In fact, I’ve always somewhat overlooked the series, not really understanding what it was. That was definitely a mistake. It’s typically lazy and unhelpful to say “if you liked that you’ll like this”, but Conquest Of Elysium is a series defined by iteration. If you’ve played 3 or 4, you pretty much know how 5 goes already. This time around there’s basically more of everything, and a heap of changes too esoteric to list, but fundamentally it’s the same game as ever....

It’s Dorfromantik! Katharine: Dorfromantik has been one of the most pleasant surprises of 2021 for me. I’ve sunk more hours into this relaxing pastoral puzzle game than anything else I’ve played this year - and that includes a compilation of two great big whopping Ace Attorney games. It released into early access at the perfect time of year, too. It was the end of March, the UK was still grumbling through another grim lockdown, and giving life and shape to tiny towns, forests and golden yellow fields through a random assortment of hexagonal tiles just seemed like the perfect antidote to the ensuing chaos outside....

12 months later, The Settlers: New Allies is all the better for it. An extended delay is never an easy decision to make, yet the team at Ubisoft Düsseldorf (formerly Blue Byte) has seen this additional development time as an opportunity to reach out to those most familiar with the series. “We learned [more] than just what was needed for the game,” creative director Christian Hagerdorn tells me during a recent preview event....

The update adds a whole chunk of new skin swatches to Create A Sim and separates them into warm, neutral, cool, and miscellaneous categories—the latter being for the fantasy skin tones like blue and green. You can adjust the brightness of each swatch to further tune to the color you’re looking for and save a specific creation so you can find it later. Makeup selection, another element that Maxis said they would look into, has also gotten expanded options....

The Sims 4 Star Wars: Journey To Batuu boldly goes to an outpost on Batuu, a popular holiday planet for Federation officers seeking a walk on the wild side. There, you can flirt with fascism for funsies, join a rebellion, or just hang out being a scoundrel (the Riker approach). You can befriend famous folks like Rey Palpatine Skywalker and Kylo Ren, though you can’t really Riker it up with them - unless you use cheats....

According to Deadline, “those impacted have been isolated and are not among lead cast.” They also report that Netlflix have plans to test everyone involved in the show, then they’ll pick up filming again once the set is “fully safe”. No word yet on when The Witcher season 2’s will actually come out, though. I imagine with these sorts of setbacks it might be a little while before we see Geralt getting caught up in more gory shenanigans....

Get the Samsung CRG5 for £229 (was £299) This price is pretty outstanding, so let me tell you a little more about this monitor in an attempt to sway you. It’s got a VA panel, which is a little bit slower in terms of its 4ms pixel response times but makes up for this will excellent contrast. That makes the CRG5 a great choice for gaming in the dark, whether that means in real life, in the game or both....

Get the Crucial P2 2TB for $155.99 (was $194.99) The P2 is rated for speeds up to 2400MB/s reads and up to 1900MB/s writes, which makes it up to five times faster than an average SATA drive for sequential reads and up to four times faster for sequential writes - not too shabby! You can find faster PCIe 3.0 and especially PCIe 4.0 drives these days, but you will also pay significantly more - the cheapest 2TB PCIe 4....

Let’s quickly run through those specs. This 38-in monitor has a resolution of 3840x1600, essentially a shorter version of 4K, with a 144Hz refresh rate. The monitor is Nvidia G-Sync Ultimate certified, meaning it has a physical G-Sync module to prevent judder and tearing, and it also gets bright enough to earn the lofty DisplayHDR 600 rating. All in all, it’s a ton of monitor for a fairly reasonable price....

Enter the modders. Specifically, enter modder FlyingParticle, who has released HIGGS VR for Skyrim VR. It’s a mod that adds gravity glove-style interaction to Skyrim, and it looks like it works beautifully. HIGGS stands for Hand Interaction and Gravity Gloves for Skyrim. VR-focused YouTuber Cangar has made the below video to demonstrate the mod’s features, and it contains everything you’d hope for from a mod inspired by Alyx: You can point at items and flip them into your hands....

