Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Hello, my name is Katharine and I have never played a Mass Effect game. I know, I know. It's one of the great crimes against the church of RPGs. But I'm atoning, honest! I did, in fact, start playing the first Mass Effect about six years ago on PS3, but I got stuck on my very first non-tutorial mission and never went back. I've been meaning to try again ever since, though, and now the shiny new Mass Effect: Legendary Edition has given me the perfect opportunity to jump back in. Or at least I would, if I could find my way out of the damn Citadel.

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For the past three months, I've traded my £100-odd Ikea chair for the all-black edition of Razer's Iskur gaming chair. Until recently, I'd been fairly resistant to the onslaught of so-called bucket gaming seats with their naff, strapped on lumbar pillows and go faster racing stripes, but I've also become increasingly aware that my Ikea chair probably isn't doing my back a great deal of good either. It's a perfectly adequate piece of office furniture for the price, but as someone who works from home full-time, I should probably be a sensible adult and invest in something proper to park my behind on everyday.

The problem is that "proper" office chairs - your Herman Millers et al - are just so crazy expensive that the idea of paying close to a grand for one just seems outright preposterous. What kind of postural magic could it possibly cast to be worth that kind of money? So I thought Razer's Iskur would be a good compromise. At £499 / $499, it's half-way between your entry-level office chairs and your premium posterior palaces, and it's also got proper built-in lumbar support (as any decent chair should) instead of a terrible pillow. Could this be the gaming chair of my dreams?

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As if dismantling a derelict spaceship wasn't already hazardous enough, developers Blackbird Interactive have added radiation to Hardspace: Shipbreaker. The Pretty Rad update dropped this week for the sci-fi ship scrapping sim, making it so players can find and extract Radiation Filters on their looting expeditions. This is easier said than done, however, as those Filters are rather fragile, and can drop radioactive particles if you so much as bump the thing.

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Scarlet Nexus is out today, if you'd like to take control of a child soldier capable of hurling concrete boulders with your mind and making sincere connections with your telekinetic mates over gyoza.

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Just the other day I was chatting with a friend about how long it'd been since we'd roamed around Skull Town in Apex Legends. The hottest of drop zones was removed (read: obliterated) last year in the battle royale's fifth season, but next week Respawn are piecing it back together for a new event. The Genesis Collection Event kicks off on June 29th, bringing back the original maps for both Kings Canyon and World's Edge. Better yet, not only will Skull Town return to the battle royale mode, but the devs are turning it into an Arenas map too.

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Dell is offering a raft of discounts on their whole portfolio right now as part of their Summer Sale - including some of the best prices we've seen on the Dell G15 gaming laptop and the XPS 15 secretly-gaming laptop. Here's what you need to know!

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UK retailer GameByte is running a pretty cool special offer on EPOS headsets right now, including the H3 and GSP 370 that carry warm RPS recommendations. You can get 30% off the listed price using the code EPOS30, resulting in historic low prices, or pick up the headsets with a free or discounted game from a small selection of recent PS5 and Xbox Series X/S releases. Either way, this is a fantastic chance to get a great deal on some of the best PC gaming headsets on the market.

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"Sorry about the programmer art," ends a recent tweet from Teardown developer Dennis Gustafsson. He needn't apologise. His tweet contains a video of a pathfinding robot navigating the destructible, constantly-changing world of one of last year's best games, and the robot is simultaneously terrifying and cute.

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Epic Games' platform war with Valve is being fought on many fronts, not just via the Epic Games Store. The less noticed part of the fight is Epic Online Services, which provides backend tools for game developers similar to those Valve offer via Steamworks. Epic have now added two new parts to that service, making Easy Anti-Cheat and cross-platform voice comms tech free for all developers to use.

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Dota 2's summer Nemestice event has kicked off alongside a new battle pass. The official microsite of what it includes just goes on and on, but among the list is Davion of Dragon Hold, pictured above, the star of Netflix's Dota 2 anime.

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Avatar is a more interesting world than it is a story, and so in some ways feels better designed for a Ubisoft open world game than a movie. Also, by "interesting world" I mostly mean it's visually interesting, with floating sky islands, colourful dinosaurs and bioluminescent plants. Ubisoft have released a new trailer to talk about the graphical wizardry being employed in creating that world for Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora, including ray tracing and some chat about NPC AI.

