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Years from now, Helldivers 2 will be cited as an example of a live service done right, and much of that is down to the constant stream of updates and additions the community gets to sink their teeth into. One particular recently added mechanic, however, is finding unprecedented support among the player base. The gameplay of Helldivers 2 is in large part shaped by its overarching community metanarrative, which evolves in time with players’ actions. Depending on the goals players pursue and the enemies they dispatch, the game’s story will change, which in turn influences the new elements introduced. It’s a perfect symbiosis between community and developer, and it’s set the stage for a limited-time mechanic that fans are clamoring to keep permanently: the Daily Free Stratagem. View the full article

While most ***** by Daylight players are enjoying the new 2v8 game mode, a red visual glitch has rendered one of the maps unplayable. Survivors and Killers alike can travel to new sections of the Blood Lodge, a map that takes place within the Auto Haven realm. Within the map, a section of the exterior wall can randomly glitch out, replacing the entire area with a large red square. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Ever since the LCS started to see dips in viewership over the years, North ********* League of Legends fans have wondered what could be causing issues for one of the game’s staple regions. A new video by Travis Gafford, for example, has sparked conversation around the current schedule that Riot has applied that is supposedly “crushing” viewership numbers. Over the last month, LCS supporters have complained about the new schedule that the league has adopted, right off the heels of the league’s return to best-of-threes in the regular season. Even though the change was originally applauded, fans quickly realized that there was a massive three-week break in the middle of the season. View the full article

Once Human players are frustrated with the game’s current state, where playing with friends is marred by numerous problems that detract them from enjoying its intended horror post-apocalyptic experience. Taking their case to Reddit, one Once Human player wrote, “Trying to play with friends is a horrible experience,” while sharing their troubles, noting they have made over four servers and started afresh in low-population servers to play with their friends, making it a tiring affair. View the full article

Two of the biggest suppliers of cheating software for Call of Duty have been shut down thanks to Activision. Call of Duty has long suffered from an issue with cheaters, especially at the higher levels, but this move should deliver a hard ***** to their availability. View the full article

Cute animals are a staple in Magic: the Gathering, but through the Standard-legal Bloomburrow set, they’re adorable, collectable, and a blast to play. The last MTG set at Prerelease without a bonus sheet was Murders at Karlov Manor, and I can’t remember the last time there weren’t five or more ****** from The List or Special Guest cards in the Limited format. For the first time in a long time, I enjoyed deckbuilding and gameplay alike at the Bloomburrow Prerelease events. View the full article

The Stunning Beauty is the second Void Intercept Colossus in The First Descendant, with many ferocious attacks that aim to overwhelm and one-shot players. Although she is a Level 22 boss, her ******* roster boasts an array of Electric-based attacks, and she has a variety of deadly summons that make her seem like a much higher-level opponent. View the full article

Mirthwood, a Fable inspired open-world RPG, is coming to Steam on September 11. Mirthwood is being developed by Bad Ridge and distributed on Steam by V Publishing, which is known for an array of titles like Sanctuary Saga and ****** Geyser: Couriers of Darkness. Mirthwood aims to be an "enchanting" take on the life simulation RPG genre, with hand-drawn graphics and plenty of interactive systems that make the world as immersive as possible. View the full article

