December 2024 - Page 3 of 9 - Gaming Army United

Today’s Wordle answer for Wednesday, December 25

Learn how to make the most of every line in today’s Wordle with our general tips. Need more? Then you’ve got more. Our clue for the December 25 (1285) game’s ready to give you a nudge towards your latest win, and today’s answer’s on standby if those green letters just aren’t showing up today.

Today’s Wordle was a string of happy accidents, every new row leading me straight to the winning word. I had three green letters show up on my very first row, and from there it just kept getting better and better. I couldn’t be wrong if I tried by my third, because there was only one very obvious slot left to fill. Don’t worry if it hasn’t gone the same for you—that’s why we’ve got the answer ready to go if you need a hand.

Today’s Wordle hint

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

Wordle today: A hint for Wednesday, December 25

Giving someone a portion of cake, splitting responsibilities or chores between two people, or even letting someone know how you’re feeling can all be this word. It’s all about give and take.

Is there a double letter in Wordle today?

No, there is not 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

Wordle answers

(Image credit: Future)

What is today’s Wordle answer?

Here, for you. The answer to the December 25 (1285) Wordle is SHARE.

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:

December 24: EAGLE
December 23: SAUNA
December 22: BRAWN
December 21: BLADE
December 20: FLASH
December 19: STRAY
December 18: HEFTY
December 17: SCOWL
December 16: BOAST
December 15: FUNKY

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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Games News

It’s been a bumper year for PCs but my pick for the best new hardware in 2024 is a chassis, surprising even myself

I could reel off a list of products all deserving of a nod in this year’s hardware awards. The ROG Strix X870-I Gaming Wifi and Ayaneo Flip DS, to name just two, are easy recommendations. But neither could have earned my recommendation come September. That was when I first got my hands on the Havn HS 420.

Choosing the right chassis is a crucial part of PC building. Choose the wrong one and prepare to come away from the experience with bleeding hands and a vow to buy a prebuilt next time. But make the right call, and you’ll want to stare at the majesty of your PC for hours.

The Havn HS 420 is the right call.

Havn is a new name in the space—the HS 420 is the first product released by the brand—but it’s born out of Pro Gamers Group, who also own a few of the big european tech retailers and keyboard manufacturer Ducky.

Bro, this chassis is fire—is what I imagine someone on TikTok has said about the HS 420 at some point. It’s inarguably eye-catching, too. I caught sight of it from across the showfloor at Computex, where it was first unveiled, and immediately bolted over to see it. It was on a gradually rotating plinth, and I took a good few snaps of it and made a note to return for a chat about it before scuttling off to my next appointment.

Let’s talk about the chassis itself, then.

The vented side and top panels are a particular highlight. They look stunning but they serve a purpose—this chassis offers a variety of ways to install fans and/or radiators. That includes down the side of the motherboard tray, above the motherboard, beneath the motherboard, to the other side of the motherboard—all around the motherboard, really.

Image 1 of 2

Havn HS 420 VGPU case with various features highlighted. — (Image credit: Future)

The HS 420 aims to keep airflow moving across your CPU and motherboard and keep hot air erupting from your GPU from sticking around too long. To that end, the VGPU version—which includes a PCIe 5.0 riser and bracket for mounting your graphics card on its side—also includes a glass separator to help ease the airflow within the case. I didn’t find it made much of a difference to be honest, but it looks good, and my temps were decent in testing.

I do have a few problems with it that it’s only fair to note here. Firstly, it doesn’t come with any fans, which on top of the cost of the chassis itself, starting at $199 for the non-VGPU version, means it won’t be winning any awards for being affordable. Though I’d argue it’s still a great investment if you plan to keep this chassis for any considerable length of time.

It also weighs 19 kg. With a side panel that wraps around the front and is made entirely of glass, I can see why. But that weight does make it unwieldly. What you don’t want to happen is unkowingly pick it up by the dust filter and have said dust filter pull away from the case, sending the chassis into a rapid descent towards the concrete floor. And all happening just moments before you’re supposed to shoot it for a feature your popular magazine, which is on deadline. Not that this exact thing ever happened to me, but if it did I would have caught it with the help of our photographer and only slightly injured myself in the process.

