The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is the company's best gaming CPU*, and today it's going cheap at CCL in the UK. They're asking £345 for the 12-core, 24-thread processor when you use code SAVE20 at the checkout, and tossing in three months of Game Pass Ultimate and free next-day shipping to boot. That's £20 cheaper than the current Amazon price, and a massive drop from the £430+ going rate at the beginning of the year.

*OK, the Ryzen 9 5950X is technically faster, but it costs way more and the difference in gaming performance is miniscule. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D also looks promising, but hasn't yet been released and will likely cost more than this 5900X while packing fewer cores.

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Today, Ivy Press publishing revealed that a Wordle Challenge book is now available for purchase. Totaling 256, this new brand new item features over 500 titles, allowing players to do as many as they want a day, wherever they want.

Much like the game, the book features puzzles that vary from easy to expert, following the same rules for guessing. You can take a peek at what the book looks like, as well as a brief description, down below.

Do you love playing wordle? Do you wish you could do more than one puzzle a day? If you do, then you will love this collection of 500 puzzles to do anytime, anywhere.

Wordle Challenge presents a fun, interactive collection of brain-teasing puzzles, that can be played offline and will entertain for hours and hours.

Prolific Roblox collaborators Gamefam Studios has partnered with Sega to bring Sonic the Hedgehog to the Roblox platform. It's not just a big deal that Sonic is in Roblox, but according to a press release provided to Game Informer, this is the first time a "AAA gaming character has been officially featured on Roblox." 

We have officially partnered with @SEGA to bring @Sonic_Hedgehog to Roblox in our upcoming game Sonic Speed Simulator!

We worked with various sonic developers from the #Roblox community in order to make this possible!#RobloxDev

Try it here: https://t.co/TFCkRGpuT3 pic.twitter.com/yRAQlIC1Um

Deep Rock Galactic studio Ghost Ship Games released a narrative trailer today showing off a new seasonal event, weapons, and more coming with the second season of content for the game starting later this month.

The season will add a new event where players will have to hack robotic equipment to shut it down before it explodes alongside a new major enemy called the Nemesis. It is a giant robot with extendable claws that will pick up the dwarven characters and toss them aside.

Players will also be able to unlock four new secondary weapons, one for each of the classes. The new weapons include an elemental crossbow, a burst laser gun, a coil pistol, and a microwave cannon that will cook bugs from the inside out. The weapons can be outfitted with new overclock mods from the forge.

Season 2 will come with a new Performance Pass containing new cosmetic items for all classes, and the pass will be free for all players. The Season 2 pass also has more opportunities to earn Scrip, its currency to unlock items from its cosmetic upgrade tree.

CD Projekt Red has announced it will be delaying the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as it brings the remainder of the porting in-house.

We have decided to have our in-house development team conduct the remaining work on the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. We are currently evaluating the scope of work to be done and thus have to postpone Q2 release until further notice. 1/2

— The Witcher (@witchergame) April 13, 2022

The change in development teams on the new-generation upgrades was revealed through a tweet on The Witcher series Twitter account. "We have decided to have our in-house development team conduct the remaining work on the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt," reads the tweet. "We are currently evaluating the scope of work to be done and thus have to postpone Q2 release until further notice." A follow-up message says, "We'll update you as soon as we can. Thank you for your understanding."

Saber Interactive was the company working on the ports of Witcher 3 to the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft and had previously partnered with CD Projekt on the Switch port of the same game. No reason was given as to why Saber will no longer be involved, nor is there a timeline on the new expected release window. 

While handy as backup against bosses, Elden Ring’s summons can be pretty brainless for the most part. But one particularly crafty spirit ash is worth finishing a short quest to acquire, if only to see her unique interactions with the wildlife of the Lands Between.

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To celebrate the upcoming third anniversary of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, a special stage celebration has been revealed for this weekend. Theprogram will be streamed live and is set to feature the show’s cast members, as they perform an exclusive live reading of an original story and a special live dubbing performance.

