, but I have a hard time not seeing it as a dire omen when the company that’s been a gateway to the sum total of human knowledge has inadvertently let the information pool get some light poisoning. At least the children are excited.
Bugsnax 2 the City is not releasing on October 15, 2024.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Google-results-insist-a-Bugsnax-sequel-is-coming-out-next.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2024-09-13 22:29:302024-09-13 22:29:30Google results insist a Bugsnax sequel is coming out next month, but there’s one small problem: Its devs aren’t making one
Remember Gray Zone Warfare? Currently just 1,500 people are playing the extraction shooter, which launched in April with huge fanfare, with it having the benefit of being an extraction shooter coming onto the market just after Escape From Tarkov had shat the bed.
This is quite a tumble from the game’s respectable all-time peak of 72,548, back in May. There were a stack of potential reasons for this: aimbot AI sniping players, server issues, weird rubberbanding. All of these were negative newsbeats, but the reason I think the game has gotten quiet is a simple one: The core loop at the heart of Gray Zone Warfare isn’t compelling, so you quickly run out of stuff to actually do.
Still, the game has promise. The firefights are tense and the urban combat is satisfying. I just had the feeling that the game isn’t quite there yet. Still, I was happy to sit down at Gamescom with Rick Lagnese, the PR & Comms Director at Madfinger Games to see a little of the new build, and talk about what’s next for Gray Zone Warfare, and I’ve come away excited.
No extraction shooter launches with a full audience, and it seems like the team at Madfinger Games have plans not just to add some much requested features to the game, but also a clear idea of where they want to be. Lagnese is bullish but open during our chat, and says, bluntly, that he and the team at Madfinger aren’t worried about the calls of “dead game” that they get because “we’re going to be here for years, whether people like it or not.”
He’s also honest about where the game currently is. “There aren’t many incentives to come back, in fact there aren’t any at all,” admits Lagnese, “but we’re working on it.”
(Image credit: Madfinger Games)
The biggest news is that the Night Ops update, the game’s first major content drop, will launch with a wipe resetting everyone from scratch. This is expected: Escape From Tarkov wipes twice a year and Lagnese says that the team expect to hit a similar cadence, with two wipes dropping each year.
The wipe is necessary because the team at Madfinger plan to tweak everything, whether that’s the game’s progression, the way vendors work or even some of the individual quests. The game’s economy is going to get the biggest change here because Gray Zone Warfare is adding loot to the game, letting players squabble over rare items. This should create a way to make a big amount of money quickly for people willing to take risks. At the moment, Gray Zone Warfare is largely just about picking up food, drink, weapons and tactical gear, so this should mix the gameplay up run to run. If nothing else, the pulse-pounding feeling of having a bag full of high tier loot should amp things up. To make managing your inventory easier with all of that new stuff, filters and other tweaks will be coming too.
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All of this should introduce the concept of gear fear, which Tarkov veterans will feel familiar with. Gear fear is the label the extraction shooter community has come up with to describe the fear of dying and losing all of your stuff, but for many it goes just beyond regret at losing great gear—it becomes something that can shape the way you play. After all, if you’re fighting with the best M4 you can pull together on very limited resources, would you try to protect it even at the expense of running away from a fight, or even dipping on your friends? Lagnese says that trying to inspire gear fear and offer up a more hardcore experience was a core part of the design when shifting up the game’s economy with loot.
Not that you’ll want to stop picking up fresh gear entirely. The Night Ops update will also come with the addition of the MP5 submachine gun, which should rip in Gray Zone Warfare’s many, many close-range gunfights. While they didn’t show many off, Madfinger has said that the MP5 will have a collection of attachments at launch. The update will also come with more additions to the armoury, but Madfinger says it will reveal more soon.
(Image credit: Madfinger Games)
The most noticeable addition is, of course, the day/night cycle. Gray Zone Warfare’s use of Unreal Engine 5 means the forests are terrifying at night, as the canopy blocks out nearly all light. My demo is in real time, and as soon as you step from the fields into the deep forest itself, you can barely see inches in front of your face. Flashlights, laser pointers and night-vision goggles are coming to the game to counteract this, but the reality is that being out at night is going to feel very different, and skulking around in the dark forests will be unique to patrolling in a moonlit field.
Flashlights are, obviously, going to be a shiny beacon for people to attack, but the night vision goggles look pleasingly difficult. The night optics I’m shown are a single monocular giving you just a small bit of vision. You still have some peripheral vision, just without the ability to see a great deal of anything. Things look fuzzy, and it makes the nighttime appear terrifying when I can’t get a clear visual identifier. I’m not even playing, and I’m on edge.
