Eurogamer

Sony has said those who are looking to change to a higher tier on its rebranded PS Plus service will be able to do so "easily".

OneMoreGame (via Resetera) shared a letter they had received from Sony about the upcoming change. It reads: "You can easily upgrade to a higher benefit plan at any time.

"To do so, you'll need to pay the difference between the current plan and your new plan, adjusted for the remaining time of your subscription." However, there is nothing about if it will be as easy to go the other way...

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Assassin's Creed maker Ubisoft has attracted early takeover interest from several private equity firms, according to a new report.

At least two firms are eyeing up Ubisoft ahead of a potential future offer, Bloomberg has reported, though "serious negotiations" are yet to take place. These companies include Blackstone and KKR & Co., two of the world's largest in the takeover market.

In a subsequent Kotaku report, sources suggested Ubisoft has been quietly auditing parts of its business over the past year - a potential sign it may be readying itself for a future suitor.

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Elden Ring... but on a Game Boy?

Reddit user shin is in the process of making a playable demake of FromSoftware's epic on the original Game Boy.

The world of the Lands Between has been shrunk down into the iconic greens of Nintendo's handheld, now with a top-down view.

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ORIGINAL STORY 25/4/22: A post on the Epic Games Store has listed the Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection as releasing for PC on 20th June.

The blog in question documents all of the biggest PC releases coming this year. If you scroll down through the months of spring and into the warmer summer months, you will soon see Nathan Drake, along with Sully and Sam, all looking back at you.

"Two remastered console classics come to the PC in Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection. The package contains Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, which has Nathan Drake hunting down pirate treasure across the globe. The levels are vast, exotic puzzles to explore and solve," writes Epic.

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So many indies struggle making themselves heard against big releases. Even in my position as someone who writes about games, you never truly grasp how many slip through the cracks. Take a look at Steam’s upcoming releases list and you’ll see what I mean: sure, Tunic and Moss: Book II were recent hits, but that’s two games in a sea of thousands. I’ve missed conventions dearly and when I walked into W.A.S.D., that was put into perspective. Showcasing over 100 games, big hitters like Football Manager and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands were present, yet these indies are what truly shone.

Between swinging through trees as a gibbon, running a postal service as a kiwi bird, or getting invested in the majestic art of power washing, I experienced plenty that I’d have otherwise never known. My own personal standout was We Were Here Forever, developed by Dutch team Total Mayhem Games. Being perfectly honest, I wasn’t familiar with this co-op puzzle series beforehand, and Forever marks the fourth entry. Trapped inside Castle Rock by dark forces, I was joined by a stranger for this, and this demo gave us 20 minutes to escape.

This specific demo took us to the Jester’s illusion room. No frozen wastelands or abandoned castles like we’ve previously seen, me and my new friend were instead trapped inside a distorted reality. Navigating a series of doors between adjacent rooms – all symbolised by a projected icon in the middle, like playing cards or musical instruments – some doors have a matching icon above it, which only your co-op buddy can see.

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Borderlands 3 will once again offer cross-play support for PlayStation players "later this spring".

It comes almost a year after Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford stated that PlayStation cross-platform support would be cut from an upcoming Borderlands 3 patch without explaining why. The decision was then reversed last month, again without explanation.

Confirmation came by way of the official Borderlands Twitter page, which finally gave us a window - if not yet an exact date - as to when PlayStation players will be able to hook up with their pals on other platforms: spring 2022.

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Apple has notified developers that apps and games that have gone two full years without an update may be at risk of being removed from the App Store.

The change comes as part of Apple's App Store improvement scheme which aims to make the online shop easier to use and ensure customers "find great apps that fit their needs" that are compatible with newer iOS devices.

In an email to Protopop Games, Apple reportedly said: "This app has not been updated in a significant amount of time and is scheduled to be removed from sale in 30 days. No action is required for the app to remain available to users who have already downloaded the app.

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Baldur's Gate 3 definitely won't release this year.

That's according to a new developer update from Larian Studios, which has now definitively confirmed that the highly-anticipated game won't leave early access until 2023, affirming what Swen Vincke, founder of Larian and creative director of BG3, intimated to Eurogamer earlier this year.