According to the press release, there will be two separate stage events, separated into celebrations for the Entertainment and Mugen Train arcs of the anime. You can read the official description below:

Originated from Koyoharu Gotoge’s Shueisha Shonen Jump comics with accumulated circulation
surpassing 150 million copies, and animation produced by ufotable, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no
Yaiba is a story of a boy, Tanjiro Kamado who had his family murdered by a demon and joins
Kisatsutai in hopes to turn his demonized sister Nezuko back to human.

The series launched in April 2019 with the TV anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -Tanjiro
Kamado, Unwavering Resolve Arc, followed by the release of a feature film Demon Slayer:
Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train in Oct 2020 and the broadcast of TV anime season 2,
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Mugen Train Arc and Entertainment District Arc, from 2021
through 2022. And most recently, 3 rd season of the TV anime, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba –
Swordsmith Village Arc, has just been announced.

Commemorating the 3 rd anniversary of the first anime broadcast back in April 2019, Kimetsu
Festival ~3 rd Anniversary Celebration~ will be held on April 16 th and 17 th (JST).

The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrade for The Witcher 3 won’t arrive anytime soon. In fact, CD Projekt Red announced today that it’s delayed indefinitely. That follows the decision to bring development on the next-gen version back in house after it was previously in the hands of Saber Interactive’s Russia…

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Today third-party developers released plenty of new assets related to upcoming add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator, and released a new airport.

First of all, we take another extensive look and a development update from Just Flight at the Boeing 757-200/300 in the works at Bluebird Simulations.

“Here’s our very first Development Update covering the 757 200/300 since the initial announcement a while back.

It’s been almost two months since that initial announcement about this exciting project so we thought it was about time we provided an update. We’ve been steadily progressing on the model/systems and flight dynamics. The VC has gone through some extensive improvements since our last update with sharper textures and more detailed parts now included.

The exterior model is around 50-60% complete including textures. Systems and flight dynamics are progressing nicely but it’ll be several months before we can give more details on those aspects of the project.

Our aim is to provide updates for you on a regular basis, around every 4 to 6 weeks hopefully. In the meantime here are a set of Work In Progress screenshots for you to enjoy. Click on each shot to enlarge and view as a gallery.”

We also get some bullet points describing the project in detail.

Model

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch
Publisher: PlayStation Studios
Developer: Sony Interactive Entertainment San Diego Studio
Release: <time datetime="2022-04-05T12:00:00Z" class="datetime">April 5, 2022</time>
Rating: Everyone

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Serious allegations are coming from a former attorney of California against the state's Governor, Gavin Newsom, today, as reported by Bloomberg. The allegations regard possible interference in the pending case from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing against Activision Blizzard, which you can read about here.

Blizzard has released a new video shedding light on the origin story of Overwatch 2's new hero, Sojourn. 

A trailer sheds light on Sojourn's background as a former Canadian special forces captain who worked alongside Overwatch during its peak. We still don't know much about her combat abilities beyond the fact that she's a damage-focused hero, but players will find out when Sojourn becomes playable in the game's upcoming PvP beta for PC. 

The Witcher 3's long-awaited PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S version has been delayed indefinitely following CD Projekt's decision to move its development in-house.

An enhanced version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC - which would include the base game and its various expansions - was initially announced in September 2020, with CD Projekt promising to deliver the likes of ray-tracing and faster load times. All this would be made available as both a standalone version and as a free upgrade to those that already owned the game on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

It was a generous offer, but very little has been heard of the project since, with CD Projekt only intermittently mentioning it - usually in conjunction with word of another delay - as it continued its attempts to manage the fallout from Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous launch.

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Niantic, the creators of popular AR mobile games Pokemon GO, Pikmin Bloom, and more have announced their next project. Peridot is a virtual pet mobile game that lets you care for, raise, and breed one-of-a-kind creatures.

Here’s what we know so far about the game:

After thousands of years of slumber, Peridots (or Dots for short) are waking to a world vastly different from the one in which they used to roam, and they’ll need our help to protect them from extinction.

