Steam

Today’s NYT mini crossword puzzle was baffling, with the major clue that has many players stumped—and probably why you’re here—to do with a “Blue Ribbon brewery.” This clue is from the July 19 NYT mini crossword puzzle, and despite my initial thoughts, it doesn’t actually refer to the Blue Ribbon ice cream brand. Even if you’re familiar with beers, this one is hard to solve. Here’s all the clues you’ll need. View the full article

In the eerie world of Don’t Starve Together, where survival hangs by a thread, there’s nothing quite as comforting as a bubbling Crock ****. This basic kitchen device is a lifesaver, turning simple ingredients like roots, berries, and mystery meats into meals that can make or break your chances of enduring another day. The benefits of cooked dishes over raw ingredients include better health, sanity, and hunger restoration, as well as special effects like healing or temperature control. View the full article

After multiple successful playtests and becoming the Most Played Game at February’s Steam Next Fest, extraction RPG Dungeonborne is out now for Early Access on PC, available to all players looking for a punishing but rewarding RPG. Dungeonborne is a first-person dungeon crawler in which players band together with up to two friends or play solo to seek treasure and glory among the ruins of a gritty, gothic setting that is overrun by monsters and other adventurers. Blending extraction gameplay with iconic fantasy class design, Dungeonborne offers strategic gameplay full of powerful loot and high stakes combat as you rush to extract before a blade finds your back. Eight Playable Classes, Eight Distinct Ways to Play Dungeonborne draws on traditional RPG classes, giving you a chance to embrace your role as a Fighter, Priest, Rogue, Druid, or Pyromancer while also offering more unique choices like Swordmaster, Cryomancer, or ****** Knight. Thanks to the first-person point of view, combat feels visceral and every spell or ******* swing has weight behind it. Each of Dungeonborne’s classes brings something unique to the table, too — while ****** Knights are masters of manipulation, capable of pulling enemies toward them and draining their life force, Druids can ******* from any range and shapeshift into animal form to rip and tear. Caster classes dispense destruction from afar. You can wield ***** as the Pyromancer and scorch and ***** all who oppose you, or encase your foes in ice and slow their advance as the Cryomancer. For players looking to take on more of a support role, the Priest will fit like a glove ⁠– heal your teammates and support them from afar, bolstering their defence and keeping them alive. Protect your allies from the frontline as a Fighter, capable of holding the line against your foes while your allied Rogue sneaks behind ****** lines to unleash devastating critical strikes. Defend as a Swordmaster and keep your enemies’ attention on you as you conjure powerful psionic blades capable of sowing quick ****** among the unsuspecting. With over 10 unique ******* pairings, every duel in Dungeonborne becomes a dance of ****** that brings a fluid, back-and-forth action combat experience. Parries, blocks, and ripostes dictate the flow of battle, and it’s split-second, in-the-moment decision making that determines the winner. Strategize, Prepare, and ******** — You’ll Have to ****** Tooth and Nail to Claim What Is Yours While simply jumping in and swinging your ******* around might work at first, you will quickly realise that spamming light attacks and pressing the loot button won’t be enough. Dungeonborne rewards and encourages tactical planning and strategy — terrain, trap locations, ****** positions, and time are all factors that you need to take into account if you wish to triumph over the opposing team that’s looking to claim your treasure as their own. Utilise terrain verticality to set up an ambush or lure enemies into the traps you find for easy ******. As you slay your opponents and plunder their riches, you will find equipment with over 80 item affixes that synergize with your playstyle or completely change the way you play. If you don’t need an item or simply have a better one, you can put it up for ***** at the in-game auction house, then hunt for dozens of legendary and unique items designed to help you sculpt the ultimate build. In Dungeonborne, the thrill of finding rare loot is accessible to all, not just the most dedicated players. You Can Play Dungeonborne Right Now, and Devs are Listening to Your Feedback Throughout Dungeonborne’s journey, Mithril Interactive has been working to address player feedback and tweak gameplay so that it feels rewarding, satisfying and fair. Based on community feedback, the team has implemented a range of balancing and quality-of-life updates, and introduced new server regions. Mithril is also planning to introduce new active and passive skills for each individual class to expand gameplay options. Dungeonborne is now available to download for free in Early Access on Steam. A ‘Mithril Edition’ DLC upgrade is available for players who want to support the game and development team for 9.99USD/7.99GBP (subject to regional pricing) that will grant players two cosmetic items to carry on their adventures as well as Bandages, Healing Potions and Throwable Flasks. If you’re keen on joining the community and finding like-minded players to group up with, you can check out the game’s official Discord channel, and follow their X (Twitter) page for new updates as the team continues developing the game during Early Access. View the full article

VCT star TenZ was seen using windowed mode during the playoffs elimination match between Sentinels and 100 Thieves, and while it sounds odd, it might be a good setting for other VALORANT players to start testing. The VCT Americas playoffs began yesterday with two important elimination matches, including one between Sentinels and 100 Thieves. In addition to witnessing an intense series, VALORANT fans couldn’t help but notice something interesting on TenZ’s screen—the Sentinels star was actually playing in windowed mode rather than fullscreen. View the full article

Accessory maker JSAUX has released some of the highest-rated Steam Deck docks since the device's launch. The company's new HB609 revision adds a faster HDMI connection, a vertical orientation, and support for the Lenovo Legion Go at a reasonable price. Read Entire Article View the full article

