While the big Vermintide 2 news last year was the addition of PVP in Versus mode, the PVE side of things is still being catered for. Its latest addition is Verminous Dreams, a campaign of linked maps that pits the Ubersreik Five against their old enemies the skaven once again.
The first two of its three maps are available now. The Forsaken Temple sends you to Athel Lithri, a mythical elven holy site that’s been overrun by the filthy ratmen, and which contains a shattered waystone you have to reassemble while the horde pours in. It’s a more open map than you might be used to, with a whole dried-up lakebed to cross.
Part two, Devious Delvings, carries on from there with a laboratory where the skaven are working on the biggest bomb the Warhammer World has ever seen, or so its creator thinks. Of course it’s your job to smash the thing, though you’ll have to catch it first. And there’s a rather large rat ogre named Gnawtooth’s Pet in the way.
The latest update also added a suite of custom settings for Versus mode, letting hosts toggle options like friendly fire and hero bots, as well as tweaking the distance the Pactsworn spawn at, the rate of respawns, how much health knocked-down heroes have, and so on. So PVP heads aren’t being left out.
There’s still one more map to come in the Verminous Dreams campaign, but until it arrives there’s been a bunch of challenges and rewards added for the new maps, meaning there’s reason to replay them if you collect portrait frames and cosmetics.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737845498_Vermintide-2s-still-getting-free-maps-added-to-it-with.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2025-01-25 21:51:032025-01-25 21:51:03Vermintide 2’s still getting free maps added to it, with the latest being an elven temple and a warpstone nuke factory
Yet, as reported by GamesRadar, streamer and Elden Ring maestro Skumnut has recently taken the collective embarrassment of FromSoftware‘s RPG to a whole new level. Earlier this week, Skumnut beat Elden Ring without taking a single hit, which wouldn’t normally be much to shout about in the world of high-level Elden Ringing, save for the fact Skumnut was playing at NG+1000.
If you’re sat there thinking, “I didn’t know Elden Ring could be played at NG+1000”, that’s because it can’t. Normally, new-game plus runs of Elden Ring are capped at the +7 mark. Skumnut, however, was playing a modified version of the game that unshackles it from this limitation, beefing-up its difficulty to the equivalent of NG+1000.
This means every boss in the game has over 500,000 HP, with similarly scaled damage and resistances. To give you an idea of how absurd that is, Elden Ring’s final boss, the Elden Beast, has 22,127 HP on a standard run of the game. Consequently, Skumnut had to whittle down every one of those monstrously inflated health bars without being hit once. If he got so much as his toes tickled by an AOE attack, he’d have to restart the run.
Needless to say, this took a few attempts—115, to be precise. Yet even that was constrained to a three-week period, less time than it took me to beat Elden Ring on the first go. Skumnut’s strategy involved using abilities like Black Flame Tornado, which deals percentage damage to enemy health rather than a fixed number. You can see an example of this in the video below, showing the final moments of Skumnut’s run when he felled the Elden Beast.
ELDEN RING NG+1000 with UNCAPPED NG+ scaling NO HIT has been achieved. Every boss 500k+ HP. First in the world, probably the last. Attempt 115 was always the chosen one. Only took 3 weeks. GG.Thats why they call me the Elden Ring sicko. pic.twitter.com/X0gh5igNDsJanuary 19, 2025
“That’s why they call me the Elden Ring sicko”, boasted Skumnut of his run, which he also stated is the “first in the world” and “probably the last.” While it certainly seems the former is true—nobody has arisen to challenge Skumnut’s claim—I’ve learned never to doubt the Elden Ring community’s ability to exceed itself, and I’m sure there are numerous Beast-bashing whizzkids gazing upon Skumnut’s achievement with envious eyes.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737809460_Thats-why-they-call-me-the-Elden-Ring-sicko-proclaims.png6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2025-01-25 12:00:002025-01-25 12:00:00‘That’s why they call me the Elden Ring sicko’ proclaims streamer as he beats FromSoft’s RPG at NG+1000 without taking a single hit
I know base-builder fans are always on the lookout for a new open world co-op game to dive into with their pals… and while I don’t have a new one to tempt you with today, there is one from a few years ago that you might not have heard of. I hadn’t, and I play a lot of these sorts of games. You can check it out for the next few days without paying a dime.
It’s called Necesse, and if you missed it when it launched (or wishlisted it but never bought it) this is a great chance to finally dabble. Necesse has a free weekend on Steam that’s already underway, and it comes with a perk: if you enjoy it and want to buy it, it’s on sale for 35% off until February 3, meaning it’ll cost you less than 10 bucks. Plus, any progress you make during the free weekend will be saved for when you unlock the full game. That’s a good deal! Check out the new trailer and tell me Necesse doesn’t look like a lot of fun:
I’m going to be jumping in myself tonight: Necesse is verified for Steam Deck and it looks like a good one to play while chilling on the couch and mostly ignoring a movie playing in the background. There’s an infinite world to explore, monsters to battle, bases to build, and even if you’re going solo you’ll still have plenty of company: there are NPC settlers to recruit “that can work your fields, tend to your animals, and acquire resources without needing your constant attention and supervision.”