You’ll foster your own Peridots as you embark on this experience. These are creatures who feel so real, you’ll love every moment raising them from birth to adulthood. While you explore the world together, you’ll get to learn more about your cute new friends, develop a bond as you nurture and play with them, and work with other players to diversify their species.

You can see some examples of how Peridot will look on mobile devices below. The screens show activities like going on daily walks, uncovering hidden treasures around the world, and playing with your unique Peridot pal.

California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) recently lost the top two lawyers in its ongoing gender discrimination lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. The chief counsel was fired by the state governor, Gavin Newsom, while the assistant chief counsel resigned today in protest. The assistant claimed…

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Game publisher Aspyr has announced that it will be acquiring development studio Beamdog. The news was revealed in a tweet this morning, one day after the two companies announced a new game together, MythForce.

We're excited to welcome the talented team at @BeamdogInc to the Aspyr family!

To learn more on what's to come head to https://t.co/XLk0RtAxYJ! pic.twitter.com/Q8bITIDiTt

— Aspyr (@AspyrMedia) April 13, 2022

The tweet reads, "We're excited to welcome the talented team at Beamdog to the Aspyr family!" Other than giving a link to the MythForce website, no other information on the purchase is given. 

Outside of the new IP that is MythForce, Beamdog has specialized in remastering classic Dungeons and Dragons-related RPGs. The studio has previously released Enhanced Editions of Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, and Planescape: Torment. Most recently, Beamdog developed an online edition of the strategy board game Axis and Allies 1942.

Got some bad news here, sorry to say. It has been announced that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Xbox Series X|S and PS5 versions have been delayed, presumably out of the Q2 window they were in.

The official Witcher game Twitter account had this to say:

We have decided to have our in-house development team conduct the remaining work on the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. We are currently evaluating the scope of work to be done and thus have to postpone Q2 release until further notice. We’ll update you as soon as we can. Thank you for your understanding.

The “in-house development team” mentioned is important as previously, the next gen work on Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was being handled in part by “a trusted partner in collaboration with CD Projekt.” It seems that now CD Projekt Red will be assuming the remainder of development.

Beamdog, the Canadian studio behind the 'Enhanced Edition' remasters of Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate, have announced their first original game: Mythforce. It's a roguelikelike first-person stabber with a striking visual style inspired by 80s children's cartoons. Also, Beamdog are being bought by Aspyr Media, joining the mahoosive Embracer Group as the consolidation of the games industry continues.

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If you’re a fan of Japanese developer Vanillaware, you may know GrimGrimoire, originally released in 2007 for PlayStation 2.

As announced in today’s issue of Weekly Famitsu, Nippon Ichi Software is bringing it back for PS4 and Nintendo Switch, with a planned release in Japan on July 28.

The real-time strategy JRPG will get a higher pixel count, widescreen aspect ratio, and a bunch of improvements and new features.

Among those, there will be a fast-forward feature, expanded ability to save your game (during battles), and an adjusted “Hard” difficulty level.,

Four new types of “Great Magic” have been added, including “Mana Burst” or “Resurrection” that can revive allies. They also have newly drawn cut-in illustrations.

During gameplay, you can earn coins and spend them in a brand new skill tree to improve your magic and familiars.

Last, but certainly not least considering that this is a Vanillaware game, a gallery feature has been added, including over 90 illustrations created both for the game itself and its promotion.

If you’re not familiar with Vanillaware, it’s a niche but extremely respected developer well-known for its beautiful 2D art. Their most recent game is 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.

You can check the first screenshots and plenty of art below. At the moment, NIS America (which also published the original game in North America) hasn’t announced a western release, so we’ll have to wait and see whether this game is brought over, but I would be surprised if it isn’t.

Miners, how are we? Good, I hope. Soon you'll be even better, as Deep Rock Galactic Season 2 is set to line the caverns with new materials. And robots! Killer robots that resemble glowing chunks of Toblerone. That's the less good part. Still, survive the mechanical menace and you'll earn plenty of new goodies for your dwarven bod. Trust me, I've checked it out ahead of time and have come back pleased, and scratched... and burned.