You can watch the cheeky presentation right here:

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Sony is on the hunt for a senior director of PC planning and strategy.

The new position - which will sit within PlayStation Global and, despite the pandemic, insists the successful candidate relocates to California - wants to "bring the best of the PlayStation experiences to markets and channels around the world", hinting that Sony may be ready to further strengthen its PC presence.

"The successful candidate will be responsible for the strategy and commercial activity within global channel sales and will deliver a single, optimised PC sales growth and commercial plan to hub and territory teams to implement [and] identifying future sectors & partnerships for commercial growth," the job ad states (thanks, PC Gamer). "The plan should support the delivery of the agreed global channel sales critical metrics."

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Koei Tecmo has confirmed its increasing its average basic salary in Japan by 23 per cent.

The increase - which sees the average salary jump by ¥73,000 (that's £442) a month - follows similar initiatives by Bandai Namco and Capcom in a bid to attract and retain its staff.

The company has also pledged to boost the starting salary for new graduates from ¥234,000 to ¥290,000 - that's a jump from around £1417 a month to £1756 in order to "improve the motivation" and "welfare" of its staff.

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Ubisoft has confirmed that leaked footage of a new and unannounced project codenamed Project Q is real.

Confirmation came just hours after footage of the game - reportedly taken from the first closed test of the team battle arena - was shared online.

"So, we heard you heard…" Ubisoft tweeted, acknowledging that the leak was indeed real. "Introducing codename Project Q, a team battle arena letting players truly own the experience! The game is in early development and we will keep testing, so for now all you can do is register for upcoming tests.

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The Sinclair ZX Spectrum is 40 and Eurogamer isn't the only one celebrating the occasion. Such is the popularity of the iconic micro – particularly in the UK where it achieved sales of five million over a ten-year period – that its milestone anniversaries always attract mainstream coverage. Kay Burley is probably taking about the ‘rubber-keyed wonder' right now.

So while we all wallow in pleasant nostalgia, how do those that were actually involved in the development of the computer feel about it 40 years on? What impact has it had on their lives – and from their perspective, the lives of others? We got in touch with six of the original team to ask them.

Richard Altwasser joined Sinclair in November 1980 and designed the Spectrum's internal hardware, including the custom ULA (Uncommitted Logic Array) that sits at the heart of the computer. He later managed the design of the Spectrum Plus 2.

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Eve Online subscriptions are going up, including the one-month charge, which is being increased for the first time since 2004.

In a blog post justifying the changes (thanks, PCGN), CCP says the uplift "reflects global trends impacting general productions costs and accounts for years of inflation" and have been introduced in order to "continue investing in Eve Online’s evolution and growth".

"Since Eve Online’s original launch back in 2003, together EVE’s developers and community have led the charge in evolving what sandbox MMOs can be," the post explains.

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An update to Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward's Twitter page has fans speculating that the team may be ready to announced a new Modern Warfare game.

On Friday, Infinity Ward switched out both its Twitter banner and profile icon which - at first blush, anyway - seemed to be solid black logos with no image or text.

Brightened up, however, and eagle-eyed players think they've spotted fan-favourite character Ghost lurking in the background, sparking whispers that an announcement is imminent.

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A member of Santa Monica Studios' development team has confirmed that yes, God of War Ragnarok is still releasing later this year.

Confirmation came via animation director Bruno Velazquez after a fan pressed for an update on Twitter.

When asked to "reassure us" that the sequel "will come this year 100 per cent", Velazquez responded with a simple: "Ragnarok is coming this year".

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Amidst the home computer boom of the mid to late 80s, the Amiga stands out. Commodore’s overpowered successor to the immortal C64, it debuted in 1985 and fostered some unique creative and technological achivements that remain notable to this day, despite the platform's unexpectedly swift downfall. Its library and software, while unforgettable to those who grew up with it, has been woefully underrepresented when it comes to retro gaming content. Now, Retro Games Ltd. has provided us with a brand new plug-and-play solution, the A500 Mini, that promises to bring easy and comfortable entry to the Amiga library to all ages and interests. Let’s take a look at what it offers and how it fares.

