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Firaxis Games and 2K have released the system requirements for Sid Meier's Civilization VII on Windows, but the Linux and macOS requirements will be coming later. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Game Rant can exclusively share another look at SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game. The new gameplay footage showcases the Demolition Derby Stadium, one of the numerous locations featured in the latest SpongeBob SquarePants game. View the full article

The start of October is the perfect time to explore the outdoors with the Galarian Expedition event in Pokémon Go. For those who participate in the event, there’s the Galarian Expedition Collection Challenge 2 quest you can complete if you can track down all the Pokémon. The Collection Challenge is exclusive to the Galarian Expedition event, which is happening from Oct. 4 to the 11 in Pokémon Go. For those playing the mobile game, it’s a good idea to go out of your way to complete this challenge to earn the rewards. However, tracking down all the Pokémon could prove to be tricky. Here’s what you need to know about how to catch all Pokémon for the Galarian Expedition Collection Challenge 2 and the rewards you get in Pokémon Go. View the full article

After a string of Resident Evil remakes, the resurrection of ***** Space, and even genre granddaddy Alone in the Dark stepping back into the spotlight earlier this year, it feels long overdue that seminal survival horror classic Silent Hill 2 should emerge from the fog and be given a modern makeover. Enter Bloober Team, the psychological horror specialists best known for Layers of ***** and Observer, who’ve been given the task of taking the morbid masterpiece from the PlayStation 2 era and making the fetid flesh of its many demonic ghouls seem fresh. As a big fan of the original, I’m happy to report that this resulting Silent Hill 2 remake is an exceptionally grim and grimy horrorscape that’s consistently compelling to explore, packed with new puzzles and beefed-up boss encounters, and enhanced with modernised combat that made my return to the small town of Silent Hill a regularly violent thrill. Given it was released more than two decades ago, there’s every chance you don’t have the foggiest idea what made the original Silent Hill 2 so impactful. Aside from its sinister small town setting that felt like stepping into the pages of a Stephen King novel, Silent Hill 2 stood apart from other survival horror stories of its era by putting just as much focus on the battle with personal demons as it did regular scraps with the snarling physical kind. Protagonist James Sunderland, who’s lured to a remote mining town by the promise of making contact with his deceased wife Mary, is not a battle hardened member of a zombie-******** special unit – he’s an ordinary man forced to confront some truly extraordinary things. The struggles with his own guilt and trauma both humanise him and add believable heft to the horrors that unfold around him. Silent Hill 2’s festering environment is at once both off-putting and alluring, like a scab you can’t stop picking. While the roles of James and the handful of other lost souls he meets along the way have been recast with voice actors of a noticeably higher standard in this remake, the campy dialogue they deliver ******** mostly unchanged. This does preserve the off-kilter, David Lynchian feel of the original character interactions, but comes across as a little bit jarring at times given the vastly improved standards of storytelling we’ve seen in more recent horror landmarks. I was no less entertained by Silent Hill 2’s quirky characters this time around, even if I never became emotionally invested in their plights to the same extent I did with the supporting casts in The Last of Us or Alan Wake II. Regardless, I found the mystery surrounding the fate of Mary was still more than intriguing enough to drag me through the darkest depths of Silent Hill 2’s story. ***** Comes to Fogtown The difference in look and feel between this Silent Hill 2 remake and the 2001 original is night and day – or perhaps that should be nightmare and daydream given the surreal nature of its small town’s continually altering state. The streets are blanketed by believably heavy fog and rich with detail, right down to the missing persons posters taped to telephone poles that flutter in the breeze. Dimly lit dwellings are overrun with discernable signs of decay, and drywall and cinder block splinter off in shards from startling shockwaves felt in hurried hallway chase scenes. Hordes of cockroaches startle and scatter in the beam of your flashlight as you make your way down each putrid path that winds you through an increasingly hellish otherworld. Silent Hill 2’s festering environment is at once both off-putting and alluring, like a scab you can’t stop picking. The enemies too have been dressed up in far more disturbing and disgusting designs. The most common type, the Lying Figure, which appears to have its arms wrapped up in a straightjacket made of its own skin, seems slick with a decidedly icky sheen and more smoothly shifts from two-legged stagger to writhing prone along the ground in preparation for a surprise *******. There’s also the twitchy, Bubble Head