Editor's Note: Alongside the release of The Sims 4’s Lovestruck Expansion Pack, we are taking a fresh look at the base game in 2024, replacing our original review from 2014. You can read more about our review policies and philosophy here. In 2014, while wearing a cardboard plumbob headband I’d hastily made the night before, I lined up at a local game store to pick up my pre-ordered copy of The Sims 4. With a create-a-sim wardrobe full of Pinterest-friendly fashion items and a host of then-modern appliances, The Sims 4 felt like a cutting-edge sequel at launch, one that reflected those simpler times. But what’s even more impressive is that now, almost a decade of updates later, it’s still the benchmark life simulator, offering a profoundly unique household sandbox that’s yet to find stable competition. Its aging sense of style and sometimes archaic systems do mean The Sims 4 cannot coast on this legacy forever, even with an admirable free-to-play pivot back in 2022. But with a collaborative network of community tools and a world of chaos at your fingertips, The Sims 4 maintains itself as an Imagineer’s dream nonetheless. As Dr. Frankenstein so famously found out, recreating life is full of complications, and The Sims 4 leans heavily into the **** scientist fantasy of it all. It provides you with all the tools you need to build a bespoke world full of customized people who have hopes, dreams, and occasionally questionable haircuts. By distilling the human experience into a pool of malleable metrics, you get the opportunity to play **** with families of those virtual avatars, guiding them as they travel the peaks and valleys of life, from birth to ****** and everything in between. While The Sims 4 certainly could have taken the punishing route of finicky and overcomplicated systems, it instead carefully balances the complexities of human life in a surprisingly approachable manner. Beyond staying on top of their immediate biological needs, like ******* breaks, sleep, and hunger, there are aspirations and fears to contend with, as well as bills to pay, careers to nurture, and social lives to spin. Your omnipotence gives you the unfettered freedom to mess with the citizens of your world, and it’s entertaining to haphazardly graft the frenzied whims of your imagination onto the lives of its inhabitants. Whether you wield this power for cruelty or kindness is entirely up to you, and the fact that most of your larger goals are self-driven (like levelling up your music skill enough to become a rockstar, or finding your Sim a loving soulmate) makes it fun to simply play around however the mood strikes you. You can choose to use a variety of pre-made families or design a custom household using the Create a Sim toolset. As with humans, Sims are a complex combination of physical presence and personality, and I love that this DIY process allows you to make granular choices that will set each one apart from the crowd. Pairing up personality traits is a minigame in itself and allows for a cast of uncanny characters to take shape in front of you. A hot-headed genius might fly into a rage when they don’t find the time to play a game of chess, whereas a career-driven hopeless romantic could run into difficulties when perfecting their work-life balance. This enticing pick-n-mix process extends into a Sim’s likes and dislikes, with the quirks often playing out in strange and comical ways. A budding virtuoso could be made to cringe at the sound of a guitar, and it’s these small but meaningful interactions that add lifelike depth to these avatars. You'll have to buy DLC or rely on mods to find an acceptable fashion sense. Unfortunately, there isn’t equal subtlety when developing your Sim’s physical appearance, especially by the standards of contemporary character creators. There’s a decent pool of predesigned facial features to choose from, with a more curated appearance achievable by pushing and pulling at a handful of anchor points to sculpt your Sim’s anatomical features. It’s certainly no Dragon’s Dogma 2, which admittedly isn’t a huge surprise when The Sims 4 first came out just two years after Dragon’s Dogma 1, but it is noticeable in 2024. Even so, I was happy to see that I could at least create a diverse range of body shapes through its sliders and sculpting capabilities. Once you’re finished molding their form, your Sim will also need a wardrobe for the many situations life throws at them, from working out to bedtime to fancy dinners. Sadly, most of the clothing options and hairstyles in The Sims 4’s base game now feel ripped from a 2010s fashion magazine rather than any modern catalog. While skinny ties, plaid overshirts, and gauche graphic tees were welcome at launch, there hasn’t been a significant update to the default outfits across The Sims 4’s 10-year lifespan. That issue leaves long-term players stuck between spending cash on costly couture-focused DLC packs or relying on fan-made mods to achieve an acceptable fashion sense. That said, there have been some free additions to Create a Sim that are worth celebrating, such as the introduction of medical wearables like hearing aids and glucose monitors, as well as a choice of customisable pronouns and romantic boundaries for your Sims. If you thought people management was The Sims 4’s only draw, think again. As well as a ****, you’ll also become a city planner, able to tinker with the architecture of your community across three separate biomes thanks to a comprehensive construction kit called Build Mode. You’ll balance financial costs, health and safety, and style to realize your grand designs, no matter how absurd they may be. A rooftop ******* might be an eyesore for the neighbors, but if you like your restrooms with a view, The Sims 4 isn’t going to stand in your way. Not only can you flex your creativity one wall, window, and staircase at a time, but you can also fill your creations with esoteric