The A500 Mini takes its inspiration from the Amiga 500, a 1987 release and the most popular of the Amiga family. The original device operated on a Motorola 68000 clocked at ~7MHz with 512KB RAM, the latter spec giving the console its name. The A500 Mini is a bit more modern, with an All Winner H6 ARM chip and Amiberry emulation software running at a base resolution of 720p. Like other recent 'mini' releases, this is a complete emulation solution, in this case closely based on Raspberry Pi 3 hardware support with somewhat higher accuracy and compatibility due to its roots in WinUAE, the de facto emulation solution for Amiga as a whole.

The A500 Mini takes direct inspiration the full-size console, with a non-functional tiny keyboard, a tiny power button, three USB ports, HDMI and USB-C for power. This is a beautiful little device that brings me some warm fuzzy feelings, and the plastic is fairly high grade, but the power button lacks feedback and feels cheap.

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This week we've been covering the sales event over at CCL Computers, where each day you could save 5 per cent on products from ASUS, Samsung, MSI, and Horizon.

If you missed out on any of these daily sales, don't worry! This weekend, (Saturday 23rd April and Sunday 24th April 2022) CCL is bringing back the discounts for all of the brands featured this week so you have one more opportunity to save 5 per cent on anything you need from Laptops and PCs to graphics cards and keyboards. You simply need to enter the code 'APRSAVE' at the checkout.

We've gone through the full range of products from these four manufacturers and picked out some of our favourites that CCL has to offer, to help you find something to get in the sale this weekend.

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Following GOG's example, CD Projekt is reportedly considering introducing paid menstrual leave for its employees.

In recognition of the impact period pain has on some staff, at the time of the announcement GOG said the "experimental" leave "breaks taboos" and is "yet another step towards making GOG an even more inclusive workplace", but it won’t stop its "continuous efforts to learn, reflect and improve on how we can do better for all of our team members".

Given the initiative was announced at the start of April not everyone was convinced of the sincerity of the announcement, but Axios confirms the scheme was introduced following the personal experiences from inside GOG's own team.

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Games merchandiser Numskull has unveiled a new range of Silent Hill collectables, kicking off with the Bubble Head Nurse.

Styled on the variant found in Silent Hill 2 rather than Homecoming or the movies, the 9-inch tall "super-exclusive" statue is officially sanctioned by Konami and comes "with all the finishing touches that fans would expect to see".

"Straight from the highly acclaimed horror game Silent Hill 2 comes a high-quality statue of the iconic Bubble Head Nurse, a sinister female monster manifested from James Sunderland’s subconscious," the blurb explains.

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The release of Halo Infinite's co-op campaign has seemingly slipped to August 2022.

The co-op campaign was expected to release next month after it was delayed from the initial launch. However, last month developer 343 Industries acknowledged that it needed "more time" to work on the cooperative campaign and Forge, and cooperative missions would not be available in May as hoped.

Now, in an image on the company's latest news update, 343i has revealed the "target" for campaign co-op is August, along with campaign mission replay. The Forge Open Beta is slated for September, but split-screen isn't expected until sometime during November's Season 3.

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Activision has revealed what's coming up in Call of Duty: Mobile's newest season, Wild Dogs, which includes a "brand-new way to play battle royale" via its new mode, Sandstorm.

"There are no good guys, no bad guys, with only nature as the adversary," a press statement teases. "A sandstorm will appear randomly in wild areas of battle royale. Players entering the sandstorm will be challenged to avoid hurricanes and tornadoes to reach the high-tier loot and special items contained within the weather event."

Dropping on 28th April at 1am UK time, season 4 also offers two new maps - Cold War's Satellite and Modern Warfare 2019's Khandor Hideout - as well as new operators, weapons, blueprints, calling cards, charms, and COD Points, plus 50 new tiers of "Battle Pass rewards".

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I’m fairly sure I became fascinated with boxing due to Muhammad Ali. He moved like no one I’ve ever seen, skipping gracefully around the ring, darting in and out with feints like a fencer, sometimes slapping gloves together as if clapping. ‘Dancing’, is what Ali called it.