Nurses introduced during the Brookhaven Hospital section (who now come in both pipe and ******-toting forms), and of course Pyramid Head, who’s sharply pointed skull once again brings a more literal meaning to the term apex predator. This lumbering ******-dealer ******** one of the most terrifying presences in the horror genre, only now he seems somehow even more sinister thanks to extra details like the realistic rust on his jagged head and the ghastly inky goop that coats his powerful frame. Of course, that’s when you can actually see the enhanced enemies and environments around you, since Silent Hill 2 is also oppressively dark for significantly long periods at a time. James’ chest-mounted flashlight has a shorter throw than Mr. Burns, meaning it’s regularly the case that you can only see a few feet in front of his nose – testing your television’s ****** levels, tightening the unrelenting sense of claustrophobia, and leaving you vulnerable to ambushes from the creepy Mannequin enemies that stand eerily still in the corners of rooms like they’re floor lamps purchased from *****’s Home Depot. It’s during these moments, when your peripheral vision shrinks down to a pinhole, that Silent Hill 2’s incredibly unsettling audio design really comes to the *****. The signature radio static hisses that intensify around imminent dangers, the shrieks in the distance and whispers that are uncomfortably close, and the accompanying discordant drones maintain an ongoing and ominous sense of dread. Stalking through Silent Hill 2 left my nerves more shredded than a guitar solo played by a shirtless Hugh Jackman. Cloudy with a Chance of Street Brawls Thankfully when things get loud in Silent Hill 2, we’re much better equipped to ****** back this time. Gone is the stiff, auto-targeted ********* and cumbersome pause menu-based *******-swapping of the original, Silent Hill 2’s combat feels much more like what you’d expect from a survival horror adventure post-Resident Evil 4. Enemies can be manually targeted from an over-the-shoulder viewpoint, weapons can be quickly shuffled between at the tap of a d-pad button, and James is also able to perform quick dodges to nimbly sidestep around lurching enemies or the streams of acidic bile they spew. Additionally, melee attacks can be used to smash through glass in order to gather health drinks and ammunition from cabinets or locked cars, and even to ****** through weakened sections of walls to gain access to secret areas hidden amongst its expanded environments. Stalking through Silent Hill 2 left my nerves more shredded than a guitar solo played by a shirtless Hugh Jackman. That said, although Silent Hill 2 gives you far more control over each shot fired, it ******** staunchly true to the original in terms of its noticeably limited arsenal of weapons – James is an underpowered everyman by design, after all. There are two types of melee weapons plus a handgun, shotgun, and rifle, and that’s your lot. There are no ******* upgrades or mods to expand the capabilities of your arsenal further, and ultimately I didn’t particularly favour one ******* over the other – I pretty much just switched to whichever **** I had the most ammo for at any one time. Actually that’s not entirely true – according to the story completion stats page, I did prefer one ******* more than most: the lead pipe. Partly since ammo was so scarce, but mainly because it just feels amazingly satisfying to relieve Silent Hill 2’s near-constant tension by clubbing a hellborn ****** to the ground and continuing to pound their slimy skulls in until they’ve long since expired. Yet while Silent Hill 2 lags behind the likes of Resident Evil 4 or ***** Space as far as the flexibility of its firepower goes, the developers – in collaboration with original Silent Hill 2 creature designer Masahiro Ito – have thrown a few new ****** types into the mix to keep the combat consistently engaging despite its relative mechanical simplicity. When I first entered the Toluca Prison section in the story’s second half only to find a freaky new breed of Mannequin that could scramble up and down walls and along the ceiling like a spider made of discarded doll parts, I couldn’t hit the new 180-degree turn button fast enough. However, once I’d composed myself, I set about trying to pick them off from afar with my rifle as they shuffled in and out of the shadows above, which gave Silent Hill 2’s combat a challenging new edge. Where the overhauled combat really shines, however, is in the boss battles. Some fights, like the first encounter with the iconic Pyramid Head, play out largely the same way they did before – they just feel more muscular and menacing thanks to the immediacy of the over-the-shoulder viewpoint and the vastly more detailed visuals. However, other action sequences have been enhanced to far more comprehensive degrees. Without spoiling too much, there’s one particular late game ****** in the original Silent Hill 2 that amounted to little more than an attritional head-to-head stand-off, but here it’s been reworked into an intense game of cat and mouse amidst the frigid air and dangling carcasses inside a meat locker – effectively transforming one of the story’s weakest boss fights into one of its very best. What We Said About Silent Hill 2 (2001) With Silent Hill 2, Konami