bric-a-brac like encased scrolls or a collection of creepy gnomes. And if your building skills peak out at hastily crafted mountainside Minecraft homes, the approachable toolset and submenu of ready-made rooms allow you to quickly leave your mark without needing a degree in architectural engineering – though having one certainly would help. The approachable building tools mean you don't need an architectural degree. The joy of building isn’t just for personal properties, either, as you’ll also be able to take a stab at commercial real estate. Where cash flow is the antagonizing force when building your Sim’s personal home, public lots instead require minimum furniture and amenities to fulfill their duty. It’s a process that keeps you accountable while gently guiding you away from making useless, lackluster locations. The Sims 4’s sandbox mission statement is always in frame, though, and you can easily ignore the rules and get weird with it anyway. However stifling the Create a Sim can feel at times, it’s made up for by the meticulous tools at your disposal in Build Mode. But just because you can build something silly doesn’t mean your Sims will always be happy about it. For instance, while constructing a cheap family home in the desert locale of Oasis Springs, I cut corners on bedroom furniture to save money – a choice that really didn’t gel with the high-standards that were baked into the personality of one of its occupants. That decision led to a rampage of arguments with relatives thanks to their sour mood, spoiling relationships and threatening the fate of the household. Ultimately, I was sent back to the drawing board to clean up the aesthetics to avoid watching my Sim’s social life fall to pieces over mismatched lamps. This is just one example of how The Sims 4’s systems cleverly intermingle with one another, providing an unpredictable sandbox with so many reactive dynamics that delightfully get in the way of your best-***** plans. The ensuing chaos from such cataclysmic social events also acts as an organic jumping-off point for new stories to grow, leading you down scintillating rabbit holes you may not have been expecting. You have enough control to guide your Sims where you generally want them to go, but you won’t always be able to brute force their lives into perfection, and that mitigates the boredom that can come with getting everything you want all at once. (Although there’s nothing wrong with turning on a few cheats and playing without restriction when the mood strikes you, too.) Perhaps you want to curate drama on a broader scale than just your household? Well, The Sims 4 has an answer for that, too. A relatively recent addition to the base game is Neighbourhood Stories, which allows you to influence the world by adjusting ambient life changes for the Sims across your map without having to directly play as them. Career changes, accidents, and having children are all aspects of real life, and through this process, the families scattered across your game can continue to thrive (or not) without you. While loosening my grip on every individual element of my Sims’ lives was an uncomfortable shift at first (and one you don’t have to make if it doesn’t suit you), it’s great that this tool allows Sims to flourish around your primary households in a more organic way. If learning the ropes via happy little accidents doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, another pair of useful post-launch additions are the tips system and scripted scenarios, which can both help smooth over The Sims 4’s sharp edges where necessary. Not only a boon for newer players, these enlightening systems do well to get veteran players like me up to date with the many small-but-impactful changes that have arrived in free updates and paid DLC over the years. There’s a smart balance here that maintains a universal approachability by holding your hand when you want it to and letting go when you’re ready to take a risk. Speaking of DLC, 10 years of developer support has left The Sims 4 with a copious amount of themed expansions, with options based around things like seasons, university, magic, and, most recently, dating. This is par for the course for this series, and the quality of these packs is generally top notch – but even with the base game becoming free-to-play, it’s a shame that some paid add-ons now feel like essential parts of the Sims experience. Adding pets to your household or having a more active role in your career come across as fundamental features that should be available to everyone. I get that this has become the business model, but it’s especially frustrating to see intrinsic human experiences like holiday festivities or the ability to create cliques locked behind a paywall. One of The Sims 4’s most prominent assets is its strong community. To that end, I would be remiss not to mention one of The Sims 4’s most prominent assets: its strong community of players. There is a library’s worth of user-generated lots and characters to take inspiration from or graft into your game, often only a Google search away. Years of community ingenuity have also spawned a manufactured ‘hard mode’ that presents you with hyper-specific tasks to complete if you’re searching for more complex scenarios. These Nuzlocke-esque challenges cater to all kinds of players and can involve anything from building a home with minimal square footage to, my personal favorite, attempting to make your Sim have one hundred ******* in their lifetime. Another consistent companion across The Sims 4 is its dazzling soundtrack and expressive sound effects, something the series has long been lauded for. Relentlessly optimistic and impressively orchestral, the score’s blend of string, woodwind, and percussive instrumentals offer a comforting backdrop to the building menus and loading screens you’ll spend hours staring at. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