Image 1 of 4

You might still be thinking ‘a case is a case is a case’. I strongly disagree. The HS 420 might look like an empty vessel that serves no purpose until it’s filled with a multitude of other components, but it’s the cleanest, most builder-friendly chassis I’ve used in quite some time. Heck, maybe ever.

The wide and deep cable management on the rear of the motherboard tray is a good example of its excellence, which makes for easy work of genuinely good-looking cable management without a degree from cable management school (which I don’t have). All over the case there are signs of design for convenience—the way the intake and exhaust fan mounts remove, or the dust filters, or the single screw that holds the lower fan mount in place… each little piece removes some small hassle or inconvenience from the building process.

What’s most surprising, however, is just how expertly designed this chassis is considering it’s the first ever product from Havn. Sure, the people behind it aren’t complete newbs [sic], but to nail a design that works for both beginners and experienced builders alike—well, it’s just darned impressive.

I came away from building in the Havn HS 420 feeling like I’d nailed it. Realistically, I had only put a few white parts together and called it a PC build. The Havn HS 420 was, and continues to be, the true star of the show.

If you want to find out who won the PC Gamer Hardware Awards, we’ll be publishing the winners on New Year’s Day.

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Decayed20

ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA #116 | A SAGA DAS NAVES – HAVI (ODIN) VS LOKI – MERRY CHRISTMAS

Bem vindos a Valhalla!

AC Valhalla que jogo gigante, adoro a história nórdica do pouco que sei e o mundo nórdico.

Se vale apena ? CADA SEGUNDO!

Acompanha os próximos episódios de AC Valhalla AQUI 👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDowRCnCZ6UICNtMhndmxwW6Yjy5FjUXj

Espero que gostem, deixem o like, subscrevam, partilhem e ativem as notificações para não perder nenhum episódio!!!

Segue-me nas redes sociais 📲
LINKS TEMPORARIAMENTE APENAS NA PÁGINA PRINCIPAL DO CANAL!

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Games News

Today’s Wordle answer for Tuesday, December 24

Come take a look at our hint for today’s Wordle, and use it to point you towards the latest winning word while still giving you the chance to do all the fun guesswork. Or go grab the answer for the December 24 (1284) puzzle instead if you’d like to turn a tough game around in an instant. However you want to win, we’ve got something that’ll help.

In many ways I was doing just fine today—I had found something useful, I just needed to work out what to do with it. And I had lots of ideas, so that wasn’t the problem either. I even had a few letters turn green. The problem was there were a lot of words I could make from them, and I really didn’t have enough rows spare to narrow them down in time. I got there, but it was a close call.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Tuesday, December 24

This word refers to a majestic bird of prey famed for its keen eyesight and broad wingspan… and a golfing score too.

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

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

Wordle answers

(Image credit: Future)

What is today’s Wordle answer?

Don’t worry, the word you’re after’s right here. The answer to the December 24 (1284) Wordle is EAGLE.

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:

December 23: SAUNA
December 22: BRAWN
December 21: BLADE
December 20: FLASH
December 19: STRAY
December 18: HEFTY
December 17: SCOWL
December 16: BOAST
December 15: FUNKY
December 14: DROOL

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 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.

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Games News

Starfield is surprisingly absent from Steam’s 2024 bestsellers list despite taking a top spot in 2023

Valve has published its annual Best of Steam list for 2024, ranking the year’s top games in various categories. The top-sellers list for 2024 bears a lot of similarity to that one 2023, with one notable exception: Starfield is nowhere to be seen.

Valve doesn’t release sales data for individual games, so we can’t say how much any particular title on the list pulled in: Instead, they’re randomly sorted in “buckets”—platinum, gold, silver, and bronze—indicating their relative success. Given the number of games released every month on Steam, even a bronze-tier ranking represents a significant success.

Five of the 12 games in the platinum category—PUBG Battlegrounds, Destiny 2, Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2, and Apex Legends—are free to play, and all five were ranked in the same category in 2023, a testament to the lucrative value of a free-to-play hit. At the other end of the spectrum, Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 are both hanging in there: Elden Ring no doubt benefited from the release of the outstanding Shadow of the Erdtree expansion in June, but Baldur’s Gate 3 maintaining its spot more than a year after release—with numerous meaty updates to its credit but no full-on DLC—is something of a surprise. Black Myth: Wukong and Helldivers 2 also made the cut, as did Space Marine 2, Black Ops 6, and Palworld.