If you’ve already got Necesse, then this seems like a great opportunity to jump back in and convince your friends to come along for some co-op adventuring and building, especially since its most recent update added new weapons, many of them themed for cooperative play. There are several new staves that provide buffs to your allies, and if you’re playing solo you can still give them to your NPC pals. The world has gotten a bit more dangerous in this update with new environmental hazards you’ll encounter when exploring caves, but that’s balanced out with a new subterranean crop so you won’t starve to death quite as often down there.
And don’t just take my word for it: Necesse, even if it’s not well known, has a ‘Very Positive” Steam rating, with over 10,000 reviews giving it a healthy 94% approval rating. Wait, why am I still trying to convince you? It’s completely free until Sunday.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737773390_I-missed-this-co-op-open-world-base-builder-when-it-first.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2025-01-25 00:45:502025-01-25 00:45:50I missed this co-op open world base-builder when it first came out, but it’s got over 10,000 positive Steam reviews and it’s free to play all weekend
Epic has released a 2024 “Year in Review” of the Fortnite creator ecosystem and, surprise surprise, there are a lot of big numbers to be had. As well as an overview of the year just gone, the publisher also took the opportunity to share some of the future plans for Fortnite which, going by these figures, is simply bigger than ever.
The number of Fortnite creators tripled over the year, from around 24,000 in 2023 to 70,000 in 2024. The number of islands created is 198,000 and on average 60,000 creator-made islands are played every single day, with 70% of the playerbase enjoying both Epic-made and creator-authored content.
Then the money. Epic says it paid out a total of $352M to creators in 2024, but then comes possibly the most interesting breakdown in the review. Just under 30,000 creators received payouts of $100-$999; Around 5,400 made $1,000 to $9,999; 1,728 made between $10,000 and $99,999, and then we get into the people who are really making bank.
418 Fortnite creators made between $100,000 and $300,000. 154 made between $300,000 and $1 million.
37 people made between $1 million and $3 million from Fortnite’s creator program in 2024. 14 people made over $3 million but less than $10 million. Then right at the top, there are seven individuals who made over $10 million from their Fortnite creations. In a single year.
That’s 58 people who’ve made more than $1 million from Fortnite in 2024, with many making a lot more. The fact that Fortnite is so big that Epic is now paying out roughly a third of a billion dollars to community creators in a single year is almost impossible to wrap your head around.
Other stats: Players spent 5.23 billion hours playing games made by creators, which represents “36.5% of total Fortnite playtime and continues to rise.” Epic notes that these numbers are increasingly boosted by non-combat creations such as “social roleplay, party games, deathruns, and horror.”
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
This has no doubt been helped by Fortnite’s ongoing mission to get every brand ever into the game, with creators able to use these official tie-ins, which is pretty remarkable when you think about it. Assets from brands like LEGO and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can be used and Epic says this allows creators to “develop authentic commercial games using world class IP without getting lost in contracts or negotiations.”
Epic lists some of the creator highlights of the year, one of which shows the above perfectly: Pizza Shop Tycoon Boss Fight used Fortnite’s assets to create “an authentic and engaging Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles experience” that has proven wildly popular, and is officially licensed.
As for the future, Epic says it will be “moving Scene Graph into Beta, introducing custom items, and launching additional tools to help you build deeper, more complex games with UEFN in new and popular genres.” On top of this it’s committing to improving the insight tools for developers, improving the Discover experience where players explore the range of what’s available, and promises a roadmap by the end of the month with more details.
Well, it’s probably no wonder that Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says the company has spent billions fighting Apple and Google, and fully intends to keep doing so. And even if a certain buzzword has fallen out of favour, he still thinks Fortnite is at the forefront of gaming’s future:
“Some people call it the Metaverse and some people call it just games, but it is real,” says Sweeney. “And you find hundreds of millions of players who are highly engaged in immersive 3D games together with their friends. And we think that if we are successful with this, then someday there will be billions of users of this kind of game. And we think we’re in an awesome position to be a leading company or perhaps the leading company in that world if the shackles are removed that prevent us and all developers from actually competing on our own and becoming first class companies in the industry.”
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737737316_Fortnite-has-58-creators-that-got-paid-over-1-million.jpg6331120Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2025-01-24 15:55:182025-01-24 15:55:18Fortnite has 58 creators that got paid over $1 million in 2024, and 7 of those made over $10 million
Win Friday’s Wordle with our help. Feel free to use our tips to boost your general tactics, or spend some time with our clue for the January 24 (1315) puzzle if you’d like something more specific that doesn’t spoil all of the fun. And if you just need today’s answer right now? You’ve got it. Click or scroll down to it and enjoy another win.