After a long week, the weekend is finally here, and we're rounding up some of the best deals you can find. This weekend, you can expect to save on new video games, accessories, and monitors. The best deals for Saturday, July 27, include the Kingdom Hearts All-in-One package, Final Fantasy XVI, the Sony 27" INZONE M9 Monitor, and more. Kingdom Hearts All-in-One Package for $39.13 If you're itching to start a new series, Kingdom Hearts is one of the best out there to jump into. From Tetsuya Nomura, Kingdom Hearts mashes together the worlds of Disney and Square Enix to tell the tale of light and darkness. This All-in-One package contains a total of ten games, with everything up to Kingdom Hearts III included. Now is the perfect time to get caught up before Kingdom Hearts IV, so pick up the All-in-One bundle today and jump into Sora's journey. **** of War Ragnarok for $37.99 Years later, **** of War Ragnarok is still one of the best PS5 games you can pick up. This action game acts as the sequel to 2018's **** of War, following Kratos and Atreus as Fimbulwinter looms. If you've yet to play this game, this is a great time to pick up Ragnarok at a discount and see why so many players love this series. $37.99 is a fantastic price, and you're not likely to see anything lower outside of major holiday sales toward the end of the year. Final Fantasy XVI for $29.99 Final Fantasy XVI for PlayStation 5 has hit a new all time low at Amazon at $29.99. As one of the biggest titles of 2023, FFXVI brings a wide variety of new systems and elements to the world of Final Fantasy. You play as Clive Rosfield on a mission to track down the one who ******* your brother as a child. You can expect larger-than-life setpieces, mesmerizing boss battles, and a memorable soundtrack from Masayoshi Soken. 27% Off Sony 27” INZONE M9 4K HDR 144Hz HDMI 2.1 Gaming Monitor The Sony INZONE line of monitors is a fantastic choice for anyone looking to upgrade their display arrangement. This M9 model features a 4K HDR display with a refresh rate of 144Hz. With HDMI 2.1, the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S can take advantage of higher frame rates. Backlighting is a major focus as well, with 96 local dimming zones to ensure no detail goes unnoticed. This is the lowest price the M9 has been at, so now is as good of a time as ever to pick up a new monitor. PowerA Kirby Controller for $39.99 You can always use an extra controller, and this PowerA Kirby controller is perfect for Nintendo Switch! One of the best features of this PowerA controller is the addition of two mappable buttons on the map, which can come in handy in fighting games or any other title. Additionally, two AA batteries will power this device for over 30 hours, so you won't need to charge it. Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition on ***** for $37.99 Amazon has Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition listed for $37.99, which is one of the lowest prices we've seen. This is an amazing deal since you're essentially getting both Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Spider-Man Remastered for under $20 each. Both rarely go on ***** for that low, so this is your best option to pick up these games. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for $54.99 For the second time this year, you can pick up Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on *****. This sequel to 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake brings Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Red XIII outside of Midgar for the very first time, with Sephiroth looming and moving in on his goals. This experience offers well over 100 hours of content, with 36 sidequests and a main story over 40 hours long. If you haven't played Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, now is the time to score one of the best 2024 titles out there at a discount. One Piece Odyssey for $19.99 This deal on One Piece Odyssey is fresh, being the lowest we've seen this RPG yet. Offering turn-based combat, One Piece Odyssey looks to create a fun experience with an original story featuring the beloved Straw Hat Pirates. If you've already played Pirate Warriors 4 and are itching for a return to the world of One Piece, now is the time to do so with Odyssey priced at just $19.99! View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Indie developer Four Leaf Studios has announced acclaimed visual novel Katawa Shoujo will be re-released on modern platforms. Katawa Shoujo is coming to modern Windows platforms via Steam and *****.io on August 15th, the developer announced. The Steam version is an all-ages release but ****** content can be installed with an R18 patch, via its *****.io page. […] Source View the full article