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Microsoft unveiled Windows 11 this evening, and people can already download their PC Health Check up to see if their PC meets the new OS' minimum hardware requirements to qualify for its free ugprade. However, a lot of users with relatively new PCs (myself incldued) are coming up with big angry red crosses when running the app, saying, "Nope, sorry pal, your 10th Gen Intel CPU, Z590 motherboard and RTX 3070 Ti just aren't good enough." Which is bonkers, obviously.

Turns out, it's probably not a problem with your hardware at all. It's because of your motherboard's BIOS settings.

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Look, lockdown in the UK has been extended and it's probably gonna get extended again, so this summer I feel I'm more justified than ever spending all my money on games. What else am I going to do? Go on holiday? The Steam Summer Sale has kicked off now, discounting thousands of games, so I know where my savings are going. The sale is on between now and July 8th, so we have two weeks to nab some sweet deals.

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Microsoft has officially unveiled Windows 11, their brand-new OS for PC, and the good news is that it will be a free upgrade for all Windows 10 users - much like how Windows 10 was for Windows 7 and 8 users. Today's Windows 11 event confirmed a lot of what we already knew about the operating system from previous leaks - the rounded corners, centralised app icons, and a revised Start menu - but now we know when it's coming out, its minimum hardware requirements and more. Here's everything you need to know.

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This week the Electronic Wireless Show podcast is all about DLCs and expansions. We even briefly flirt with actual journalism by discussing some of the controversy associated with expansions and DLC and the Oblivion Horse Armour incident. There is, however, an extended break in the middle of discussing DLC where we talk about Toby Carveries. Oh, don't worry if you don't know what that is: we explain.

We also talk about Pirates Of The Caribbean, gravy and Toby Jugs, although sadly Matthew does not have any new treats to discuss this week. But there is an excellent Cavern Of Lies hosted by friend of the show Sir Anthony Hopkins. Plus: do you like organ chat? Because you're in the right place!

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As I entered a second hour of trying to hammer Distant Worlds Universe into a playable state on Windows 10, two thoughts occurred. The first is that I hope the upcoming Distant Worlds 2 is the 4X I want. The second was more troubling: What do I want from a modern 4X game?

I might as well put this upfront: I don't think I want the same thing most players do. Let me relate both why I admire Distant Worlds, and why I don't think its sequel will do what I want.

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For a while last year, I started following a long modding guide to update The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind to a more modern standard. Then I lost my place and gave up. I’m not joking. The thing is huge, and I forgot what I was doing. That’s why I wear my Skywind badge with pride. The dedicated modders working to bring TES III over to the Skyrim engine are still beavering away at it, and have released an update on their progress. Spoilers: you still can’t play it.

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Valve have reportedly added a new restriction on how often Steam users can change their account's country, in what appears to be another measure to stop people from buying cheaper games from other regions. According to SteamDB (a third-party tool that tracks Steam's goings-on), you can no longer update your country more than once every three months - perhaps a little unfair to anyone who actually does move to a new country each season, but it should help shut down more Steam users who're abusing the system.

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When Cyberpunk 2077 launched, it was an absolute mess, and game storefronts took wildly different approaches when it came to dealing with that. While Sony simply said, "get off of my PlayStations and don't come back until you're fixed", the Microsoft Store kept it, and offered to fully refund disappointed players on Xbox and PC "until further notice". But seeing as CD Projekt Red have been gradually improving the dystopian RPG in regular updates, Microsoft says the return policy will go back to normal on July 6th.

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Microsoft are hosting a livestream this afternoon that will officially unveil Windows 11, the next operating system in a line of operating systems named after an opening that lets in a passage of light, air, and flies.

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Today is an exciting time for those of you who like Halo rebalanced, tweaked, or completely cursed. Developers 343 Industries just released modding tools for the Master Chief Collection along with the season 7 update. They're only for the MCC's version of Halo: Combat Evolved but will enable you edit all the values in the game, should you be brave enough to mess with the Silent Cartographer’s glorious flow.