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Niantic's next game involves caring for and breeding fictional creatures - but it's nothing to do with Pokémon. Instead, Peridot is a brand new creation by Niantic itself - the company's first for many years - and one it's aiming at an even wider audience.

With Peridot, Niantic seems to be gunning for the now-vacant Neopets market (RIP Neopets), with cutesy Pixar-esque characters, Tamagotchi-style gameplay and - because this is a Niantic game - a good old nudge every so often to get you off your sofa.

"We want it to be a standalone pet simulation game," producer Ziah Fogel told Eurogamer this week via Zoom call, when asked why it was building a new app separate to Pokémon Go. Niantic's mission here, she continued, was to iterate on and improve the popular pet simulation genre. You'll be able to try it for yourself soon, too - it arrives in soft launch in certain countries within the next few weeks.

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The California Department of Fair Employment's ongoing harassment and discrimination lawsuit against Activision Blizzard - which accused the publisher of fostering a "frat boy culture" in which sexual harassment, assault, and inappropriate behaviour were able to thrive - has taken another dramatic turn. A state of California lawyer involved in the lawsuit has resigned, accusing the state's governor of interfering in the case in support of Activision Blizzard.

As reported by Bloomberg, the assistant chief counsel for California’s Department of Fair Employment, Melanie Proctor, has quit her role in protest after California Governor Gavin Newsom "abruptly fired" the agency's boss, Chief Counsel Janette Wipper. A representative for the two attorneys has since confirmed the firing and resignation to Bloomberg.

In an email to staff seen by the publication, Proctor claimed Governor Gavin Newsom and his office had begun to "interfere" with the Activision lawsuit in recent weeks. “The Office of the Governor repeatedly demanded advance notice of litigation strategy and of next steps in the litigation,” Proctor wrote. “As we continued to win in state court, this interference increased, mimicking the interests of Activision’s counsel.”

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Today’s Overwatch 2 trailer focuses on Sojourn — one of the new roster additions that’ll be joining the fight in the sequel. The short video gives us a quick look at her backstory and it’s narrated by Sojourn herself.

She served in the Canadian Special Forces, which is where she first teamed up with Overwatch. Eventually, she became a Captain of Overwatch before leaving the program entirely sometime later. Equipped with cybernetic abilities, Sojourn’s main goal was always to bring her teammates back from missions alive, no matter what.

You can check out the Overwatch 2 origin story trailer below for yourself to learn more about Sojourn and hear what she has to say about her time with Overwatch.

There’s still no concrete release date yet for the upcoming FPS, but the team is looking at a 2022 launch after a previously announced delay.

Also, in case you missed it, there will be PvP beta for Overwatch 2 this month for those who are interested in trying the game out ahead of its release. You can register for the beta right here on the official site for a chance to play in future beta tests, including the one coming this month.

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on in-person events for a couple of years now. Although infection numbers have generally fallen in recent months, many companies continue to exercise caution when it comes to organizing public gatherings and Quakecon is one of them. The show's organizers have announced that for the third year in a row, Quakecon 2022 will be a digital-only event.

In a post to Twitter, the organizers revealed that Quakecon will take place August 18-20 with more details to come in June. They explain that the constant uncertainty around holding large gatherings this year made it hard to commit to putting a show together in the time required. Quakecon will return to its normal in-person state in 2023, however. You can read the full statement below:

Wordle has brought us a lot of wonderfle things, not least a surge of freely available, one-a-day puzzles to enjoy, without the faff of having to install apps or register accounts. Played in a browser, whether on your phone or laptop, Wordle and the many, many games it’s inspired have become a part of people’s daily…

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The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge has received a behind the scenes development video to show off some of the more background aspects to making a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game while staying true to the history of the series’ games.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is created in partnership between publisher Dotemu (Streets of Rage 4, Windjammers 2) and developer Tribute Games (Flinthook, Mercenary Kings).