Madfinger is billing the night time as an entirely different world, promising that AI will be less active and often sleeping while a single person stands guard, reluctant to patrol the dark forests themselves. Lower tier enemies will have a flashlight on their vest, giving them away at a distance. This is part of a bigger rebalance of how AI works, and Lagnese mentions that a full rebalance is coming. They should feel more like people and less like juggernauts taking you down at 200 metres.
This could create a sense of safety, but it’s a false sense as there’s a good chance that players will, again, be meeting at hotspots to do battle for the best gear and loot. High-tier NPC enemies will also have night-vision goggles, which provides a ready source for bold players, but will no doubt make them more challenging. Day and night length is still being tweaked, I’m told, but you can expect the cycle to last several hours. Hardened players will likely lay in ambush, particularly next to helicopter landing sites.
(Image credit: Madfinger Games)
Gray Zone Warfare already has a bit of a reputation for realism—ask any one of the players who’s been killed instantly by a bullet to the heart—but they seem to be trying to outdo themselves here. While the Democratic Republic of Lamang where the game takes place is fictional, the team has looked at the constellations and how they would appear in the area of Southeast Asia where Lamang should be, and are claiming, with deserved pride, that players will be able to navigate by those stars. If, you know, they’re not too busy shooting each other.
The jungle itself is also getting a mix up. Plenty of bunkers and structures from a former Japanese occupation of the island now exist in the woodland and are covered in graffiti. It feels surprisingly lived in, full of details I’ll never take in mid firefight. That’s not the only thing getting a touch-up on the map, as i’m told most of the points of interest and villages will have more enterable buildings and will look completely different at night because of the lighting.
It’s a raft of new stuff, but the most energising thing for me is what a clear vision the team at Madfinger seem to have about what their game actually is. I’m told they don’t really like the Tarkov comparisons because they don’t see themselves as an extraction shooter, with Lagnese adding: “You’re never leaving the match.”
(Image credit: Madfinger Games)
I’d disagree here, if it walks like an extraction shooter and quacks like an extraction shooter, that’s what it is. But, I do think the area Gray Zone Warfare is exploring is closer in DNA to Ghost Recon or Arma 3 than Tarkov or Arena Breakout: Infinite. You can see this also in the idea of outposts, a longer term idea that Lagnese said could be coming in the next update but might be something the team looks at for the future. Outposts will be neutral areas that can be taken over by each of the three competing factions in the game, or even one of the AI groups of enemies. When taken it’ll be a safe haven for the group, allowing gear to be stashed and a respite to be found. Providing it isn’t being attacked by another group keen to get those benefits for themselves.
There’s no denying that Gray Zone Warfare is quiet right now, but with the amount the team is talking about, I’m confident they’re going to make a game that certain players dig. I’m reminded somewhat of 10 Chambers, the Swedish studio behind GTFO and the forthcoming Den of Wolves, who make the games they want to play and trust that players that dig that will fall in line behind them.
They’re standing alongside that community too. Lagnese repeatedly mentions that every player suggestion is kept track of and discussed in a weekly meeting. He says that players are often in line with the developers and several suggestions are things that are already mapped out on paper or being discussed internally, but that it’s important for the team to “take temperature” on the issues the community is passionate about.
Madfinger Games know that they want to make one of the most realistic military shooters out there, even if they find the extraction shooter label contentious. I’m curious to follow along and see how that goes for them.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1726227815_Gray-Zone-Warfares-first-big-update-is-coming-and-it.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2024-09-13 12:40:092024-09-13 12:40:09Gray Zone Warfare’s first big update is coming and it feels like a game-changer
If videogames had to flawlessly simulate everything they depicted, developers would still be stuck on the behavior of neutrinos. Games are illusory. The cool take-off and landing animations in Star Wars Outlaws are essentially live loading screens, but if it feels like we’ve just gone from the surface of Tatooine to outer space, they’ve done their job.
But, having acknowledged that games are smoke and mirrors, I want to stand up for a feat of simulation that has gotten a little beat up as of late: the ability to seamlessly, manually fly from outer space to a planet’s surface and back again. It’s just really, really cool, no matter how good the reasons are to not engineer it into every space game.
Landing on a Planet – Star Wars: Outlaws VS Starfield VS No Man’s Sky Comparison – YouTube
Bethesda space RPG Starfield didn’t include seamless planetary landings because building them would’ve meant spending a lot of time on something that’s “really just not that important to the player,” Todd Howard said in 2022, and Ubisoft said something similar about Star Wars Outlaws. Including the ability to fly around over the surface of planets would have required “a huge amount of effort for very little payoff,” game director Julian Gerighty told Edge. (See the video above for a comparison between planetary landings in Star Wars Outlaws, Starfield, and No Man’s Sky via YouTube channel NikTek.)