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Though every other FPS on the PC is basically an Alien game in disguise, it still feels like there’s always going to be room for an official bughunt. So we have Aliens: Fireteam Elite, a three person co-op shooter that drops you and your team onto LV-895 to shoot explosive bolts at creatures full of acid. Smart. Very smart. You don’t want to rethink that tactic? No. You don’t see any obvious flaws in that plan? It’s probably too late to change, now. It’s out in August.

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With 240Hz gaming monitors getting cheaper and more affordable with every passing month, there's never been a better time to jump on the high refresh rate gaming train. My current 240Hz monitor champion is AOC's C27G2ZU, which remains incredibly good value at just £215 / $280. But a new challenger enters the ring today in the form of Acer's Predator XB253Q - and it comes with an official G-Sync Compatible rating to boot.

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There's a good chance that if you're aware of Roguebook, the roguelike deckbuilder designed by Richard Garfield of Magic: The Gathering fame, it'll be because it launched under a bit of a cloud. The launch build was a buggy business, and it was accompanied by premium DLC on day one, which got people good and riled up. Honourably enough, developers Abrakam almost immediately folded the DLC into the base game and started spamming refunds. But by then, a lot of folks had already moved on.

That's a real shame, in my opinion. Because Roguebook is great. I know this, because in the three days I have spent with it, I have not touched Hearthstone once. I have had neither the desire, nor the compulsion which usually subs in for it, to even get so far as opening the launcher. And when a card game gets me to the extent where I'll tear that IV drop of poisoned ambrosia from my veins, I know it's the real deal.

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I heartily appreciate it whenever a game manages to be cinematic and tell a story without ever getting in the player's way. I think of it as "the Doom approach". The beauty of this accomplishment is that the story doesn't even have to be very good or interesting. I don't remember much at all about the story of Ghostrunner, but it doesn't matter. I can still recommend it because it doesn't force you to wait around for the story bits to end before you can get back to wall-running your way from one assassination to the next.

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Space trading and warfare MMO Eve Online isn't looking half bad for its age at 18 years old. CCP are looking to keep those ships in ship shape with what they're calling a "significant new visual update" to make space more colourful with shader and lighting updates. The update has hit the Singularity test server as of today, so you can check out the changes.

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The LG 27GL850, one of my personal favourite gaming monitors, has dropped to its lower ever price as part of Overclockers' Summer Sale. Normally £439, this monitor has plunged to just £300, a healthy 31% reduction. That's a great deal for a 27-in 1440p 144Hz monitor that boasts FreeSync and G-Sync Compatibility, and particularly one that boasts a new-fangled Fast IPS panel like this one.

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Valheim's big hearth and home update may have gotten pushed back to autumn, but the early access Viking 'em up is still getting other patches in the meantime. A new midsummer update has brought a handful of tweaks to enemy behavior and has made the rare maypole buildable for a limited time. That's me up there, unable to resist the call of the word "temporary", standing next to my hastily erected maypole.

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Drop.com, the website formerly known as Massdrop, has taken on Amazon with its own Prime Week of deals. There are around 30 discounted items in all, including headsets and headphones, amps, mechanical keyboards and accessories, with some nice savings on a range of high-end PC gear. Here are some highlights from the sale that might be worth knowing about!

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Minecraft genuinely never ceases to amaze me, nor do the people modding it. The texture pack called Brixel by modder Wabbabrick is, in fact, amazing. This recently-released resource pack turns Minecraft's blocks into Lego-inspired creations with a wild level of detail. It looks like it would hurt my eyes and feet in equal measure but gosh I can just imagine what touching its bumpy dirt blocks feels like. Take a look at it in all its glory complete with shaders.

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Rise and shine, digital farmers, and circle November 22 on your calendar. That's the day that Farming Simulator 22 is headed out into the field. The next iteration of digital farming has just announced its release date with a heartstring-pulling new trailer and some extra details on new crops to check out. You can spot both right down here.

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I'm not gonna be smug about it.

Wait, screw that. Yes I am. Play Wildermyth, you cowards.