First letter? Sorted. Last letter? Same. Now then, what to put between them? Which is of course Wordle’s daily problem, but today it was taunting me with its nice green bookends and vast expanse of grey between them. I had to dig deep to strike the right letters today, but I got there in the end.
Today’s Wordle hint
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)
Wordle today: A hint for Friday, January 24
In paper or fabric, this word refers to a light and slightly wrinkled material. Also a type of thin pancake 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
A good starting word can be the difference between victory and defeat with the daily puzzle, but once you’ve got the basics, it’s much easier to nail down those Wordle wins. And as there’s nothing quite like a small victory to set you up for the rest of the day, here are a few tips to help set you on the right path:
A good opening guess should contain a mix of unique consonants and vowels.
Narrow down the pool of letters quickly with a tactical second guess.
Watch out for letters appearing more than once in the answer.
There’s no racing against the clock with Wordle so you don’t need to rush for the answer. Treating the game like a casual newspaper crossword can be a good tactic; that way, you can come back to it later if you’re coming up blank. Stepping away for a while might mean the difference between a win and a line of grey squares.
Today’s Wordle answer
(Image credit: Future)
What is today’s Wordle answer?
You’ve got this. The answer to the January 24 (1315) Wordle is CREPE.
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
Past Wordle answers can give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh. They are also a good way to eliminate guesses for today’s Wordle, as the answer is unlikely to be repeated.
Here are some recent Wordle answers:
January 23: UPPER
January 22: REACH
January 21: ICING
January 20: SQUID
January 19: ROWER
January 18: SILLY
January 17: PROSE
January 16: FLINT
January 15: KNACK
January 14: FANCY
Learn more about Wordle
(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)
Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and you’ll need to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them to keep up your winning streak.
You should start with a strong word like ARISE, or any other word that contains a good mix of common consonants and multiple vowels. You’ll also want to avoid starting words with repeating letters, as you’re wasting the chance to potentially eliminate or confirm an extra letter. Once you hit Enter, you’ll see which ones you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns ⬛️, it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. 🟨 means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 🟩 means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.
Your second guess should compliment the starting word, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer. With a bit of luck, you should have some coloured squares to work with and set you on the right path.
After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there’s an E). Don’t forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).
If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used you can scroll to the relevant section above.
Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.
I finally finished Cyberpunk 2077 last night, and so today’s 2.21 patch is just a wee little bit annoying because CD Projekt has finally fixed a small but irritating bug in the Phantom Liberty expansion that forced me into a fight I really didn’t want.
Minor spoiler follows, so skip this bit and scroll straight down the patch notes if you’re concerned about such things. The bug occurs fairly late into Phantom Liberty, when V dresses up as a notorious Cuban hitman for a little tête-à-tête with an NPC. You can talk it out or shoot it out—but talking it out exposes you to a bug that prevents you from changing out of the disguise at the end of the encounter. Worse, the game refuses to let you leave the area until you do, so you’re stuck in a grungy back alley until the end of time. It’s a fairly common bug, going by the number of complaints on Reddit and elsewhere, and the only surefire workaround is to load an older save and start blasting.
It’s not an especially difficult fight, but it pulled me out of the story because the rush to violence is not how my V rolls. There’s no meaningful impact on the game—everything resolves the same way whether you fight or not—but it’s the principle of the thing that bothered me: I negotiated a deal and now all I want to do is change my outfit! (I also sunk a stupid amount of time into trying to figure some other way out before I finally gave up and started spitting lead.)
Anyway, that’s not the most important fix in this patch, but it is fixed and that’s good news for anyone who’s hit the bug and hasn’t yet finished the game. Bigger news is the addition of DLSS 4 support with multiframe generation for Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs, which promises to use the magic of AI to boost framerates significantly. Those cards won’t be available for purchase until January 30, but RTX 40-series cards will also see an improvement through faster single Frame Generation with reduced memory usage.
On top of that, there’s a slew of fixes and adjustments to the game’s photo mode, character creation and vehicle customization fixes, a couple tweaks to Johnny Shotgun (which honestly is my favorite late-stage addition to Cyberpunk 2077—I never get tired of him yelling at me to slow down), and a whole bunch more.
Cyberpunk 2077’s 2.21 patch is out now, and the full patch notes are below.
Photo Mode
Nibbles and Adam Smasher can now be spawned while V is in the air or in water.
Fixed the Facial Expression option for Adam Smasher.
Fixed an issue where Adam Smasher’s glowing chest cyberware was missing.
Fixed an issue where, if Johnny’s Alternate Appearance was enabled, both options to spawn him (default and alternate) resulted in the alternate look.
Characters spawned while V is in the air or in water will no longer snap to the ground.
Characters will now be properly saved in presets.