has delivered a deep, long (10-15 hours) adventure that's scary in a disturbing, eerie fashion. The game's mechanics show an attempt to improve the genre's general failings, and more importantly don't get in the way of the game or the story itself. As a PlayStation 2 game overall, Silent Hill 2 is graphically stunning, while providing a full production package of surround sound techniques and good voice acting to boot. Konami's survival-horror game doesn't break the genre's mold so much as it modifies and eases up the rigid boundaries set early in the genre's early games. Konami's effort is a ***** scary game, entirely worth every last cent. It's frightening, deep, clever, and tries to improve the genre, if just a little, and in the end, that's all I really want in a survival horror game. – Doug Perry, September 26, 2001 Score: 9 Read the full Silent Hill 2 (2001) review [/url] Similarly, many of the original game’s puzzles have been preserved here, whether it’s the eccentric, point-and-click adventure kind like using a specific tool in order to retrieve an item from an apartment suite garbage chute, or the more ingenious form like swiveling an ornate box on its axis in order to manipulate the towering, MC Escher-inspired room of impossible staircases inside a late-game labyrinth. Meanwhile, other brainteasers like the coin puzzle early on have been given additional steps to complete, which prevented their solutions from ever becoming too predictable as someone who played the original all those years ago. With the exception of some obligatory valve-turning here and there, puzzle types are largely unique and consistently stimulating, and there are plenty of them to solve. (Like combat, you can also vary the difficulty of puzzles via the in-game menu in order to best suit your tastes). However, some of the simpler puzzles have been expanded upon a touch too much. Take one early obstacle in the original that effectively required you to solve a fairly straightforward riddle in order to wind a grandfather clock to a specific time. In this remake, I had to undergo a sequence of multi-part treasure hunts to gather up each of the three hands for the clock face – fending off ****** hordes and completing additional puzzles along the way – which ultimately meant that close to an hour of my playthrough was spent simply attempting to make the clock chime and unlock the way forward. This is just one example of a number of instances where the new Silent Hill 2 bogs down slightly in terms of story progression, and I have to admit that as I jumped through yet another elaborate series of hoops just trying to get my hands on the key to a locked door in the Wood Side Apartments, I did catch myself wishing the owner had simply left a spare under their welcome mat. To Cut a Short Story Long It’s because of the expanded puzzles and combat sections, that the new Silent Hill 2 is considerably longer than the original despite the fact it seems to stick to all the same story beats. The main campaign of the 2001 Silent Hill 2 can be completed in around eight hours, but my playthrough of this 2024 remake hit the credits at just over 15. While it’s almost twice as long, I don’t really feel it’s doubly as good. This remake is genuinely excellent for large stretches at a time, particularly during the escalating stakes of its climactic final third, but there are definitely moments throughout the early parts of the journey that are lined with more padding than the walls of the Brookhaven Hospital psychiatric ward. It also means that although Silent Hill 2 features eight different endings to unlock – two more than the original’s six – I can’t see myself investing the time for any repeat playthroughs because I’m slightly put-off by the protracted length. Although admittedly alternate endings aren’t the only incentive to return in Silent Hill 2’s New Game+ – there are also extra weapons to find, additional graphics modes with CRT scanlines and the like to try, plus numerous secrets and easter eggs to comb for in the town’s increased number of interiors – I don’t feel a huge pull to step face-first back into the fog anytime soon. Even so, although it might not completely trump the original in the same way that the ***** Space and Resident Evil 4 remakes did, Silent Hill 2 is still an incredibly high quality reimagining that improves on its source material in more ways than not. I really like the way it uses distinct hues of light and distant audio cues to subtly steer you along the right path, allowing the HUD to stay free of any immersion-breaking objective markers. It’s great how James automatically marks his map with any puzzles or locked doors you find, vastly reducing the amount of aimless backtracking that occasionally plagued the original game. Developer Bloober Team has also really emptied its full bag of tricks as far as taking tense situations and bringing them to near-nervous breakdowns. The timer-based light switches in the Toluca Prison, for example, are an extremely effective device for creating panic – the intensifying countdown beeps echoed my own escalating heartrate as I hurried to complete my search of each cell before the whole block was plunged back into darkness. It’s fantastically *****-inducing stuff. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