I studied a traditional martial art through most of my youth. My parents were obliging enough to allow me to turn our tiny garage into a sort of gym, where I had a huge heavy bag bolted to the wall (the bolt would creak when the bag was punched or kicked too hard), a speed bag on the opposite wall, and a floor-to-ceiling ball in the middle of the room that was missing the floor connection, and so just swung around like a black pendulum.

Even outside the garage and my martial arts classes I would continue to practice. For years now I have especially loved shadowboxing; that’s where I most perceive the beauty of boxing, the dancing. I often practice sidesteps, pivots, ducking, blocking and parrying, rolling and countering, most of which is me trying to mimic what I’ve seen boxers do rather than something that I was taught. (Akin to the character Powder from Arcane, watching her sister throw fast combinations and then trying to awkwardly emulate her movements.)

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The baptismal fires are waiting. Steam Deck, like countless initiate PCs before it, must be christened: as with every new piece of hardware, one question must be answered. Can it run Crysis? The answer is no, it cannot. The original 2007 release locks up with a black screen. Crysis Remastered though? It boots, it runs, it plays - and with handheld-optimised settings you can get a great experience that almost sustains 60 frames per second. Looking for fidelity over outright performance? It'll do a great job of running at medium settings too at native resolution, effectively putting this portable rendition of the game up there with the original release running at its very high preset - and running at native 720p too.

But this is Crysis and as such, the options are there to bring Steam Deck to its knees, with the 'Can It Run Crysis' mode flipping the measurement of performance from frames per second to seconds per frame - akin to running the original Quake on an ancient 386 processor. Of course, the Deck is a resource-constrained device - and we have to be mindful of that. Ray tracing support in the game has a software fallback, meaning it does run on SteamOS, but it's really not a good idea. Getting decent performance and/or extending battery life is all about a new form of optimised settings - not just the best 'bang for the buck' but also not being afraid to compromise still further. Similar to Nintendo Switch, the smaller screen makes significant cutbacks to fidelity less noticeable during the run of play.

Lego is now firmly entrenched in the world of video games, what with its sets inspired by the likes of Mario, Sonic, and Minecraft, and that looks set to continue with an official Lego version of the iconic Atari 2600 having now been uncovered for apparent release later this year.

As reported by Promobricks (via VGC), an official Lego version of the Atari 2600 console - which initially released as the Atari VCS all the way back in 1977 - complete with distinctive wooden trim, will arrive this August as part of Atari's 50th anniversary celebrations.

Promobricks says the set - not to to be confused with the fan-made submission on Lego's Ideas website - will include a Lego rendition of the console itself (said to be roughly the size of the 1977 original), a replica of the equally iconic CX40 joystick, plus a cartridge of gaming classic Pitfall! fashioned from plastic bricks.

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Switch's Joy-Con controllers have become notorious for their struggles with "drift", to the point that lawsuits have been launched over the issue, the EU has pledged to investigate, and Nintendo's president has even formally apologised. A new report, though, shines additional light on the extent of the issue, claiming that Nintendo's US arm was receiving "easily thousands" of faulty controllers a week for repair at the height of the problem.

That's according to a new report by Kotaku, which, citing a former supervisor at the Switch repair facility (run by United Radio under contract with Nintendo), claims the volume of repairs got so high - with "hundreds" of faulty controllers arriving each day - that work became "very stressful", leading to high turnover in the department and "lots of" repair mistakes.

When Sony finally confirmed its long-rumoured PlayStation Plus revamp back in March, it slapped a rough June launch window on the service, promising additional details to follow. And now it's delivered, giving the overhauled subscription service a launch target of 22nd June in Europe and 13th June in the US.

That's according to an update on Sony's official PlayStation Blog which, alongside the target dates mentioned above, also reveals a planned 1st June launch for the new PlayStation Plus in Japan and an even earlier 23rd May arrival in all other Asian markets.

Sony's overhauled PlayStation Plus combines elements of its existing PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now subscription services into one, offering three distinct subscription tiers - Essential, Extra, and Premium - each with their own distinct features.