As I mentioned, I also find it interesting that Starfield has dropped out of the list completely. Every platinum game from 2023 is somewhere in the 2024 ranking—further down the list in some cases (Sons of the Forest, for instance, is a bronze tier game this year)—but Starfield, unless I’ve overlooked it, is completely out. That’s not meant as a dump on Starfield, I just find it genuinely surprising: Bethesda’s sci-fi RPG didn’t live up to the hype when it launched in August 2023 but that was an almost impossible bar to reach anyway, and it’s not like it was a bad game, just not the expected leap forward on the formula.

The seeming drop-off in interest in Starfield (from a sales perspective, at least) is particularly notable given that the much older Fallout 4 is still on the list, and although it doesn’t make bestsellers lists anymore, the 13-year-old Skyrim is a prime example of a game with long term sales success, and has been re-released on every platform known to mankind.

Among new releases, Path of Exile 2 made the platinum tier despite only coming out a few weeks ago, as did Stalker 2, which is great to see. The hit strategy-city build Manor Lords is also up there, as is Dragon’s Dogma 2, Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero, and the annual updates of NBA 2K and EA FC.

I also find the list of most played games on Steam Deck to be notable because it’s such an incredible jumble of, well, everything. Stardew Valley, Balatro, and Vampire Survivors are rubbing shoulders with Cyberpunk 2077, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Elden Ring, a blend that reflects just how capable Valve’s handheld gaming really is.

Other categories in the 2024 roundup include the games most played with a controller, some of which makes sense to me (Elden Ring, although it’s not how I roll) and some which do not (Apex Legends, really? You’ve got a mouse and controller right here), and top VR games based on revenue. The full rundown of the year’s biggest games on Steam, and links to previous annual rankings (although the 2017 and ’18 rankings don’t appear to be working at the moment) are up at store.steampowered.com.

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AMD’s next-gen RDNA 4 graphics cards are now rumoured to be called the RX 9000-series, and we might have already had a sneak peek at what they look like

The world awaits the arrival of next-generation graphics cards, and all eyes are now turning towards CES 2025 where it’s hoped that Nvidia and AMD will show off some shiny new GPUs. Until now the latter’s offerings have been assumed to be the RX 8000-series, but several leakers are now saying they’ll fly in under the RX 9000-series moniker. And keep your fork, because there’s more—we may have already had a sneak peek of what a new Radeon GPU might look like.

X user momomo_us posted a screenshot of what looks to be retailer GPU listings, and sitting almost at the tippy top are two GPUs called the RX 9070 and the RX 9070 XT (via Tom’s Hardware). Both new GPUs sit above AMD’s current fastest graphics card in the listing, the RX 7900 XTX.

This new X0X0 naming convention seems to be confirmed by fellow leaker All The Watts!, who’s posted a list of card groupings from the RX 9070-series down to the RX 8040-series.

And wouldn’t you know it, there’s a third. According to X user and known leaker HXL, the 8000-series nomenclature refers to RDNA 3.5 GPUs like Strix Halo, while the 9000-series naming scheme is supposedly for fully-fledged RDNA 4 GPUs.

All three leakers posted this new info within an hour of each other, so that could mean it’s all a big game of telephone—or that they’re all relying on the same leaked info at once.

The past three generations of desktop AMD cards have been known as the RX 5000, RX 6000, and RX 7000-series respectively, with the second digit used as the primary model differentiator. So this new skip-a-digit system would be a break from recent tradition, although it’d make a lot of sense.

AMD’s latest Zen 5 CPUs are also called the 9000-series, although they use second digit identifiers like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Lining up the latest AMD GPUs and CPUs with a 9000 number each makes things relatively neat and tidy at least, with the change in identifier number hopefully meaning we don’t have to break out a decoder wheel, as has been provided by AMD in the past.

Not only that, but it looks like an eagle-eyed redditor may have spotted images of at least one of these new cards displayed prominently in a recent advertising banner:

Are these reference 8000 series card? from r/Amd

Reddit user SubtleSerenity spotted a black and silver cooler design in several AMD ads on the platform, which looks distinctly different from AMD reference card designs previous. Hoang Anh Phu, another trusted AMD leaker, has since stated that they believe the card to be the RX 9070 XT—although as with all leak confirmations, pinches of salt all round are probably still a good idea.