There’s another Masterwork Research available to Pokémon Go players for a short time. For this research, it’s all about getting the chance to get a Master Ball, a Poké Ball that always catches whatever Pokémon you want to catch with it. You can use this against any notable Legendary Pokémon you encounter while playing the mobile game. Many Pokémon Go players use this when attempting to catch the Legendary Galarian birds or on a Shiny Legendary Pokémon. You want to reserve this for when you don’t have any other choice, especially on rare Pokémon. Here’s what you need to know about how to complete all Masterwork Research: Master Ball tasks and rewards in Pokémon Go. This is a Premium Masterwork, and you need to buy it from the Pokémon Go store. View the full article

“In my restless dreams, I see that town… Silent Hill. You promised you’d take me there again someday,” and Bloober Team has finally done just that, with exceptional quality and faithfulness to the source material. Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 will never replace the original game and the survival horror zeitgeist it was a part of back in 2001, but the developer has ensured that nobody — be it veterans or newcomers — will forget about the eponymous series with its beautiful and ambitious remake of Silent Hill 2 and it’s story anytime soon. Read more View the full article

You never really know whether you’ll get an easy or complicated LoLdle quote, and today’s is undoubtedly tough if you don’t know your darkness-loving League of Legends champions. This quote from the Oct. 4 LoLdle is not easy to answer, but you won’t have to look too far to find the answer. View the full article

Watching superfans build ships may just be one of the best parts of Starfield, especially when those same creators highlight their designs in a flashy demonstration video. When it comes to bringing some of sci-fi's most iconic spaceships to Bethesda's massive RPG, one of the most popular franchises to draw from is Star Trek. The monolithic series has provided fans with decades of iconic vessels, many of which have appeared in licensed video games, but when they're used in Starfield, they just look even more impressive. View the full article

If you’re not familiar with storm drains, then knowing the answer to today’s NYT crossword clue, “Storm drain cover,” may seem impossible. But don’t worry; the answer to this Oct. 4 NYT Mini Crossword puzzle clue is below. ‘Storm drain cover’ Oct.4 NYT Mini Crossword clue hints and answer This clue is one down in today’s crossword. Screenshot by Dot Esports via the NYT Hint 1: It starts with a “G.” Hint 2: It contains two vowels. Hint 3: It ends with an “E.” Hint 4: It rhymes with “state.” The answer to the “Storm drain cover” clue from the Oct. 4 NYT Mini Crossword puzzle is “GRATE.” A grate is a barred frame that covers drains, collects and directs water, and ensures no debris or other large items enter the drain. View the full article

Diablo 4 has revealed new skills and passives coming for all classes in Season 6. The new feature is part of a range of changes that Diablo 4 will make in the next season, such as progression updates, a new Elixir, enemies, and more. View the full article

Two things are certain when it comes to video games. Fans will show up for a high-quality release, and fans will go to the ends of the earth to make their voices heard when they're displeased. Fortunately and unfortunately, Tekken 8 is going through both of those things. View the full article

I have never been more puzzled by a NYT crossword clue than by today’s “Stats or policy nerd” one. Even after solving it, I was stumped and couldn’t help but ask, “Why are they called that of all things?” If you’re struggling to solve this clue from the Oct. 4 NYT Mini Crossword puzzle, you’re not alone, and you’ll find the answer below. View the full article

Level-5's upcoming Professor Layton game feels like it could be a return to the series' hayday, assuming nothing goes wrong View the full article