Spawned characters will now be visible after adding a background.
V’s rotation and position will now be properly saved in presets.
Fixed an issue where adjusting the Up/Down slider for V wouldn’t change their position between certain values.
NPCs that turn invisible after disabling the Surrounding NPCs option will no longer have collision.
Fixed an issue where loading a preset could cause additional light sources to appear even when disabled, or spawn them in incorrect positions.
Fixed an issue where the camera could get stuck on walls after setting Full Collision to ON.
Fixed an issue where camera settings would only apply after loading a saved preset twice.
Enabling a background will no longer change camera position.
Rotating the camera will now work properly with a background enabled.
Fixed an issue where the prompts for Move Camera and Rotate Camera would appear when the camera cannot be moved (e.g. when using the First-Person Perspective camera).
Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to move the camera after spawning a character while highlighting the Edit Character option.
Disabling Chromatic Aberration in the Graphics settings will no longer affect the ability to adjust it.
Fixed an issue where some items in scenes disappeared after setting the Surrounding NPCs option to OFF.
Fixed an issue where enabling PhysX Cloth would unfreeze NCPD vehicles.
The rule of thirds grid will now properly adapt to the selected aspect ratio.
Fixed an issue where the image in a SmartFrame wouldn’t be visible if accessed while V was not facing it.
Fixed an issue where opening Photo Mode simultaneously with Wardrobe or Stash caused the game to become unresponsive.
Fixed an issue where it was possible to access Photo Mode before a save file fully loaded, causing it to open without UI and block any further action.
Fixed other minor Photo Mode issues related to spawned characters, camera movement, controls, and more.
Fixed various UI issues in Photo Mode, SmartFrames and Gallery menus, including slider inconsistencies, localization errors, missing sound effects, incorrect behavior when interacting with certain features, and more.
Vehicle Color Customization
Fixed several texture and color inconsistencies for vehicles that have CrystalCoat applied.
Fixed an issue where the explanation of the spray paint icon was missing in the Autofixer tutorial pop-up after a vehicle contract was completed.
Fixed several minor UI issues in the CrystalCoat and TwinTone menus.
Character Creation
Randomizer settings in Character Creation will now be preserved after advancing to the Customize Attributes step.
Fixed an issue where the Piercing Color option would not be available in Character Creation after enabling piercings if V initially had none.
Fixed other minor issues in Character Creation, including appearance options not applying correctly, visual clipping, inconsistent UI behavior, functionality issues after using the randomizer, and more.
Miscellaneous
Run This Town – Fixed an issue where, under certain circumstances, it wasn’t possible to deactivate the Aguilar imprint after meeting with Bennett.
Fixed several instances where Johnny could appear duplicated in the passenger seat during some quests when he was already present in the scene.
Fixed an issue where Johnny did not appear as a passenger often enough.
Introduced several fixes to NPC and vehicle behavior for various small events throughout Night City.
Fixed an issue where some vendors were not interactable as intended.
Fixed an issue where voiceovers on TV news channels could be missing or too quiet.
Fixed an issue where the Quadra Turbo-R V-Tech used a description of Quadra Turbo-R 740 instead of its own unique one.
Fixed the missing 2.2 “check what’s new” pop-up in the main menu.
Console-specific
Fixed an issue where screenshots appeared as blank in the Gallery on Xbox if they were taken with HDR10 enabled.
Added a pop-up in the Gallery to notify players when access to screenshots is blocked by the console’s privacy settings on Xbox.
Screenshots deleted on Xbox outside the Gallery UI will now be correctly marked in the Gallery and will disappear from occupied slots after reopening the Gallery.
Fixed an issue where the Graphics Mode on Xbox Series S could be set to Quality instead of Performance by default.
PC-specific
Added support for DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation for GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards, which boosts FPS by using AI to generate up to three times per traditionally rendered frame – enabled with GeForce RTX 50 Series on January 30th. DLSS 4 also introduces faster single Frame Generation with reduced memory usage for RTX 50 and 40 Series. Additionally, you can now choose between the CNN model or the new Transformer model for DLSS Ray Reconstruction, DLSS Super Resolution, and DLAA on all GeForce RTX graphics cards today. The new Transformer model enhances stability, lighting, and detail in motion.
Fixed artifacts and smudging on in-game screens when using DLSS Ray Reconstruction.
The Frame Generation field in Graphics settings will now properly reset after switching Resolution Scaling to OFF.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737665202_Cyberpunk-2077s-new-patch-arrives-the-day-after-I-finally.jpg6731200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2025-01-23 20:39:552025-01-23 20:39:55Cyberpunk 2077’s new patch arrives the day after I finally finished the game, and of course it fixes the one late-game bug that really annoyed me
We’ve got a clue written especially for today’s Wordle ready and waiting to help you win, and a great selection of top tips to polish up your guesses. You’ve got this in three easy-breezy rows for sure. Want to see what a win in one looks like? We can help with that, just scroll down until you see the January 23 (1314) answer.