Not that there’s anything particularly exciting or revolutionary about what looks like a standard three-fan cooler design, but it still seems that AMD’s marketing department may have let an ad loose too early. The card is shown in conjunction with a Ryzen 9 CPU, so the image has possibly been made for use with bundle deals yet to come.

With rumours abound that the top RDNA 4 card may be 45% faster in ray tracing than the RX 7900 XTX (and deliver raster performance equivalent to an RTX 4080), what we’re now assuming is the RX 9070 XT might be a bit of a killer card. It’s still not likely to compete with anything at the top of Nvidia’s next-generation graphics cards, as AMD’s Jack Huyhn has already stated it’s not aiming for the high-end market with the new generation of GPUs.

Still, at the right price? It could still be a great card if these numbers prove out, and perhaps FSR 4 might even the playing field a bit more now it’s rumoured to be getting a dose of AI, like Nvidia’s DLSS. Still, it’s all speculation for now, so we’ll have to wait until CES 2025 to officially find out.

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Games News

2024 has been one of the most fragmented years for videogames and in hindsight I actually really liked that

Something I’ve come to realise is that I can pinpoint a year by its one giant videogame (or two slightly smaller but still very large videogames), whether I played them or not. Last year’s was, without a doubt, Baldur’s Gate 3. Elden Ring took over everyone’s lives the year before that, while Resident Evil Village and It Takes Two were the talk of the town in 2021.

There’s something near-universally true about all of these games: People were pretty jazzed about them before they were even released. That fanfare almost always ended up continuing for months beyond launch—hell, in Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring’s case, they’re still hot topics and ripe for endless news today.

But now, in 2024? I honestly couldn’t tell you what The Big Game was. Palworld was a real flash in the pan. Helldivers 2 probably comes the closest, having had a wildly successful launch not even Arrowhead could predict, but I barely recall any of that pre-launch mania I’ve become so accustomed to. Balatro’s been a slow burn of recruiting my fellow poker roguelite sickos, and Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC had some nice hype but a surprisingly short tail. Black Myth: Wukong, meanwhile, was racking up the Steam wishlists, but I’ve heard very little about it in the months since it dropped.

Do I think that’s necessarily a bad thing? Honestly, no. I think it’s easy to dismiss this year as a forgettable one for videogames, but I couldn’t disagree more. Instead, I would argue that it’s been a fragmented one, and yeah, kind of a weird one. But it’s been a year that has helped folk dip their toes into games they may not have tried otherwise, and one that has been great for more niche nooks of the videogame hive.

A weird year, huh?

Case in point: In 2023 I played roughly 15 new releases, a figure I arrived at by looking at my Steam library and diving into my mind palace to retrieve games I played on other launchers. Of course Baldur’s Gate 3 is a big one, and I dabbled in other major releases like Street Fighter 6, Lethal Company, and Starfield.

Compare that to this year where I’ve bounced between 35 new releases: I briefly tangled with the Palworld hype, spent way too much time in Fields of Mistria on my Steam Deck, returned to Final Fantasy 14 for Dawntrail, and watched time march on in Metaphor: ReFantazio. I fell in love with Webfishing, finally got to grips with my long-anticipated spaceship repair sim Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, suffered many a beating in Tekken 8, and got to be an unapologetic dress-up game sicko thanks to Infinity Nikki.

3,417.6 hours in Final Fantasy 14

(Image credit: Valve)

Quick sidebar: This is also the first year in which I’ve owned a Steam Deck. Do I think that helped bump up the number of games I devoured? A little, sure. I doubt I would’ve finished Metaphor without it and a 14-hour flight I had to take was perfectly timed with the Kingdom Hearts collection dropping on Steam. Yeah yeah, I know it’s ancient, but in VST (Valve Standard Time) it’s fresh as a daisy.

But even without all that portable excellence, this year has given us the breathing room to embrace all manner of weirdly specific games. Satisfactory is not my thing, but for many it’s the peak of the automation genre. I probably wouldn’t have looked at UFO 50 twice had it been released last year, but I fell in love with it after virtually dusting off each and every cartridge the game had to offer. Thank Goodness You’re Here! is a delightfully British romp that I fear would have flown under the radar had we had access to the all-encompassing megahit of years past.

A pub called The Thumbitt Inn in Thank Goodness You're Here!

