There’s a bit of a worry that we’ll see more of these price changes in the UK. While stock is vanishingly rare even by modern GPU standards, the Founders Edition models have presented some of the best opportunities to actually buy a new graphics card at retail value, either direct from Nvidia or from partnered retailers like Scan. Knowing both that, and the fact that these are some of the best graphics cards on the market, any further rise in the barrier to entry is going to disappoint....

Of course it was going to be a huge success. Suffering growing disillusionment with WoW, a friend and I made a foolish decision to flee to LOTRO a few months back, hoping we’d be able to recapture the early joy and wonder of getting lost and not quite understanding what was happening. Too late; our brains were permanently altered by years of WoW, and we saw LOTRO’s over-familiar dynamics through mechanical eyes....

How to defeat Howl The general idea behind this boss fight is to run to a certain point, then hit the boss in the nose with an improvised weapon. We have a video showing the entire boss fight recorded by vid bud Matthew, which shows you what you need to do to complete this fight. If you can’t view the video, we have the steps you need to take below....

Unfortunately, he wakes up on Adelpha again, except now it’s overrun with robot soldiers. It’s gonna be a culture shock if he gets back to Earth too, which has now been overrun by Twitch streamers. THQ Nordic bought the rights to Outcast from the game’s creators back in January 2019. The sequel is being developed by Appeal Studios, and during a press event they said the new team has a number of developers who worked on the original game 22 years ago, including the game director and composer....

Outriders Auto Loot: how to pick up all loot automatically Certain bits of loot that enemies in Outriders drop, such as ammo and materials, are picked up automatically when you get near to them. But pieces of gear, such as new weapons and armour, have to be picked up manually. Thankfully, Outriders has an Auto Loot feature which allows you to hoover up every bit of nearby loot with the tap of a button....

For all the Overwatch noobs (or anyone that rightly ignores weird monetisation) OW2 features two main currencies. There are Legacy Credits, which can be imported from the original game and used to buy a limited selection of in-game items. Then there are Overwatch’s premium Gold Coins that are bought using real money and can be spent on exclusive packs and other such stuff. Both currencies have a similarly shaped icon, so they’re usually distinguished by colour; Legacy Credits are white, Gold Coins are golden, League Tokens are red, etc....

You can look at the full experimental patch notes here, which detail changes to every character’s kit. The ideas for each tweak were thought up by a bunch of Overwatch content creators, and most of them are rather over the top. The first fun (and festive) change is to Orisa, who now has only one health point, but 399 armour to compensate. She isn’t slowed down by shooting, so can just walk straight at people at regular speed while firing her giant arm gun....

We first caught DoubleAgent in the act all the way back in 2014, after he’d hit the Mists Of Pandaria cap of 90. Now, PC Gamer report he’s hit Shadowlands’ revised cap of 60 just over two weeks after release. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings — Neutralagent (@NeutralAgent) December 11, 2020 Arriving back in 2012, the Pandaren are a unique race in WoW insofar as, for the first 10 levels, they aren’t attached to either of the game’s factions....

Know By Heart stars Misha, a fella whose boring life is upended when his school crush returns to town and the old gang reunite. “It’s up to them to journey down memory lanes and rekindle their friendship, but their memories of the past and the very bonds between them become threatened…” Ice-Pick say. They say it’s about five hours long, and note: “Players will be immersed into the quiet life of a provincial Russian town, where traces and echoes of the Soviet era can still be seen and heard....

It is, as simulators tend to be, exactly what it says on the tin. PC Building Sim has a free build mode with lots of real manufacturer components that you can snap and hook and fiddle together into a really snazzy build. There’s also a career mode for opening up the PCs of clients to take them apart and figure out what’s gone wrong. Developers Irregular Corporation say they’re also closing in on the release of their next career mode expansion which looks like it’ll be the IT Expansion they were beta testing in May....