According to Twitter user AMurderOfBears, this match shared by TKD News is using equipment that awards points not just for scoring hits on particular body parts, but also for the amount of force applied to those body parts. The score bars above each player look a lot like they came straight out of Tekken 7, lightning effects and all. It sounds like there are also fake punching sound effects that go off for each hit, which is hilarious given that there should be actual punching and kicking noises to hear, you know, in real time....

The mod replaces the Tree Sentinel’s steed with the children’s TV show locomotive, making the early, optional boss substantially less intimidating in the process. That’s unusual because I normally find Thomas’s blank, wide-eyed face scarier than whatever he’s replacing, but the absurdity of having a big angry man on his back cancels out any potential fear. The Tree Sentinel Thomas Mod by creator skymoon can be downloaded from Nexus Mods....

Ever wanted to run an Unreal Tournament match in the Finch household? That’s now entirely a possibility. As per today’s Unreal Engine blog post, Unreal Engine devs can now download over 3,000 meshes (3D models, effectively), all completely textures and set up with materials. More than that, though, is the option to download complete environments from Giant Sparrow’s curiously morbid adventure - including the complete Finch home, with all its distinct rooms and suites....

Token Demon Hunter deck list and strategy Here’s the Token Demon Hunter deck we’ll be using for the Darkmoon Faire expansion. We’ll keep you updated with any changes! Select and copy the long ID string below, then create a deck in Hearthstone to export this deck into your game. Deck Import ID: AAECAea5AwLMugO8xgMOi7oDo7sD17sD2LsDibwDqbwD4LwDjb0Dx8YD98gD+cgD/sgDnMkDvtIDAA== General strategy Token Demon Hunter is a deck that takes advantage of the deaths of your token minions to deal damage to your enemies and overrun them....

The way it goes: you see an enemy army, you build an army by picking units that might counter them, you lay out your forces, then you watch the battle unfold as the AI and ragdoll physics take over. Or you can take to the battlefield yourself in control of a unit. It’s undoubtedly silly, but strategy can be quite important. Or you can just watch a big stupid fight, as big and as stupid as your computer can handle....

“Hate and harassment of any kind is unacceptable and prohibited on Twitch, whether it’s an offensive message, malicious follows, or the egregious ‘hate raid’ attacks that have targeted marginalized creators over the past months,” Twitch said when launching the new features last night. “Curbing this type of behavior is, and will continue to be, a top priority for us.” So, now they’ve launched new options which let channels restrict chat to users who have verified their account through an SMS code sent to a phone, and/or verified an e-mail address....

All recipes in Valheim and where to cook them Valheim: edible raw foods Characters in Valheim don’t actually need to eat to survive (this is an afterlife, after all), but food can provide Health and Stamina buffs that can mean the difference between (un)life and (another) death when in combat. At its most basic level, you can forage foods from the game’s various biomes, or cultivate crops in your base. Some — though not all — of these raw ingredients can be eaten as you find them for a low-level buff....

One of the best benefits, for my money, is the shared map system. I’ve been hosting a world for several pals and have alreday run into disappointment when finding out that they can’t see explored parts of the map I’ve wandered off to without them. Would be mighty nice if they could see my adventures since I’m the resident obsessive fog of war clearer. You’ll just need to be online at the same time and have your position shared with other players for it to work....

Getting to grips with Valheim is often a matter of trial and error. But if you’re finding the game’s massive world daunting, this Valheim guide is filled with essential tips and tricks to help you to master the game, covering everything from weapons to building, from boss battles to boar taming. We have everything to get you started. Valheim tips and tricks: a beginner’s guide Here are our top Valheim tips and tricks for new players:...

Players on PC Game Pass or who buy Valheim via the Microsoft Store will have crossplay with those who own the game on Steam. It will also launch on Xbox Game Pass in spring 2023. Valheim remains in early access on Steam and developers Iron Gate are continuing to work on the next update, which will add the Mistlands biome. Previous updates have added more options for decorating your home and new frost caves, although major additions have been a little slow....