(Image credit: Coal Supper, Panic)

If anything, the thing that has defined 2024 has been the niches, the underdogs, and the unexpected. That makes it tough to look at one particular gaming beacon and say “yeah, that’s 2024 right there.” But you know what? I like that. I like that the PC Gamer team was divided on what should be our GOTY. I like that I can ask five different friends what their favourite game of this year was, and I would very well expect five different answers.

I do largely expect things to return to form in 2025, though. There’s already a feral level of excitement around Monster Hunter Wilds, while the rest of February looms over every PC gamer with the likes of Civilization 7 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Oh, and Avowed. And Assassin’s Creed Shadows. That’s only one month of the year, no less.

GTA 6 excitement will no doubt be reaching critical mass, and lest we forget Hideo Kojima threatening to release Death Stranding 2 (I’m kidding). I’m certain next year will be hype train central, but I’ll secretly be over here kinda missing the vibes that 2024’s fragmentation brought.

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Games News

Best Roguelike 2024: Caves of Qud

Our favourite roguelike of the year was deeply strange and absurdly deep. It’s the impossibly inventive retrofuturist fantasy Caves of Qud. For more awards, check out our Game of the Year 2024 hub.

Lincoln Carpenter, News Writer: There is too much to say about Caves of Qud, but it never quite feels like I’ve said enough.

It’s a roguelike’s roguelike: A science-fantasy wasteland populated by a rich gnarl of combat systems and procedural world-state simulations that have no qualms about leveraging their brutality against you. Qud has an absurd breadth of possibility to offer: I’ve started games as two-hearted barbarians and ended them as winged, railgun-toting scorpion-men. I’ve entered Qud as a cyborg gunslinger, and within a few levels and chance augmentation procedures in Becoming Nooks I no longer needed my pistols, because I was throwing force knives that I could 3D print with my mind. I’ve started as many new playthroughs just to try a new idea for a centaur rifleman or steel-plated pugilist as I have because my last character met a grisly end after getting their head erupted by a psychic duelist in a subterranean ruin.

As exciting as my newest character build might be, it’s Qud’s setting that makes that next playthrough so appealing. Qud’s history is unknowably long, and each run generates its own inscrutable variation on those countless centuries of crumbling civilizations and shambling, paradimensional horrors. Those histories are gradually excavated as you explore; by inspecting statues, paintings, and inscriptions, you’ll learn about sultans assassinated with knives made of sand, prophesied children born with mouths full of circuitry, villages founded by bird-worshipping robot cults.

Qud’s real treasure is its writing. Its NPCs have their own dialects, tics, and idioms reflecting their own histories in Qud’s surreal world, granting a sense of humanity even to those that—to us—seem the most inhuman. Every item and creature, meanwhile, has a unique description in gorgeously arcane, purposefully excessive prose. Mutants are “vessels of the metamorphic numen”; old statues are “erosion-smoothed abstractions.” In Qud, a chair isn’t a chair. It’s a “wharf for the ass.”

An adventurer in Caves of Qud approaches a statue of a sultan from a previous age.

(Image credit: Kitfox Games)

Sure, it’s self-indulgent, but those excesses are deliberate. It’s a game seeking to feel like an artifact impossibly out of time, and it succeeds. Once you’ve made it past your introductory dozen-or-so deaths at the hands of hyenafolk and gyre-wights, playing Caves of Qud feels like reading a history book written on the other side of an unfathomably distant future, in a language you only understand just well enough to be enthralled.

Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: The world is richer for having Qud in it. As with Dwarf Fortress, you can benefit from afar: The stories its players tell about sentient furniture and unplanned limb growth are their own small treasures. It’s a rare feat for a game to have writing that is by itself powerfully evocative while also leaving room, in between its simple graphics and bogglingly vast possibility space, for people to fill in the vivid details of their own adventures. There’s so much comedic and emotional potential in games that dare to go as systems-heavy as Qud does. Like, say, slipping on a slime and falling for so long that you pass a holy place on the way down, or being prompted to name the weapon you’ve just used to slaughter endless baboons, or crushing yourself with a spacetime vortex, as happened to PC Gamer contributor Len Hafer.

Even when I’m not playing Qud, I love reading about the experiences other players are having in it. Outside Dwarf Fortress, EVE Online, and perhaps Kenshi, I don’t think any game has prompted better ones.