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Dying Light 2 might have had a rocky road to release, but it looks like the project has paid off for developer Techland; the studio has revealed its zombie parkour sequel has surpassed 5m copies sold across all platforms since its launch at the start of February, with that number reflective of sales as of 28th February and said to be "significantly growing" each month.

By way of comparison, we can look toward Dying Light's original instalment, also regarded as a sizeable hit for the studio. That game - according to new figures released by Techland today - has now sold 20m copies since launching a little over seven years ago in 2015, meaning its follow-up really is off to a flying start.

All that suggests a healthy future for Dying Light 2 - doubtlessly reassuring for Techland, given the developer has already committed to five years of post-launch DLC support for the game. Already that promise has brought the likes of new armour, weapons, events, and challenges to the game, with the first bit of substantial post-launch story content scheduled to arrive this June.

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Dying Light 2 might have had a rocky development, but it looks like the project has paid off for Techland; the developer has revealed its zombie parkour sequel has sold 5m copies across all platforms since its launch at the start of February, with that number said to be "significantly growing" each month.

By way of comparison, we can look toward Dying Light's original instalment, also regarded as a sizeable hit to the studio. That game - according to new figures released today - has sold 20m copies since launch a little over seven years ago in 2015, meaning its sequel really is off to a flying start.

All that suggests a healthy future for Dying Light 2 - doubtlessly reassuring for Techland, given the developer has already committed to five years of post-launch DLC support for the game. Already that promised has brought the likes of new armour, weapons, events and challenges to the game, with the first bit of substantial post-launch story content scheduled to arrive this June.

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Stufful is the chosen Pokémon for April’s Community Day event - a Pokémon Go event which increases the spawn rate for a specific Pokémon.

This Community Day is an exciting one, because it marks the release of Stufful and Bewear - two Pokémon from Gen 7 - into Pokémon Go. So, if you want to fill in more Alola Pokédex entries, then you need to catch as many Stuffuls as you can!

Shiny Stufful and Bewear are also being released as part of this Community Day and it’s a great opportunity to find a Stufful with 100% perfect IV stats, which means you should also know the best moveset for Bewear.

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Volcano Manor is an optional area in Elden Ring, located on Mt. Gelmir, home to some interesting quests and characters.

This includes Volcano Manor's proprietress Lady Tanith and her intimidating Crucible Knight bodyguard, and if you’ve taken a shine to recurring FromSoftware character Patches, you’ll also want to come here at some point.

More importantly, Volcano Manor is home to one of Elden Ring’s demi-gods Praetor Rykard, even if, like Starscourge Radhan, you don’t have to defeat him in order to progress the main story.

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Wizard duels, potion brewing, and crystal balls will feature in Two Point Campus's wizardry course.

As wizardry students advance their magic becomes more powerful, which will be needed not just in duels, but in dealing with ancient curses and nefarious enemies looming about the school.

Though the wizardry course has been spotted in previous trailers, a new course reveal video has given a more detailed look at the classes - you can watch it below.

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Splatoon 3 will launch for Nintendo Switch on Friday, 9th September, Nintendo has confirmed.

A new trailer today has showcased its 4v4 online Turf War battle mode across "a mix of new and familiar stages". Fresh off the boat here is Eeltail Alley, a new level, and the stringer, a bow-shaped weapon type you can fire ink from both vertically and horizontally.

In single-player mode, meanwhile, you'll fight the Octarians and "discover the secrets of Alterna and the Fuzzy Ooze". I have no doubt Splatoon master and Eurogamer editor-in-chief Martin Robinson is excited by the sounds of that.

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New ratings for Syphon Filter 1, 2, Dark Mirror, and Logan's Shadow have appeared in Korea, for both PlaySation 5 and PlayStation 4. This update, and the timing of it, suggests all of these games may well be making their way to Sony's upcoming Premium tier subscription package, which promises access to a catalogue of "beloved classic games".

The only games in the series to have not been given a rating for modern consoles are Syphon Filter 3 (which originally released for PlayStation on all the way back in 2001), and Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain, which came out on the PlayStation 2 in 2004.