Wildermyth was already one of the best games I'd ever played when I wrote about it during a week off in 2019. There was never any pressure to do this. I just had to. I had so many stories. It was doing so many things so well that I couldn't stand waiting any longer to show it to people. Wildermyth does that to you. It brings you joy and drama, and it makes you want to share your stories. Oh and for the record, when I said "If this game doesn't take off like it deserves to in 2020 I will eat my own face", there was an implicit understanding there, see, between reader and writer that... look, I'm not doing it on a technicality.

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The year of Sonic celebration continues with more presents and cameos and remasters for the blue blur. If your idea of a swell 30th celebration is more lawn concert than Olympics tie-in, hey there's one of those too. For his official birthday today, Sega have pulled together a big virtual 30th anniversary orchestral concert chock full of Sonic tunes with some other special musical guest appearances too. You can watch it live here below when it kicks off at 8pm BST.

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Naughty people are reportedly hiding malware in Steam profile images, so go careful what you download from Valve's gaming platform. Named SteamHide, the malware isn't the picture itself, but is tucked away in its metadata, waiting to be activated by a separate malware downloader. It's not something to worry about if you're using Steam normally - you'd need to be clicking on dodgy emails or visiting dubious websites to even get the extra necessary malware to activate the Steam stuff - but it's worth keeping an eye on, just in case.

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I might have to return to Astroneer. I played it a lot when it was first released, but drifted away like George Clooney in the movie Gravity. What’s grabbing my attention now, a whole two years after the initial release? They just added hoverboards in a new update. I will now return to it, also like George Clooney in the movie Gravity, but without the terrible twist.

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Out of nowhere, I've recently binged YouTube videos called "What Are People in London Wearing?". In each episode, the host Kofi roams the streets in search of folks dressed in a pleasing manner. He then asks them where they got their various threads from, and even as someone who isn't really into fashion, per se, I find it fascinating.

These videos appeal to my nosiness. Through Kofi, I get to see all the people behind their cool threads. I wish we had a Kofi equivalent in Call Of Duty: Warzone. I need to know who's behind some of the player weapons I've picked up. Why that camo? Why those attachments? Seriously, who are you?

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Season Three of Sea Of Thieves, that most piratical of online PvPvE adventures, kicked off last night with some new enemy types and cosmetics and such. The headline feature, though, is a bunch of Pirates Of The Caribbean crossover stuff, hence why the current season is subtitled A Pirate's Life. Yer PotC bits are primarily showing up in the Tall Tale story quests, and last night I played the first two. Through a combination of the game being a bit janky off the back of a big update, us being a bit stupid, and some utter, utter cheese grater sinking our ship, it took us six hours.

The extent of our piratical ineptitude was not suprising. What is, though, is that the Pirates Of The Caribbean stuff in the first two Tall Tales is a relatively small feature, and that the Pirates characters in particular end up being kinda annoying. Rare have adapted Pirates' vibe more than anything else, and while the rest of the changes are rad, especially the new enemies, you'd better be ready to spend time playing what feels a bit like a non-copyright infringing amusement park called Buccanneers Of The Central Americas.

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You are a "child of the state" in this big-eyed action RPG that mixes stylish, speedy combat with slow manga storyboarding to drip-feed a tale of conspiracy, war, and weirdness. A child soldier with special telekinetic powers and a bunch of fellow superhero child friends who fight off alien creatures that plague the world. You will hack, slash, and take your mates out to an inexplicably normal restaurant to discuss the latest drama. "You know what these teenagers need?" said the suspiciously overbearing government of Scarlet Nexus, as they pump another round of kids full of medicine. "More hormones."

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Assemble your friends across PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox, because you can all group up and play together in Overwatch now. Last night, Blizzard added cross-platform multiplayer to the hero shooter, so PC players will now be able to jump in with their console pals to muck about in Quick Play and Arcade game modes. On top of that, there's a new challenge that lets players earn a stylish biker skin for Ashe.

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It’s been 20 years since the release of the Operation Flashpoint, and about a decade since Bohemia Interactive repackaged their mil-sim as Arma: Cold War Assault. So what better way to celebrate that milestone than by giving the game away for free? You can now grab Arma: Cold War Assault for zero of your local currency on Steam and GOG for the next couple of days.

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