With two yellow letters and one very awkward green showing up on my opening line, I had nowhere else to go but straight to today’s answer. It looks like a win in two, and I’m feeling pleased with myself about it—I’ll just not mention the yawning chasm of time between them as I scratched my head and wondered how the heck I was supposed to rearrange them into a winning word.
Today’s Wordle hint
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)
Wordle today: A hint for Thursday, January 23
This word distinguishes some sort of higher part, component, or place from whatever’s below 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
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?
Need a little help? The answer to the January 23 (1314) Wordle is UPPER.
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:
January 22: REACH
January 21: ICING
January 20: SQUID
January 19: ROWER
January 18: SILLY
January 17: PROSE
January 16: FLINT
January 15: KNACK
January 14: FANCY
January 13: CLOAK
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.
Every so often I’ll be sitting on my couch playing Balatro on Steam Deck and have an unwanted thought: I should really play something other than Balatro once in a while. So, I take a look through Steam to see what other games aren’t Balatro but are still pretty muchBalatro so I don’t have to stop playing Balatro even when I’m not playing Balatro.
And there are quite a few! Balatro introduced us all to the magic of a poker roguelike last year, and since then we’ve seen a bunch of other efforts to combine a traditional game with the deckbuilder formula. There’s Balatro but it’s blackjack, Balatro but it’s pachinko, Balatro but it’s solitaire, even Balatro but it’s Scrabble.
And arriving on Steam this week in early access, it’s Balatro but it’s Mahjong—and it has an actual name, too: Aotenjo: Infinite Hands. Of the various Balatro-likes I’ve played so far, I think I like it best. It’s not trying to be Balatro in the most obvious ways: it’s not slick or flashy, there’s not a ton of animation, and visually it looks like it’d be right at home next to Solitaire on Windows 95. But I’m into that low-key vibe, free of exploding booster packs and flying tiles.
I should point out here that I’m not much of a Mahjong guy: I know I’ve learned to play it multiple times in my life, and I’ve had to do that because once I learn it I don’t play it again until I’ve forgotten how to play it. But there’s a nice tutorial in Aotenjo that reacquainted me with the basics, and it wasn’t long before I was playing comfortably and diving into the Balatro-ness of it all.
Once again you’re building hands against an ever-rising point total, and taking on intermittent bosses who do tricksy things like disabling certain suits. Between rounds you spend the coins earned from wins to enchant your tiles. There are all sorts of clever ways to change your hands, like swapping their numbers using a little set of tweezers, or even hiding a dot on a tile by using a grain of rice to change its value. You can also apply various buffs, increase your multipliers, and make the ever satisfying number-go-up happen. It doesn’t give me quite the casino-like high Balatro does, but there’s still an understated pleasure in putting together an enchanted hand that racks up megapoints.
Is it going to replace Balatro on my Deck most evenings? I doubt it. But Aotenjo has been a quiet pleasure so far and I think it’ll only get better as I get a bit better at understanding the ins and outs of mahjong in general. You’ll find it right here on Steam in early access, where it’s 12% off until February 2.
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https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737593082_Of-all-the-Balatro-likes-on-Steam-I-think-Im-enjoying.jpg6711200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2025-01-22 23:33:322025-01-22 23:33:32Of all the Balatro-likes on Steam, I think I’m enjoying this Mahjong version best
Released to critical acclaim almost one year ago on the PlayStation 5, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s port to the PC is unlikely to achieve the same accolades in the PC gaming community. Not because it’s a bad conversion and not because the game itself is poor—Square Enix has done an excellent job of making the Windows version run very well, if the PC meets certain requirements. And on maximum quality, it does look better than the PS5 version.
But if you were hoping the developers would use Unreal Engine 5, perhaps to shoehorn in some fancy virtual geometry or ray-traced Clouds… err, clouds, then you’re going to be somewhat disappointed. Rebirth on the PC is based on UE4 and there’s a dearth of modern graphics technology involved. Yes, upscaling is an option, and it even uses DirectStorage to ease the load on the CPU while streaming assets and reduce loading times, but that’s about it for tech.
You get four options for the frame rate cap, with the maximum being 120 fps. Got a 144 or 240 Hz gaming monitor, and you want to match the frame and refresh rates for smoothness? You’re out of luck. Well, possibly not, but more on that later. Even if you could go higher, the cinematics run at 30 fps and in-game cutscenes at 60 fps, and jumping between those and 120 fps gameplay is very jarring.
Do you want to have the game operating in exclusive fullscreen mode, to get the best possible performance? No chance, I’m afraid: It’s windowed or borderless fullscreen only, and the latter can be very twitchy about being forced to use a different resolution. It’s almost like Square Enix is trying to remake 1997 PC gaming, not a 1997 game.