In their latest video, YouTube channel People Make Games spoke to 19 current and former developers at two outsourcing studios in Southeast Asia about the work they do, and the ways in which crunch is being shipped overseas. The video focuses on a handful of examples, including CD Projekt Red’s outsourcing of work on Cyberpunk 2077, and Activision Blizzard’s outsourcing of work on WarCraft 3: Reforged. It takes pains to underline that these are just examples of a more widespread practice, however....

Umurangi Generation is set in the retro-futuristic city of Tauranga, Aotearoa (New Zealand). It’s contained within walls errected by the UN while jets and giant mechs and monsters battle outside, with distinctly Evangelion-y apocalyptic consequences. Each level is a snapshot of a place, a small section of city to explore as a photographer with a checklist of objects you must photograph. So off you go, exploring a rooftop, or a street party in a block locked down after a severed mech arm fell on it, or a condemned housing district, or a train buffet car filled half with soldiers and half with civilians as it rattles across a bridge through twisted ruins over pink waters....

As spotted by PC Gamer, folks have begun posting videos of ways to cheese Warzone’s weapons. Tactic number one involves innocuously tossing rocks. Players who are awaiting their turn in the 1v1 arena are able to pick up small rocks and lob them down at the combatants below. They do a measly 1 damage, not nearly enough to kill anyone. But they can kill something else: a claymore mine. Gulag combatants can set traps for one another, including ground mines, but a well-placed rock could set it off prematurely....

They put out the news in a tweet: Live was announced for PC earlier this year, and the open beta had no more specific a release date than ’later this year’. Like its predecessor and many other CCGs, you’ll be able to translate your physical collection of Pokémon trading cards into TCG Live using digital codes. Some physical cards have already been sent out that have TCG Live branding on them, but in a followup tweet the developer clarified that these are still redeemable in TCG Online....

Landmarks are special buildings that every civilisation constructs to move into the next age, choosing from one of two options. They’re a big deal, but as developers World’s Edge acknowledge, many of those choices are a bit too clear cut. The devs are looking to change that, “so the less-used Landmarks will now present more viable strategies or have unique features to stand out as a compelling choice”. There are no specifics, but it’s good to know the problem is being targeted....

I’ve now had another go, driving and droning around for three whole hours. London is still a delight (I went on a little walk along the South Bank, past the aquarium, the London Eye and the National Theatre, which are all called non-infringing things like British Theatre), but the amount that Legion has improved since I played it a year ago is genuinely impressive. In particular, that weird “play as anyone” bit has been given a proper gussy up....

This final instalment of Priceless Play is an ode to itch.io, and the best games I have found there while writing this column. Welcome to the Priceless Play Clip Show. The Indifferent Wonder Of An Edible Place from Studio Oleomingus I wrote about The Indifferent Wonder Of An Edible Place back in February of this year. At the time, I felt like the game couldn’t get any more urgent and pressing, but it seems to have only become more pertinent as time has gone on....

PUBG’s transitioning to its free-to-play model on 12th January 2022, which means it’ll cost nothing to equip a level 2 helmet and miss all your shots. That’s pretty neat, considering it costs a hefty £27 on Steam right now. And considering competitors Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Warzone don’t cost a dime, it feels like a long time coming. Of course, PUBG will give you the option to spend a bit extra to unlock some in-game goodies....

Tales From The Forest The tune you’ll probably hear most in Röki’s second chapter, Tales From The Forest plays in the glistening snow groves of its enchanted woodland. Its soaring flute somehow makes the thick, silhouetted trees seem even taller as Tove jogs through the snowy undergrowth beneath, and the way it twists and overlaps with the accompanying violin makes it sound like birdsong whistling through the canopy up above. Combined with the running flurries of trilling ornaments bubbling away beneath it, this track is full of wide-eyed wonder that absolutely nails Tove’s childlike perspective on the world....

Thankfully, Raji’s been blessed by the gods which grants her some cool demon-busting abilities, like a staff that scatters electricity bolts all over the place and bow which fires exploding orbs. It helps that she was an acrobat before it all pear-shaped too, as she can combine these assets for puzzling, platforming, and combat of top-down variety. The demon-infested ancient Indian world really catches my eye. Raji captures the vibrancy and colour of Hindu mythology rather beautifully, I think....