Evan Lahti, Strategic Director: I’m determined to get better at Caves of Qud, and play it more over the holiday break if only because it is such a resounding conduit for those indulgent, Mad Libs-arranged proper nouns that Lincoln mentions.

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Games News

Today’s Wordle answer for Sunday, December 22

Learn how to make the most of your daily Wordle with our compact selection of tips, designed to help you make the most out of every guess you make and quickly turn grey letters green. Need more? Then you’ve got it. Today’s clue will point you in the right direction without spoiling your fun, and the December 22 (1282) answer’s ready if the words aren’t wording for you this Sunday and you’d really just like a win.

Almost… nearly… and won. Today’s game was over so fast it took a moment to register with my brain, which was still stuck in puzzle-solving mode. Now I’ve caught up with myself I’ve no complaints though—there are definitely worse ways to end a week of Wordle.

Wordle today: A hint

Wordle today: A hint for Sunday, December 22

This word refers to muscular physical strength. Often treated in sentences as the opposite to “brains”.

Is there a double letter in Wordle today?

No, a letter is not used twice 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

Wordle answers

(Image credit: Future)

What is today’s Wordle answer?

Need a hand? The answer to the December 22 (1282) Wordle is BRAWN.

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:

December 21: BLADE
December 20: FLASH
December 19: STRAY
December 18: HEFTY
December 17: SCOWL
December 16: BOAST
December 15: FUNKY
December 14: DROOL
December 13: BOXER
December 12: VYING

Learn more about Wordle

Today's Wordle being played on a phone

(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.

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Games News

The Allmother is dead, long live the Allmother!: Why 1000XResist is the best sci-fi story I’ve experienced in years

Personal Pick

In addition to our main Game of the Year Awards 2024, each member of the PC Gamer team is shining a spotlight on a game they loved this year. We’ll post new personal picks, alongside our main awards, throughout the rest of the month.

The Allmother is dead. Stabbed through the heart for a multitude of cruelties by one of her own cloned ‘sisters,’ there’s no going back. Many stories would end here, in this seeming moment of triumph. But for 1000xResist, it’s just the opening image. Long live the Allmother!

In Sunset Visitor’s debut game, the Allmother reigns at a distance over a society of her own clones. They dwell under an inside sky, safe from the alien Occupants on the surface but not from an airborne, moisture-purging virus. One crack in a sister’s mask and it’s all over. The Allmother, on the other hand, is the only one immune to this devastating disease.

It has not always been this way. Once upon a time, the Allmother was just a girl called Iris, the teenaged daughter of parents who left Hong Kong in the wake of the protests throughout 2019 and 2020. Once upon a time, the Allmother was definitely only human.

A pseudo-time-travelling mechanic arguably inspired by Millennium Actress (which just so happens to be one of my favourite films) is core to much of 1000xResist. As Watcher, a clone with a revered function, you are tasked with the responsibility of ‘communion’—excavating the Allmother’s memories as an immersive simulation. What follows is an exploration focused narrative game, and one of the best sci-fi stories I’ve experienced in years.

As you hop through Iris’ school days either side of a deadly pandemic, there’s a simple pleasure to exploration through the lens of Watcher’s temporally distant perspective. For instance, typical first names like ‘Iris’ are seen as ‘opaque keywords’ by the function-focused society of the clones. For another, when Watcher asks how a school locker works, her travelling companion Secretary explains it hinges on “A password made of numbers and directional choreography.” Watcher observes, “There must have been rampant theft.” Secretary replies, “Either that, or rampant mistrust.” With a smugness recognisable by anyone who has felt superior to denizens of the past, Watcher says, “I feel sorry for them.”

A city rises up out of the sea

(Image credit: Fellow Traveller)

The best speculative fiction, while often laying its scene in the future, still distinctly comments on our present; many recognisable fears and anxieties reside in these halls. Case in point, you can spy the student council fighting over what they will be remembered for. The flashpoint of their argument is a fox statue—the incomplete passion project of a school councillor before them, the context of which has long since been lost to history. The council president makes the case that they should make room in the budget to complete the statue, partly because it meant something to someone, while his opposing speaker argues the most expedient resolution would be to do away with the statue completely. No agreement is reached as both sides run out of time, and the council is told to immediately report to the gym. The treasurer bemoans, “Our great grandchildren will be paying our debts.”