When it comes to graphics options, you only get three presets (Low, Medium, and High) and although there are individual options you can tweak, many of them just have two settings. Just to top it all off, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth uses the DirectX 12 Ultimate API and Shader Model 6.6, so if your operating system and graphics card don’t support them, then you won’t be able to play the game full stop—in other words, if you have a GeForce GTX or a pre-RDNA 2 AMD card, then no Rebirth for you.
The only thing to relieve all of this grim news is that the game performance is generally pretty good and relatively stutter-free, unlike FF7 Remake. However, both of those aspects come with some major caveats, so they might not be much of a relief at all.
Test PC specs
Benchmark runs were taken just outside the town of Kalm, running about in the open world and conducting a few battles. It’s worth noting that in busy urban locations, the performance is lower on systems with weaker hardware—but given that you spend a lot of time out in the wild, it made sense to measure the frame rates in that area.
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Low quality preset
Image 1 of 6
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
As mentioned earlier, there are just three quality presets and Low sets everything to the lowest value. All three presets apply dynamic upscaling by default. For the above results, this was disabled by setting the maximum and minimum render resolutions to 100%. The anti-aliasing option was set to TAAU (temporal AA, with upscaling), though you can use DLSS if you wish.
That brings me to the first major issue I have with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. There is no option to use FSR and XeSS upscaling, just the game’s native TAAU system or Nvidia’s DLSS. Why Square Enix feels this is acceptable in today’s GPU market is beyond me, but perhaps someone with more inside knowledge could shed light on the matter.
While the performance figures displayed above are mostly very good, the Low preset isn’t worth using. Shadows and environmental detail pop into view at a shockingly close distance to the player, and while one is still treated to sweeping vistas in this mode, most fine detail is stripped away leaving far scenery looking stark and bare.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth can run faster than this but the highest frame rate limit of 120 removes any chance of that occurring. I did experiment with a lower cap on the weaker test systems, in the hope that it might produce a more consistent frame rate, but it doesn’t—it simply prevents the fps from going any higher than the chosen limit.
Steam Deck fans might be worried that the Asus ROG Ally X in 17 W mode couldn’t achieve an average of 25 fps, especially since the game is verified for the Deck, and those 1% low figures are awful. Upscaling comes to the rescue here but it can’t fix everything.
It’s interesting to note that using 4K resolution takes a large bite out of the performance for almost all of the tested GPUs, even at Low. Sorry, did I say interesting? I meant rather concerning. Square Enix does state in its PC system requirements for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth that an RX 7900 XTX or RTX 4080 is required for 4K High but I didn’t think it meant 4K Everypreset.
Medium quality preset
Image 1 of 6
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
Switching to the Medium preset significantly improves the overall looks of the game. Object and shadow pop-in is greatly reduced, though it’s still present, and there is far more environmental detail to enjoy. Oddly, though, the main characters don’t look massively better, even though their textures are more detailed, as they always display an overly smooth, glamour-shot haze on their faces. Still, at least the combat effects and animations are nice.
The Medium preset marks a cut-off point for certain graphics cards, namely those with less than 8 GB of VRAM. The RTX 4050 laptop used in the tests copes with the setting well enough, but it stutters badly when moving through the open world after a while, or if you spin the camera about and suddenly fill the screen with a lot more content. It’s also quite bad just after a save game has loaded, regardless of how much VRAM you have.
Coupled with the minimum requirement of Shader Model 6.6 support in the GPU (i.e. AMD RDNA 2 or newer, Intel Alchemist or newer, and Nvidia Turing or newer), the minimum hardware requirements are really a bit narrower than Square Enix states.
That stuttering isn’t shader compilation running in the background (that’s all done when firing up the game for the first time or updating the game or GPU drivers), just an issue with how well the game manages assets and the VRAM. I solved the RTX 4050’s chronic case of hiccups by dropping the texture and background model details settings to Low, leaving the rest to that set by the Medium preset.
High quality preset
Image 1 of 6
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
(Image credit: Square Enix)
Naturally, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth looks its best when using the High preset but it does incur a sizeable performance hit, though mostly at 4K. At least you get to wave goodbye to almost all pop-in and the level of foliage and overall environmental detail do make the world nice to explore and spend time staring at.
And while the performance impact can be quite large, getting just under 90 fps at 1440p with an RX 7800 XT and RTX 4070 is pretty darn good. This is where the PC port of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is at its best and if you’re fortunate enough to have the right hardware in your gaming rig, it will run pretty smoothly for the most part. You won’t need vast amounts of VRAM either, as 12 GB is enough, even at 4K High.
What isn’t good enough, though, is the native temporal anti-aliasing and the upscaling implementation. The former casts a rather obvious fuzziness to most things in view and objects in motion exhibit blurring and streaking. The latter, though, is reminiscent of when DLSS first appeared in games.