Lockdown Protocol, a new indie early-access game by Mirage Creative Labs, brings the fun to online group socials with friends, and it could be your next favorite party game. It thrusts players into its cosmic world to use social deduction to figure out who has been ******** players before catastrophe hits. View the full article

Thank your own personal, all-knowing entity—possibly Mira the Dog—it's Friday! I'm going to wrap up our week together with a bunch of cheapies I've seen on "olden year" sports titles, reduced LEGO, and more. In case I don't see you (in some random online lobby) over the weekend, stay safe, save often, and catch you Monday! In retro news, I'm doing a 27-barrel-roll salute for the birthday of Lylat Wars, the first N64 game to rock our world/mitts with a Rumble Pak. My introduction to this 3D rail shooter is seared into my brain. Our eyes met at a demo kiosk in Sydney's domestic terminal as Lionel Richie's Hello played over the PA system. 20 mins later, my parents had to chokehold me off it, lest we miss our flight. There was so much to love when I bought it later, like replay-tastic branching levels (with a True Ending), a stellar Independence Day dogfight, and striving for 150-***** medal quotas. LW also had criminally underloved 4P multi, too. This Day in Gaming Aussie birthdays for notable games and hardware - Lylat Wars (N64) 1997. Get - Onimusha 2 (PS2) 2002. - Silent Hill 2 (XB) 2002. Redux - The Godfather: The Game (X360,PSP) 2006. - Super Smash Bros. (3DS) 2014. Sequel - Party Golf (PS4) 2016. Get Table of ContentsNintendo SwitchPCXboxPlayStationLEGOThe Weekly Top 10Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch Luigi’s Mansion 3 (-17%) - A$69Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 (-51%) - A$39Monster Boy Cursed Kingdom (-75%) - A$14.75Prince of Persia: TLC (-43%) - A$34Super Mario Bros. Wonder (-14%) - A$69Persona 5 Strikers (-62%) - A$38.76 Expiring Recent Deals EA Sports FC 25 ($30 off) - A$59Sonic Origins Plus (-43%) - A$34Blasphemous (-75%) - A$9.37Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (-15%) - A$68Katamari Damacy Reroll (-75%) - A$7.48 Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card. Switch Console Prices How much to Switch it up? [/url] Back to top Purchase Cheap for PC Tomb Raider: Legend - FREE w/PrimeNo Straight Roads - FREE w/PrimeSpirit of the North - FREE w/PrimeNo Man’s Sky (-60%) - A$35.18 [Hidden Content]? Expiring Recent Deals Hogwarts Legacy Del. (-74%) - A$22.94Rogue Prince of Persia (-20%) - A$23.96Meta Quest 3 128GB + Batman (-21%) - A$71940K: Rogue Trader (-40%) - A$41.99Diablo IV (-40%) - A$44.97 Or just get a Steam Wallet Card. PC Hardware Prices Slay your pile of shame. [/url] Back to top Exciting Bargains for Xbox Battlefield V (-68%) - A$19F1 22 (-33%) - A$19.98Star Wars Outlaws (-32%) - A$75NBA 2K23 (-85%) - A$15 Expiring Recent Deals Starfield (-70%) - A$35CoD: MW2 (-58%) - A$46Controller Shock Blue (21-%) - A$74.95SpongeBob: Cosmic Shake (-62%) - A$23CoD: Cold War (-79%) - A$20.51 Or just invest in an Xbox Card. Xbox Console Prices How many bucks for a 'Box? [/url] Back to top Pure Scores for PlayStation ***** Rising Del. Remaster (-14%) - A$69Sonic Origins Plus (-43%) - A$34Astro **** (-19%) - A$89Star Wars Outlaws (-32%) - A$75Jedi: Survivor (-60%) - A$44LEGO Horizon (NEW) - A$109.95 Expiring Recent Deals GTA V (-73%) - A$24Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero (-13%) - A$99The Last of Us Part II Remastered (-14%) - A$69The Crew Motorfest (-69%) - A$34Elden Ring (-31%) - A$59Bloodborne (-50%) - A$12.47 Or purchase a PS Store Card. PlayStation Console Prices What you'll pay to 'Station. [/url] Back to top Legit LEGO Deals Jurassic World: Pteranodon Chase (-48%) - A$17Creator: Main Street (-42%) - A$115Batman & Pod-bike (-34%) - A$79Spidey ‘24 Advent (-35%) A$39.20 Expiring Recent Deals Animal Crossing: Kapp’n’s Island (-52%) - A$19Minecraft: Animal Sanctuary (-41%) - A$17.60Harry Potter: Buckbeak (-34%) - A$59 Back to top The Top 10 Games in Australia (According to IGEA and Game Sales Data.) W/E: Sep 22 FC 2540K Space Marine 2The Crew 2NBA 2K25GTA VAstro ******** of War: Ragnarok***** Rising Del. RemasterFF XVIRainbow Six Siege Back to top Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