Bethesda and Ubisoft both might’ve been right not to design the kind of space travel you find in No Man’s Sky or Elite Dangerous. How would it be useful to land anywhere on a planet in Outlaws? What would be there? Starfield and Outlaws are RPGs which direct players through a story. They’re not sims. Free spaceflight doesn’t belong in every space game.
On the other hand, the space exploration in Starfield was a bit disappointing. The ambition of Skyrim was to plop us into a huge fantasy landscape where nothing was painted into the skybox: “That mountain is not just a backdrop, you can walk all the way to the top of that mountain,” Howard famously said. The contemporary version of that ambition would’ve been to hurl us into an outer space where preposterous distances could be traversed on the sci-fi equivalent of horseback, but Starfield dismissed distance with fast travel and represented planetary landings with loading screens.
I wonder what Starfield would’ve been like if it’d been scaled down to a single star system and the top priority had been maintaining the illusion that you’re really hauling yourself around in a pressurized box?
I haven’t played a ton of it, but I’m still very charmed by 10-year-old early access space game Rodina. The graphics may be simple, but there’s no question that the ship whose corridors I can explore in first-person is the same ship I’m landing on asteroids in the third-person piloting view: When I exit the pilot’s chair, the view out the windows is still bouncing up and down as the ship settles on the low-G surface I clumsily plopped it on.
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I’ve done a bad job landing in Rodina. (Image credit: Elliptic Games)
It’s that sense of physical reality—my spaceship feeling like an actual container—combined with continuity across huge changes in scale that really does it for me. No Man’s Sky engine programmer Martin Griffiths recently posted a video (embedded below) demonstrating the engine’s capabilities with its debug camera, and despite the flashes of light that mark transitions between one level of detail and another, the journey from a lake’s shore to orbit is mesmerizing.
Even if the seamlessness of No Man’s Sky’s space travel is debatable, it remains a great technical achievement eight years later, and you don’t see lots of other technical feats lauded today. Ray tracing is frequently ridiculed as a pointless frame rate hog developed by an industry that hasn’t moved on from a graphical arms race that players lost interest in years ago, and the $700 PS5 Pro announced this week was met with expressions of indifference over its fancier graphics capabilities.
I’ve seen quite a lot of debate recently about loading times and smoke and mirrors in space games – so thought I’d show you all the #NoMansSky debug camera .. a nice demo of how seamless and powerful our engine is! PS5 running here, with video from an iPhone… 3 planets in 50… pic.twitter.com/NOyy1qVgnAJuly 22, 2024
I think players broadly still do care about new graphics tech like ray tracing (which I think will eventually contribute more than fps-tanking reflections), but we’re certainly not in the same world where building a dual-GPU monster to run Crysis at max settings was considered peak PC gaming.
When I think of cutting edge of technical achievements in games today, it’s not accurate Stormtrooper armor reflections or hyper-detailed performance-captured faces or AI-generated dialogue (god forbid) that I think of. Rather than individual effects or moments, it’s an unreasonable commitment to maintaining some enormously ambitious overall illusion that gets me excited, and seamless space travel is an awesome example of that. So, sure, don’t put it in space games that aren’t suited to it, but let’s not go too far: cool-ass planetary landings are important to players.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1726191761_Sure-not-every-space-game-needs-them-but-just-for.png6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2024-09-13 01:19:472024-09-13 01:19:47Sure, not every space game needs them, but just for the record: seamless planetary landings are cool as hell
External storage drives are things that you either hardly ever use or they’re a daily part of your tech ensemble. SSD versions are often small, lightweight, and really tough but the best part about them is they’re not very expensive. Unlike the new Pro Mini from Iodyne (via The Verge) which demands an asking price of $1,500 bar five bucks.
Admittedly, that’s for the 4 TB model (the 8 TB one is a relative bargain at $2,195) but what exactly are you getting for the same price as a really good RTX 4070 Super gaming PC or two PS5 Pros? An awful lot of tech features, that’s what, though whether any of them are of interest to you is another matter.
Let’s start with the fact that it has active cooling which, to the best of my knowledge, isn’t something that the majority of external SSDs ever have. Eschewing fans entirely, the Iodyne Pro Mini boasts a dual Frore AirJet cooling system, which is all solid-state and fancy-tech. You might wonder just why such a device needs a cooler but I suspect it’s because the whole thing is using a custom processor and NAND flash chips, designed by Iodyne.
I don’t think it’s down with the data transfer speed, though, despite using USB4. Iodyne claims a sustained transfer rate of 3 GB/s which is certainly faster than external SSDs—which typically only reach a peak of 2 GB/s—but it’s not super fast. Still, not to be sniffed at and, because it’s USB4, it’ll work in any USB port, as well as Thunderbolt.