Skill-based matchmaking has long been the bogeyman in the eyes of many Call of Duty fans, but a recent paper released by Activision revealed that they secretly ran an experiment on a portion of the player base and found that its absence made the experience worse for almost everyone involved. Players of all stripes have long been unwitting guinea pigs of many changes when it comes to live-service games, but this is one of those rare cases when an actual experiment has been conducted by the publishers and a proper summation was released for everyone to check out, and the outcomes of Activision’s science session have been quite interesting indeed. View the full article

Gold is an integral, in-game currency in The First Descendant, used to purchase various in-game items and gear, among other important components. While there are many ways to acquire Gold, such as selling unwanted items or finding the odd ****** drop, farming for it is the best way to obtain it. View the full article

This year has been an absolute drought in terms of new games and exciting IPs outside a few rare titles like the recent Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. And while one could argue that certain, lesser-talked-about games like Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, Dungeons Of Hinterberg, or even the First Descendant are worth celebrating (and they are), they just don't have that kick or general consensus appeal that games released in the prior few years have had. We're already in July, and from the looks of things, it doesn't look like it's going to get any better. View the full article

One of the biggest issues that has plagued League of Legends in the past has been the use of smurf accounts—people playing in a lower rank than their real skill. Now, Riot Games is taking steps to combat this rampant problem with a new change in Patch 14.15. From League Patch 14.15 onward, players will not only have to reach level 30 but must also complete 10 non-ranked Summoner’s Rift matches to unlock ranked queues. In this way, Riot’s system will be able to judge which accounts are being used by actual new players, used by smurfs, or being botted. View the full article

mazon Prime has released a first teaser trailer for its upcoming Like a Dragon: Yakuza adaptation. It's a short teaser, but definitely feels more gritty and serious than the games' sometimes goofy, always surreal brand of melodrama... Read more.View the full article

******** Spy developer Wazen has announced MIGHTREYA, a new anime-inspired action game and their next game release. MIGHTREYA is in development for Windows PC (via Steam), though a release date wasn’t announced. Here’s a rundown on the game, plus its reveal trailer: Join schoolgirl superhero Reya and her manager Nio as they embark on their […] Source View the full article

Eight years after Stardew Valley first released, fans are still making new discoveries in the game, including a 5-year-old who found out that eggs can be fired from the slingshot. Stardew Valley boasts a massive community that frequently shares little-known tips and tricks, and the fandom has been baffled that this latest detail was only just discovered. View the full article

As PCGamesN's resident Metroidvania lover, there are a few entries that I find myself always coming back to. The roguelike leanings of ***** Cells make it easy to pick up and play after months away, the neon-soaked atmosphere of Animal Well is one I could live in forever, and Hollow Knight's superb design just makes it a joy no matter how familiar I am with the underground halls. There's always another Metroidvania to play though, so if you've been keeping an eye out for your next adventure look no further. Fist: Forged in Shadow Torch is currently free to keep forever, and it's an incredible genre entry that you probably missed. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Metroidvania FIST: Forged In Shadow Torch is suddenly on Steam, with ray tracing and DLSS View the full article

Co-op shooter ****** Boss: Rockay City asks the bold question: What if the straight-to-streaming movies your parents watch got adapted into a video game? Featuring a surprisingly star-studded cast, ****** Boss: Rockay City is a boomer-coded version of Payday where players are put in the shoes of ****** boss Travis Baker (played by Michael Madsen) […] Source View the full article

The VALORANT Champions Tour is coming soon, and a long offseason is creeping up right after it. The lack of events announced for the ******* has led pro players to share their frustrations on social media. This prolonged downtime has left many professional players grappling with a sense of drift, like how former T1 player Daniel ‘Rossy’ Abedrabbo expressed on X (formerly Twitter), stating, “I’ve never felt like I’ve had less purpose in my life. Truly this schedule makes me depressed and I wouldn’t doubt other players as well feel similar.” 100 Thieves’ pro-player Sean ‘bang’ Bezerra echoed this sentiment, replying, “Feel this, wish I can time skip into 2025.” View the full article

The Tamer Machine **** is one of the many weapons you can get in The First Descendant to help create a strong build for whichever character you're playing. Combining specific traits of Descendant characters with powerful weapons is at the core of this game's design. Those looking for a **** with great stats and a rapid rate of ***** should consider searching for the Tamer during their adventures. View the full article

Publisher 663 Games and developer Shadowlight Sanctuary have announced ***** the Shadow, a stylish new detective adventure game. ***** the Shadow will bring its stylish mix of 2D and 3D pixel environments later this year, for Windows PC (via Steam). Here’s a rundown on the game, plus its reveal trailer: “***** the Shadow” is a suspenseful […] Source View the full article

Supporting days two and three of the Greek Treasures Dig Hunt event in Monopoly GO is the Javelin Jolt Leaderboard event, featuring 35 milestones of rewards. The Javelin Jolt Tournament Leaderboard is different from the standard 24-hour Monopoly GO event in that you earn double points when competing in the Bank Heist mini-game. And the timing of the Leaderboard event is great for maximizing milestone points earned, with the Prize Relay Solo event wanting players to land on a Railroad tile too. Here’s a full list of all Javelin Jolt rewards and explainers on how the milestone points work for the Monopoly GO event. View the full article

Ajax is one of the most capable defense characters in The First Descendant, and his ultimate form is even more capable as he exerts more damage and has more defensive capabilities. Here’s how to unlock Ultimate Ajax in The First Descendant. View the full article