The first day of the 2024 League of Legends Championship Swiss Stage was filled with everything from an upset with T1 losing to Top Esports, JackeyLove clutching a Quadrakill as Jhin, Myrwn surviving a 4-vs-1 at level two, and even a dominating Brand jungle. The match schedule for Worlds Swiss Stage day one, which began on Oct. 3, contained eight Best-of-One matches, which meant every team had one chance to give it their all. Because of this, these games were spicy and scrappy, and there were a few incredible and astonishing highlights from today’s matches, including: View the full article

Diablo 4 has revealed all the Spiritborn's Unique items, giving details about the weapons and equipment that players will be able to equip. The Spiritborn is the new Diablo 4 class to be available with the release of Vessel of Hatred, the game's first and anticipated expansion that will take players through the jungle of Nahantu. View the full article

After the fast-travel extravaganza that was Starfield’s base campaign, I very much approve of the way its Shattered Space DLC course-corrects to make the new Va’ruun homeworld location feel much more like Bethesda’s previous open worlds. This planet is host to a substantial chunk of new quest content revolving around a long-winded but not uninteresting story about a futuristic theocracy that dangerously mingles science and religion despite their obvious conflict. That said, this first expansion is not terribly ambitious, either. It doesn’t introduce any significant new features that refresh anything you’ll do once you hop in your ship and leave this planet in a way similar to, say, the Dragonborn expansion did for Skyrim. Not every expansion can be so bold, of course, but those that aren’t miss an opportunity to leave a lasting, revitalizing mark on a replay of a big RPG like this, and limit themselves to a flash in the pan. After dusting off my save, my level 46 Starborn passed through the Unity, grabbed Sarah from the Constellation Lodge, ran through the Mantis mission to score a ship, did a couple of temples, and then dove into the DLC – which turned out to be easy to find because it shows up the next time you go artifact hunting. The ominously spooky space station you begin on makes some good use of zero-G combat by adding glowing blue walls that, if you’re propelled backwards into them by gunfire, both deal damage and disorientingly teleport you, so you’ve got to be aware of what’s behind you when you open *****. That’s where we’re introduced to the Phantom menace: these new enemies aren’t ghosts, but their spooky blue energy field and glowing eyes sure makes them look the part (and easy to spot from a distance) until it dissipates when you ***** them, which is a notably cool effect. They can be both novel and annoying to ******: Not only are they often high level and thus pretty bullet spongey, they can teleport at will to both reposition when you’ve drawn a bead on them and also land right behind you with a big honkin’ ******. Listening for the whoosh sound effect of one popping into and out of existence can be your only warning before your health bar takes a big hit (especially a little later on when you might turn around and see the local equivalent of a Terrormorph tapping on your shoulder). That’s where we’re introduced to the Phantom menace. The floaty part doesn’t overstay its welcome, and when you get your boots back on the ground it’s not long before you’re whisked to the Va’ruun homeworld, which was kept conspicuously mysterious in Starfield’s campaign at launch. I did have to laugh when the notoriously reclusive and xenophobic group immediately invited me to not only walk freely among them, but fully convert to their religion. That’s very much a Bethesda thing, where everybody lets you sign up and no faction affiliations are mutually exclusive, but after playing the main campaign it was a little silly to find them so welcoming, even given the extraordinary circumstances presented. You would not mistake their city, Dazra, for any of the others in Starfield. For one thing, the purple-tinged architecture is completely different and much more alien looking, even though the Va’ruun themselves are still human under all their face ink, and they only talk like they’re vampires on What We Do in the Shadows. (Completing the main quest lets you use their buildings in your own settlements.) Also, half of the city was destroyed in a catastrophic accident that left a weird and twisted crater so massive you can only really get a sense of it by looking at the map (they have maps now!), and the inhabitants are still recovering from what sounds like a Thanos snap-like loss of life. It’s a compelling setting, though I will say that the surviving half of Dazra looks a little too clean and orderly to really sell this as a disaster zone, even though it’s all anybody’s talking about. None of this lore will be on the test, and it’s no match for a good blaster at your side. Getting to know the Va’ruun and the factions within its weird space theocracy obviously means listening to a high dose of religious lore involving a large serpent. It’s all written and delivered up to Bethesda’s standards, but it can be a lot when you’re staying immersed in it for this long. Don’t worry, though – none of this will be on the test, and in the long run it’s no match for a good blaster at your side. What We Said About Starfield It’s never a great sign when someone recommends a game on the grounds that it gets good after more than a dozen hours, but that’s very much the kind of game Starfield is, and I do recommend it. There are a lot of forces working against it, and the combination of disjointed space travel, nonexistent maps, aggravating