Below is a table showing these new ratings from the Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea (via Gematsu).

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Earlier this week, Sega screwed up its announcement of a promising-looking Sonic Origins retro collection by listing a bizarre selection of pre-order bonuses, DLC and deluxe edition content.

"Character animation in the main menu" and "camera controls over the main menu islands" were listed as being part of the Premium Fun Pack DLC or the game's Digital Deluxe Edition. The same is true of the game's "Hard Missions".

A bonus listed simply as "Letterbox Background" is highlighted as being available in either the Premium Fun Pack DLC or the separate Start Dash Pack DLC - free but only if you pre-order.

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It has been over 20 years since Kao, the boxing glove wearing kangaroo from the land down under, first made his debut. But he is now back again and will be hopping into our lives for a rebooted hurrah on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC (via Steam) on Friday 27th May. And what will his reboot be called? Well, Kao the Kangaroo, of course.

"We've been blown away by the response we've had from gamers since we announced Kao the Kangaroo was making a return earlier this year," said Kaja Borowko, head of Kao developer Tate Multimedia.

"With this new chapter, we've set out to make sure the new Kao the Kangaroo both honours his previous outings and offers fresh, contemporary gameplay for fans new and old alike. This is a complete reboot for Kao, and we can't wait to see how people take to it at launch!" You can check out Kao's new trailer below.

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Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding art director Yoji Shinkawa wants to design a real life car.

Speaking to Edge magazine (spotted by VGC), Shinkawa was asked about any future ambitions.

"One day I would like to design a car - a real car," he replied. "This has been a long-held ambition for me."

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Many know CCL Computers is a great place to pick up computer parts, laptops, montiors, peripherals, and so much more at affordable prices, but CCL also has their own range of pre-built gaming PCs with options for every budget.

CCL's Horizon range has PCs with the latest AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards and processors, different case options, cooling options, storage options and more. With nearly 30 different Horizon PCs there's one for every budget. And today you can save 5 per cent on any Horizon PC from CCL with the code 'HORAPR'. To help you get the best from the sale, we've picked out a few Horizon PCs with great savings at different price points.

Starting off with a really budget-friendly option is this Horizon 3M Intel GTX 1650 Gaming PC, which is down to just £589.99 with the code 'HORAPR'. This build has a smaller Intel i3 processor, its core clock is an impressive 3.70 GHz and its boost clock is 4.40GHz, but it has fewer cores and threads compared to an i5 or i7. It also has an older 4GB NVIDIA 1650 GPU- which won't cope with 1440p output but will be good enough for gaming on high settings as 1080p. If you're a casual gamer who plays lighter games or isn't fussed about ultra settings on the newest releases, this is a great option for the price.

A judge has dismissed the majority of a gender discrimination lawsuit lodged against PlayStation by a former employee.

The case, filed in November last year by ex-PlayStation IT analyst Emma Majo, claimed PlayStation paid women less than men in similar jobs and were held back from promotions. Majo also claimed she had been wrongfully fired "soon after" reporting gender bias.

In a new ruling, reported by Axios, a judge has now decided much of Majo's case lacked necessary evidence.

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After a lot of speculation and several leaks, what we all assumed was coming has indeed been confirmed. In a, rather surreal and perhaps overdue crossover, Godzilla and King Kong will be making their way into Call of Duty: Warzone.

"Hold on to your… everything. 😱 The MONSTER OF ALL BATTLES is coming," Activision proclaimed on Thursday. This crossover, which is known as Operation Monarch, will go live on 11th May.

You can check out the official teaser below.

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One of the biggest upgrades you can make to your gaming setup is changing to a high refresh rate panel, as your games will look smoother and feel more immersive and response as you play.

The ASUS TUF VG249Q gaming monitor fits the bill perfectly, and it's currently available for £169 from Amazon. That's nearly a fifth off its usual RRP, saving you £40.

It's a full HD IPS panel, so you'll be getting great viewing angles at a familiar resolution supported by all consoles and PCs. But the star of the show is the 144Hz refresh rate.

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