The video is mostly a conversation between Tribute Games Technical Director Jean-Francois Major and Cyrille Imbert who is the Executive Producer as Dotemu. It’s the perfect video to sit down and enjoy if you also have a long history of enjoying the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games.

You can see the almost 6-minute video here or below:

For those mainly interested in hearing details about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, Steam describes the game as:

Ousted esports player Jay “Sinatraa” Won, who was suspended from his Valorant team the Sentinels last year for six months due to sexual assault allegations and failure to cooperate with an investigation, announced a return to the competitive scene. While he hasn’t signed to a team, Sinatraa confirmed that his first…

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When Digital Foundry reviewed Steam Deck, the overall takeaway was that Valve had delivered by far the most powerful handheld we'd ever seen - to the point where we could take PC ports of console games and run them at PS4-equivalent settings with much the same performance. The only difference? Lowering resolution from 1080p down to 720p or 800p. There's more to Steam Deck, however. Its main processor is based on the same core technologies as the silicon that powers PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. It's 'next-gen capable' if you like - but does it have the horsepower to run cutting-edge games at reasonable frame-rates?

Ideally, it's a question we should have answered in the main review, but there's a problem: despite running Steam, the Deck is based on Linux rather than Windows, meaning that a wide range of games still don't run, while features such as hardware-accelerated ray tracing are not supported. Essentially, every single game or feature required to test Steam Deck's next-gen credentials has issues: the path-traced Quake 2 RTX or Remedy's Control's RT features cannot be accessed from Linux. Meanwhile, proper next generation experiences such as Microsoft Flight Simulator should be able to run but don't owing to Steam Deck's lack of compatibility with online anti-cheat technologies.

Testing these features is important because it sets the baseline for how future-proof Steam Deck might be. Getting PlayStation 4-level experiences working on a handheld is a stunning achievement but what of the future? Thankfully, there's a solution - Windows drivers are now available for Steam Deck, meaning users can 'opt out' of the Linux experience and install anything they like, opening the door to testing high-end games and hardware-accelerated RT.

AmazeVR and Meg Thee Stallion Enter The Hottieverse | SXSW Read More »

Earlier today in a press release, Sega of America, Inc. announced their partnership with game developer Gamefam along with the reveal of their new Roblox game titled Sonic Speed Simulator. There are other games with the same title currently on Roblox, but this will be the first one that is officially connected to Sega.

Down below is the official statement from Sega of America about Sonic Speed Simulator and the partnership with Gamefam.

Leading professional game developer and publisher Gamefam, in collaboration with SEGA of America, Inc., today announced the launch of Sonic Speed Simulator, an all-new game featuring SEGA’s entertainment icon, Sonic the Hedgehog. The game is now available on the Roblox platform and marks the first time that a world-renowned, AAA gaming character has been officially featured on Roblox.

Sonic Speed Simulator is the fastest game in Roblox and features everyone’s favorite speedster, Sonic the Hedgehog. In the game, players will be able to level up and gain speed by running through multiple unique worlds while racing against friends to earn rewards, including pets that can increase stats and Sonic character skins. Players can also expect regular weekly updates and will earn an exclusive community Sonic the Hedgehog skin once the game has received 10,000 “likes” from players.

If you’re itching to play some new Sonic the Hedgehog experiences after seeing the most recent movie, then the good news is that Sonic Speed Simulator is available now on Roblox.

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Saber Interactive, Boss Team Games
Developer: Saber Interactive
Release: May 13, 2022
Rating: Mature

Just like that, we’re somehow a quarter of the way through 2022. Three months, poof, gone in an instant. Fortunately, we’ve been spoilt with a plethora of excellent titles from both indie developers and massive AAA studios. We’ve all feasted on the likes of Horizon Forbidden West, Elden Ring, and Kirby and the Forgotten Land, but what about the games you might have missed in favor of these.

This is what this post is hoping to help you out with. As we enter a three-month period of relative quiet in terms of new releases, there’s no better time to go back and check out those hidden gems you might have missed amidst the chaos. Here’s our pick of the 10 best games in 2022 so far that you might have missed.