inventory management, and a slow rollout of essential abilities very nearly did it in. It was the joys piloting a custom spaceship into and out of all sorts of morally ambiguous situations in a rich sci-fi universe that eventually pulled it out of a nosedive. I’m glad that I powered through the early hours, because its interstellar mystery story pays off and, once the ball got rolling, combat on foot and in space gradually became good enough that its momentum carried me into New Game+ after I’d finished the main story after around 60 hours. Like Skryim and Fallout 4 before it, there’s still an immense amount of quality roleplaying quests and interesting NPCs out there, waiting to be stumbled across, and the pull to seek it out is strong. – Dan Stapleton, August 31, 2023 Score: 7 Read the full Starfield review [/url] Your quest to bring the three factions together to solve the ongoing crisis takes place entirely in Dazra’s surrounding region, which is notably different from the other main faction quest cities. Rather than sending you to your ship to zip off to errands on other planets, once you reach the Va’ruun homeworld you’re never required to travel anywhere else – not even flying to another landing zone on the same planet – to complete every single quest you can find there. The only time I left in the 12 hours it took to beat the main story and every major sidequest I came across was when I hopped in my Razorleaf to go shopping in the Settled Systems for healing items, which are hard to come by on this planet without sleeping for days at a time waiting for the local doctor to restock. (Ironically, if you took the Serpent’s Embrace trait that says you grew up practicing the Va’ruun religion, your character will suffer a stat penalty for not doing grav jumps frequently enough.) We see multiple meaningful locations on the same chunk of extraterrestrial real estate. Instead, you either drive the recently patched-in rover car to each quest location around the Dazra or just hoof it the old-fashioned way, which I found refreshing. Most of the main Starfield quests felt detached and disjointed because of all the planet-hopping and fast-traveling to new locations, but here we get a more traditional Bethesda sense of place and continuity. We see multiple meaningful locations existing on the same near-seamless chunk of extraterrestrial real estate instead of one important thing and a bunch of procedurally generated filler. I also like how the crater is filled with gravity distortion bubbles, which I actually wish were used more often to really distinguish this planet from others and let you float to otherwise unreachable areas. On the other hand, this down-to-earth approach makes Shattered Space extremely focused in the way it expands on Starfield, to the point where there is zero use of interstellar travel or space combat. As far as I can tell there’s absolutely nothing added for spacefarers other than now you have a way to legitimately acquire Va’ruun ships instead of stealing them from Zealots who ******* you in space. That’s fine, as an expansion doesn’t always have to meaningfully expand every aspect of a game – but I was surprised that there wasn’t at least a token feature thrown in for space jockeys in an expansion with “space” in the title. There’s nothing wrong with a celebrated band playing the hits. Sure, the majority of these quests feel like Starfield-flavored rewrites of things I’ve done before in Fallout or Elder Scrolls games, but there’s nothing wrong with a celebrated band playing the hits. Track down the fugitive and decide whether to ***** him or help him fake his ******? Check. Root out the traitor diverting emergency supplies to the Zealots and decide whether to turn them in or take a bribe? Check. Rescue the hostages and decide whether to double-cross someone? Check. As far as loot goes, there are a handful of new weapons to get your hands on, and although they’re mostly just the Va’ruun’s take on ******* types we already have, there’s nothing to dislike about more variety, both in their bulky visual design and their splashy energy effects. There are also some craftable grenades you can make out of pieces of defeated Phantoms. Again, though, it’s a little disappointing that they’re unlikely to change much about the way you’ll play when you leave this planet. Since the mainstream Va’ruun themselves turn out to be generally alright folks, just as Andreja promised, you don’t spend much time ********* at them. Instead, there are a fair number of Zealots (including a very beefy new armored melee type) and the occasional generic spacers to ****** in order to mix things up from tangling with Phantoms. I usually play on hard difficulty because normal is a cakewalk, and nearly everything was very manageable in Shattered Space. I say “nearly” because I did end up turning it back down to normal for the final battle – but that was mostly so I didn’t have to buy every health pack in the Settled Systems before attempting it again, because not taking damage in that firefight is quite tricky. Finally, I have to give Shattered Space a little credit for giving me a good reason to return to Starfield and get a feel for how it works with all of the improvements Bethesda’s made in the past year. The maps and the car really do make a substantial difference in inconveniences I had to overcome to enjoy the main campaign, and even though the inventory is still bad and the temples remain maddeningly repetitive (and with a Bethesda game, it should go without saying there are still plenty of bugs, new and old) those improvements have gone a long way toward making this a game I’m glad I took the time to revisit. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