Skipping ahead a short span of years, you encounter another character petting the long since abandoned statue. They ask what kind of animal it is—they’ve only seen foxes in picturebooks from the old world.

‘What we leave behind’ is a theme that goes hand in hand with many of the characters’ desire to understand the inner life of a distant, often parental figure. To say Iris’ relationship with her own mother is complicated is to obscure through euphemism, and sharp character writing allows 1000xResist to explore this in a believably messy way. For just one devastating example, in a private conversation exposed by worship, Iris calls her own mother a coward for leaving Hong Kong. This strained parent-child relationship echoes throughout everything that follows as Iris leaves the role of ‘daughter’ behind in favour of becoming ‘Allmother.’

After finishing 1000xResist for the first time, my first thought was, ‘I really want to tell my mum about this game.’ Though not a huge gamer, she is curious about games; together, we’ve been picking away at Pentiment, and it turns out we both had strong opinions about Yakuza 0’s treatment of its female cast. Like any art, games are another vector for understanding, and I’m still really looking forward to that conversation.

Upon playing 1000xResist a second time, I’m also left wishing I could call my dad. We both love scifi, so much so that when I wrote his eulogy, I kind of felt it had to conclude with the Tears in Rain speech from Blade Runner. When my dad died, he left behind no handwritten letters, no journals save for a few hastily scribbled notes in pencil. We recently got into his email, discovering the server only holds onto messages through one year of account inactivity—after that, it simply deletes them. In between scrolling through our shared archive of sporadic WhatsApp messages, I find myself thinking about Silent Hill 3; after Harry Mason is killed by the cult, his adoptive daughter Heather travels to the titular town and discovers his notes scattered throughout, coming to understand not only some of the hell he went through, but also his paternal love in spite of it all.

Two clones sit at a bar, one wearing blue, the other orange

(Image credit: Fellow Traveller)

I know I’m hardly the first to mention Silent Hill and 1000xResist in the same breath; there’s no Mumblers to fight here, but those fixed camera angles still create school halls suffering from no lack of foreboding. An incredibly stylish game, Sunset Visitor leverages their collective theatrical experience to create stunning tableaus that elevate the game’s occasionally unrefined visual assets, and you’re treated to one of these standouts as Watcher finally enters the school gym. This memory is the site of the pandemic’s first mass spreader event, and is in many ways the beginning of Iris’ transformation into the Allmother. The overseer of the clones’ inside sky, Principal, is seen dancing on stage, surrounded by the floating forms of those first to die.

Sometimes sci-fi has a surprising amount to say about faith. Principal tells Watcher that excavating these memories through communion is part of that most sacred of duties: “to trust Her.” Indeed, Principal always says the appropriately reverent thing, but you soon discover just how far she’ll reach for evidence of the Allmother’s love. It never seems to be enough, and she is weighted down by the pursuit. She says to Watcher she’s revisited this moment in the school gym many times—and yet still warns, “Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing.”

The true extent of Principal’s reinventorying of the past is just one thread you really should unpick for yourself. Watcher’s imperfect understanding of the Allmother, and how that fuels 1000xResist’s inciting incident is another—to say nothing of the betrayal that caps off just the first chapter. Even after two playthroughs, I’m still peeling back all of the layers of Sunset Visitor’s debut game, and I’m sure this will be far from my final communion. Hekki grace.

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Today’s Wordle answer for Wednesday, December 25

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Wednesday, December 25

It’s been a bumper year for PCs but my pick for the best new hardware in 2024 is a chassis, surprising even myself

ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA #116 | A SAGA DAS NAVES – HAVI (ODIN) VS LOKI – MERRY CHRISTMAS

Today’s Wordle answer for Tuesday, December 24

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Tuesday, December 24

Starfield is surprisingly absent from Steam’s 2024 bestsellers list despite taking a top spot in 2023

AMD’s next-gen RDNA 4 graphics cards are now rumoured to be called the RX 9000-series, and we might have already had a sneak peek at what they look like

2024 has been one of the most fragmented years for videogames and in hindsight I actually really liked that

Best Roguelike 2024: Caves of Qud

Today’s Wordle answer for Sunday, December 22

Wordle today: A hint

Wordle today: A hint for Sunday, December 22

The Allmother is dead, long live the Allmother!: Why 1000XResist is the best sci-fi story I’ve experienced in years

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