On a final note about performance, one can see just how much Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth doesn’t like Intel’s GPUs, with the Arc A770 running almost 40% slower than the RX 6750 XT on average. To be fair, Square Enix did warn us by stating that an Arc B580 is only good enough to meet the minimum system requirements.
Upscaling performance
(Image credit: Square Enix)
Before we take a look at how upscaling can improve the performance of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, I need to get something off my chest. This is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the worst upscaling systems I’ve seen in a game for a good few years. It’s not that it doesn’t work but rather getting it to is more hassle than it should be and it’s far too limited in scope.
Most games these days will let you activate your choice of upscaler (DLSS, FSR, XeSS), then select what quality you want it at (which affects the render resolution) and many will even provide you with a sharpening scaler so you can tweak the final result to your taste. Here, you get a choice of three anti-aliasing options (yes, AA—not upscaling): TAA, TAAU, and DLSS if you have an Nvidia RTX GPU.
Then you have a choice of four values to set the maximum and minimum scaling used for the dynamic resolution system: 100%, 66%, 50%, and for some reason that utterly eludes me, 33%. Those figures roughly equate to Quality, Performance, and Ultra Performance. Want to use an equivalent for Balanced or fine-tune it to your exact needs? Tough luck.
But let’s say you pick 66% for the minimum and 100% for the maximum. The game will now dynamically adjust the render resolution on the basis of the current frame rate and what setting you’ve picked for the frame rate cap. So if you’ve picked a 120 fps limit and you’re running at 82 fps, the game will almost constantly use a render scale of 66% of your monitor’s resolution.
That’s fine when the frame rate is consistently well below the limit, but should it rise nearer to it, then not only is the resolution change very obvious, but you also get extra little hiccups in the frame rate. That’s a shame because, for the most part, Rebirth doesn’t exhibit anywhere near as much stuttering as Final Fantasy 7 Remake does.
You’re far better off sticking the maximum and minimum scale to the same value, which effectively disables the dynamic system. Something else you might want to do is apply DLSS 66% (aka DLSS Quality), even if you don’t need the extra frame rate. You get a far superior level of anti-aliasing compared to TAA/TAAU, which makes it all the more disappointing that AMD and Intel GPU owners can’t use their respective upscalers.
TAAU 66% upscaling Asus ROG Ally X (17 W mode), 1080p with Low preset
The Ally X handheld gaming PC absolutely needs upscaling, even at 1080p Low, to achieve a comfortable 30 fps but while you might be tempted to use a 50% render scale, it just makes things far too blurry. So stick to 66% and accept the fact that, at times, the frame rate will drop below 20 fps. That doesn’t bode well for the Steam Deck, despite Rebirth being verified for that platform.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth could really do with one more graphics preset, specific for handheld gaming PCs, that focuses on reducing the shader load a bit further.
DLSS 66% upscaling GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop, 1080p with custom Medium preset
Truth be told, the little RTX 4050 laptop GPU doesn’t need upscaling at 1080p, as the average frame rate is more than acceptable with the Medium preset. However, the 6 GB of VRAM does cause problems and no degree of render scale will counter the paucity of RAM. This is evident in the above results—note how the 1% low figures improve far less than the average frame rates.
I experimented with the settings and eventually found a good combination of DLSS 100% on the Medium preset, with the texture and background model detail settings dropped to Low and Medium respectively (used for the video capture).
With those settings, and DLSS 66%, the average frame rate was 81 fps and the 1% low figure was 29 fps—not perfect, but not far off.
Returning to the point of using DLSS 100%, it’s worth noting that the TAAU algorithm is much quicker than DLSS, and irrespective of how many tensor cores your RTX GPU has, TAAU 100% will produce a higher frame rate than DLSS 100%. It doesn’t look half as good, though.
DLSS 66% upscaling GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, 1440p with High preset
The RTX 3060 Ti and RX 6750 XT are both capable of running Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth at 1440p with the Medium or High preset. It just comes down to what kind of performance you want and as you can see in the above charts, upscaling lifts the average frame rate nicely enough but doesn’t do an awful lot for the 1% lows.
Neither card is running into any VRAM issue here, unlike the RTX 4050, so this is more likely to be a system limitation. For the RX 6750 XT, I recommend avoiding the use of upscaling and just using the High preset and a 1080p resolution. That said, TAAU at 66% scale isn’t too bad.
TAAU 66% upscaling Radeon RX 7800 XT, 4K with High preset
The RTX 4070 and RX 7800 XT, and especially the RTX 4080 Super, don’t need upscaling unless they’re forced to cope with 4K and the High preset. Just apply TAAU 66% or DLSS 66% (max and min), and leave the frame rate cap at 120 fps. You get the best balance between graphical fidelity and performance, though the 1% low frame rate won’t improve as much as the average rate will.