The official system requirements for Sid Meier's Civilization VII have been released. Although the new specs represent a substantial leap from Civilization VI, they remain relatively modest unless you aim to play at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second. Read Entire Article View the full article

The latest Steam beta adds support for recording with the H.265 (HEVC) video codec at up to 4K resolution. Additionally, it now allows you to record gameplay without time restrictions. Read Entire Article View the full article

Alfira quickly sang her way into the collective heart of the Baldur's Gate 3 community so it stands to reason that so many fans would be blown away by this incredible cosplay. Introduced in Act 1, the Tiefling Bard may not be a huge part of the game's sprawling narrative but her impact on Tav and their companions is unique and compelling, making her one of Baldur's Gate 3's most popular temporary companions. Her design is incredibly intricate which makes bringing her to life especially difficult. View the full article

As fans of the Grand Theft Auto series clamor for more information on the upcoming release of GTA 6, some members believe they have spotted a clue that confirms the release date of a second trailer. After a pizza delivery system was added to GTA Online, eagle-eyed fans spotted a strange series of numbers on a license plate found within a short trailer. One fan noticed how the license plate on the delivery bike was registered in October and that the license plate, which spells out the word “Pizza,” ended with the number four instead of the letter “A.” View the full article

The Galarian Expedition event has arrived to Pokémon Go, and you have a chance to participate in this event for a short amount of time. During the event, you can complete the Galarian Expedition Collection Challenge 1, which features notable Pokémon you must find and catch. The Pokémon featured in the Galarian Expedition Collection Challenge have a chance to appear throughout the event. How you find them does vary, though. Some are easier to track down than others, and you’ll want to catch them all to ensure you complete this challenge. The Galar Expedition starts on Oct. 3, and you have until Oct. 11 to complete everything. Here’s what you need to know about all Pokémon and the rewards for completing the Galarian Expedition Collection Challenge 1 in Pokémon Go. View the full article

World of Warcraft: The War Within expansion was amazing on many fronts, but it could have been better if this race took the Earthen's spot as the new Allied Race. This latest expansion was a huge step for the hit MMORPG and the beginning of their World Soul saga. It introduced an exciting new island to explore while bringing along numerous class changes and cool new mounts to The War Within. View the full article

Sid Meier's Civilization 7 has officially unveiled the PC system requirements for the game. Gamers who intend to play Civilization 7 can now determine whether their PCs are up to the task with minimum, recommended, and ultra system requirements. View the full article