The Pro Mini is marketed at professional content creators so the rest of its features are all about security. For example, you can unlock via an NFC passkey on your phone and it has optional support for Apple and Google’s device location tracking network (done through Bluetooth signalling).
Anything stored on the drive is encrypted using the XTS-AES-256 (pdf warning) algorithm and there’s even RAID 6 redundancy, which suggests there are a lot of NAND flash chips inside the aluminium casing.
Rounding out the ‘oooh, that’s fancy’ features is a 2.1-inch electronic paper display, with a 240 x 146 resolution. The screen is powered by a battery that recharges every time you plug it in and the display can be configured to show anything from a simple name and date to the amount of storage used, and even QR and barcodes.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
I can’t see any details about the exact size and weight of the Pro Mini on Iodyne’s site but as you can see in the above video, it doesn’t look especially bulky or weighty. To be honest, I think the whole thing looks really neat, even though it’s not something I’d ever need. But that price…oh boy, that’s a lot of money.
Sure, there’s an awful lot of stuff inside that’s unique to Iodyne, and the company is using relatively few off-the-shelf components. But it still seems like an enormous chunk of cash to throw down on something, when you can get two 4 TB LaCie Rugged Pro external SSDs ($629.99 on Amazon) for the same price.
However, the LaCie drive doesn’t have anything like the same feature set as the Pro Mini.
If all those features are just what you need and you work in an industry where performance and security are critical, then it’s probably on par for that market. Unfortunately, Iodyne is only accepting pre-orders at the moment and only through specific channel partners, with the first orders expected to be shipped early next year.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1726155674_Want-a-4-TB-external-SSD-with-solid-state-cooling.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2024-09-12 15:36:342024-09-12 15:36:34Want a 4 TB external SSD with solid state cooling, passkey unlocking, wireless tracking, RAID 6, and a built-in e-paper display? Yours for—squints at the screen—the price of TWO PlayStation 5 Pros
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ASSASSINS-CREED-VALHALLA-89-HOPE-SIGURD-WAKE-UP-BEFORE.jpg7201280DecayeD20https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngDecayeD202024-09-12 15:01:032024-09-12 15:01:03ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA #89 | HOPE SIGURD WAKE UP BEFORE IT´S TO LATE
Give your Thursday Wordle an instant lift with our fantastic selection of hints, tips, and guaranteed wins. Whether you want to take a minute to brush up your letter-finding technique with our general help, use today’s clue to guide your guesswork, or go straight for the answer to the September 12 (1181) Wordle, you’re in for a great time.
Wordle wasn’t looking great for me today. I’d only had two yellows to show for two rows worth of guessing and had neatly eliminated a lot of very helpful letters in the process. My next guess was going to have to be something special. Smart. And just this once, it was: setting me firmly on the right path and turning a tricky situation into a comfortable win. Phew.
Today’s Wordle hint
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)
Wordle today: A hint for Thursday, September 12
This metal has a bright yellow colour to it when polished, and is commonly used to make everything from decorative items to pipe fittings. Also the name of a particular orchestra section. One of today’s consonants is used twice.
Is there a double letter in Wordle today?
Yes, a letter is used twice in today’s puzzle.
Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day
If you’re new to the daily Wordle puzzle or you just want a refresher after taking a break, I’ll share some quick tips to help you win. There’s nothing quite like a small victory to set you up for the rest of the day.
A mix of unique consonants and vowels makes for a solid opening word.
A tactical second guess should let you narrow down the pool of letters quickly.
There may be a repeat letter in the answer.
You’re not up against a timer, so you’ve got all the time in the world—well, until midnight—to find the winning word. If you’re stuck, there’s no shame in coming back to the puzzle later in the day and finishing it up when you’ve cleared your head.
Today’s Wordle answer
(Image credit: Future)
What is today’s Wordle answer?
Don’t worry, you’ve got this. The answer to the September 12 (1181) Wordle is BRASS.
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
Keeping track of the last handful of Wordle answers can help to eliminate current possibilities. It’s also handy for inspiring opening words or subsequent guesses if you’re short on ideas for the day.
Here are the last 10 Wordle answers:
September 11: AISLE
September 10: REBEL
September 9: DEBIT
September 8: DRAWN
September 7: OWNER
September 6: RERUN
September 5: WIDEN
September 4: STERN
September 3: FAINT
September 2: CAMEL
Learn more about Wordle
(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)
Wordle presents you with six rows of five boxes every day and the aim is to figure out the correct five-letter word by entering guesses and eliminating or confirming individual letters.
Getting off to a good start with a strong word like ARISE—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters—is a good tactic. 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 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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