While you can enjoy 4K Rebirth-ing with an RX 7800 XT, with TAAU set to 66%, you’re better off using 1440p instead. The 1% lows are much better and the GPU will have room to cope with more demanding areas.
Best settings
(Image credit: Square Enix)
Best settings summary: Start with the Medium quality preset. If the performance is close to being acceptable, reduce Shadow quality and Background model detail to increase the average and 1% low frame rates to the desired level.
If you have performance to spare, change the preset to High but avoid using it with a resolution of 4K, unless you have a reasonably high-end graphics card.
Background model detail: Low, Medium, High, Ultra
Ocean detail: Low, Medium, High
Character model detail: Low, High
Effect details: Low, High
Texture resolution: Low, Medium, High
Shadow quality: Low, High
Fog quality: Low, High
Textures: Adjusts the quality of textures
Characters displayed: 0 to 10
Character shadow display distance: 0 to 10
The graphics options listed above are the ones that affect how Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will look and run after you’ve configured the resolution, frame rate limit, and anti-aliasing.
With the Low preset, they’re all set to their lowest values, except the final two options, which both get a figure of 2. Switching to the Medium preset changes everything to ‘High’, apart from texture resolution (which is set to ‘Medium’) and the last two options, which are 5 and 8 respectively. Finally, the High preset puts everything to its maximum setting.
In terms of performance, the two options that have the biggest impact are background model detail and shadow quality, though fog quality and character count will affect lower-end systems in certain areas.
To be honest, it’s not really worth spending much time tweaking the settings, as your PC will either cope with a preset or not. If it does, then you’re good to go, and if it doesn’t, then you’ll just have to switch to a lower preset. The exception to this would be where you have a GPU that’s capable of managing the Medium or High preset but doesn’t have enough VRAM for them.
For those situations, which are going to be mostly limited to laptops, drop the background model and texture resolution values a notch.
Final thoughts
(Image credit: Square Enix)
Compared to Remake, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a good console port but that doesn’t make it a good port for PC gamers. From limited graphics options from the dark ages of PC gaming to the clunky mouse+keyboard implementation and miserable upscaling options, Square Enix has demonstrated with Rebirth that it still doesn’t quite understand the PC gaming market.
Personally, I’m okay with the fact there are just three quality options—ideally, it would have been better to have two more, one each for handhelds and top-end GPUs, but it doesn’t help that what few graphics options there are have such a limited range of settings.
And I’m not in the least bit okay with the frame rate limiter (and the hard limits on cutscenes and FMV scenes), the absence of FSR and XeSS, and the total lack of an exclusive fullscreen mode, buffer options, FOV settings, mouse support for the main and pause menus, and so on.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake had many of these issues too but thanks to the modding community, two small files and a handful of coding lines were all that was needed to bring some joy. It should be possible for this to happen again with Rebirth, as it’s still an Unreal Engine 4 game, so I should imagine it won’t be long before we see FSR and XeSS mods, plus others to allow players to tweak the graphics settings with more freedom.
It’ll be worth doing, because not only is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth huge, with lots to explore and discover, but the game is also more fun and engrossing than Remake (in my humble opinion, at least). Well, as long as you have half-decent, modern PC hardware and, if you want the best anti-aliasing and upscaling, one of Jen-Hsun’s GPUs.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737557023_Final-Fantasy-7-Rebirth-PC-performance-analysis-Runs-well-and.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2025-01-22 14:01:002025-01-22 14:01:00Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth PC performance analysis: Runs well and looks good, but the tight system requirements and dearth of PC-centric options spoil the show
Solve your daily Wordle game in seconds. One click is all you need to see the January 22 (1313) answer. Is it all a bit too much, too soon? Then why not spend a little time with our general tips, or read through today’s hint and see how you get on first? However you want to win, we’ve got something here that’ll help.
Some days I carefully weigh up my options, crafting a strong opening guess based on a variety of intelligent factors. And then there are days like today, when my fingers run off before I’ve had a chance to even think up the most basic plan. Somehow, my fingers knew exactly what they were doing, and I solved this Wordle in just two lightning fast guesses.
Today’s Wordle hint
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)
Wordle today: A hint for Wednesday, January 22
If you had to lean or stretch to grab something, you’d do this. Today’s answer can also refer to the extent of something or someone’s influence, too.
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
(Image credit: Future)
What is today’s Wordle answer?
Hey, this is for you. The answer to the January 22 (1313) Wordle is REACH.
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Previous Wordle answers
The last 10 Wordle answers
Knowing previous Wordle solutions can be helpful in eliminating current possibilities. It’s unlikely a word will be repeated and you can find inspiration for guesses or starting words that may be eluding you.
Here are some recent Wordle answers:
January 21: ICING
January 20: SQUID
January 19: ROWER
January 18: SILLY
January 17: PROSE
January 16: FLINT
January 15: KNACK
January 14: FANCY
January 13: CLOAK
January 12: TOTAL
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.
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