The Mother of Magic is a prominent figure in Baldur's Gate 3, despite never appearing in some players' playthroughs. As the goddess of magic, Mystra is a powerful deity who controls the Weave, the raw material for all magic. Gale was once a lover and chosen of Mystra, who taught Gale how to further manipulate the Weave before he sought to claim a piece of it for himself to hold the goddess's affections. View the full article

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Fixed the Distress Signal and Carioca's Call Unusual effects sometimes causing the game to ****** Moved ctf_haarp out of the CTF matchmaking category and into *******/Defend Updated the Treasure Trove Unusual taunt effectRenamed to Bountiful Riches to fix a naming conflict Updated the materials to fix a problem with the coinsUpdated pd_atom_smashFixed missing UI elements for the capture zone Increased rarity of The Scientist's idle chatter between capture zone availabilityUpdated koth_megatonFixed a missing material on the sandbags Fixed clipping on an open crateView the full article

A Teamfight Tactics content creator discovered the best Set 12 board on July 18 for the new high-stakes Trait Tracker Augment in Magic n’ Mayhem. Riot Games is experimenting again through TFT Set 12, removing Econ traits in exchange for high-risk Augments like Trait Tracker. Instead of gold though, the payout is craftable Emblems: Five of them to be exact. The high-risk part is taking the Trait Tracker Augment leaves your board weak until you’re able to active seven traits. Early testing had players needing to reach Level Eight to activate Trait Tracker, until TFT creators Katzie and AlliGabler solved the puzzle, coming up with two unique builds plus flex options. View the full article

Once Human’s first major update has effectively broken the game, with it now impossible to catch Deviants or use the menu and hotbar. Screens also appear ******, facilities are missing, and products in the shop pop up without images. The July 18 update for Once Human was supposed to add a new event, the Rosetta truck PvP sproutlet event, as well as fix several bugs and add more optimization. Instead, the devs appear to have struck a critical issue with the install, busting basically everything to do with the post-apocalyptic game—and now they’re rushing to restore order. View the full article

Microsoft’s practices regarding Xbox Game Pass have been fairly controversial, and it potentially just got much worse as the Federal Trade Commission gets involved. Earlier this month, Microsoft announced price increases and a host of other changes to their premiere subscription service for console and PC. In addition to the price increases, a new tier will be introduced that doesn’t include day-one releases. The announcement didn’t go over well with consumers, prompting them to turn to resellers to get Game Pass codes. Now, the Federal Trade Commission is getting involved, today writing a letter to the ******* States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to argue against the company. View the full article

With College Football 25 finally pushing everyone out of the locker room and onto gridiron, players are finally getting a chance to build their own teams from scratch in the new online Team Builder on EA Sports’ official website. Whether you’re a budding college sports fan or an expert armchair GM that wants to create their own legendary program, the Team Builder will allow anyone to create a school from the ground up, with control over the team name, uniforms, and many other aspects to really make you feel like an architect. If you’re trying to build your own squad, here’s how the Team Builder in College Football 25 works. View the full article

The Buzzy Bee is one of the first territory Deviations you can find and catch in Once Human. Its purpose is to help increase the mutation chance of your crops, making it a valuable farming buddy for your base. Here’s how to wrangle and use Buzzy Bees in Once Human. View the full article

Shortly after blasting Intel for the high ******** rate of the company's recent CPUs, Alderon Games claims laptops running on Raptor Lake chips are no exception. The revelation suggests that the problem is far more widespread than previously known. Read Entire Article View the full article

A dedicated Elden Ring player shared their discovery that could help save fellow Tarnished plenty of time and crafting resources. When it comes to using consumables in a FromSoftware RPG, it always feels like a risky decision given the scarcity of some of the more powerful items but Elden Ring fortunately has a relatively robust crafting system to alleviate some of this frustration. This feature has served players who prefer to blanket an ****** with debuffs well but as it turns out, the mechanic for crafting pots is much more generous than many initially believed. View the full article

In a fairly unsurprising development, Paramount Plus has canceled its grand Halo adaptation after just two seasons and while most simply won’t be shocked, it’s still a punch in the gut for every franchise fan. The pain here is twofold. For those who were actually, genuinely enjoying this shonky Halo series (and I won’t blame you for that, really) the problem is clear: There’s no more story coming from a story you liked, which is an endemic in the streaming industry that only continues to get worse. View the full article

Many Lumitoile items can be found in various locations in Genshin Impact as you explore farming routes for different Ascension materials. Used to upgrade characters; Lumitoile is a local specialty that respawns in the same area every 48 hours. Since these items can't be bought at shops, you'll want to know a direct path for collecting them every time they reappear on your map. View the full article

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has blasted Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass price increases in a filing to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Microsoft revealed last week that it’s increasing PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate prices, and planning to launch a new Game Pass Standard tier soon without day one access to first-party Xbox games. The FTC calls this new Game Pass Standard tier a “degraded product,” because new Game Pass users won’t be able to sign up to the $10.99 Game Pass for Console, which includes day one game access. Instead, Xbox Game Pass Standard will be priced at $14.99 and won’t include day one games, but will include online multiplayer. “Microsoft’s price increases and product degradation — combined... Continue reading… View the full article

If you’re always moving to the beat of your own music, then Seraphine is the perfect character to play in Swarm, League of Legends’ latest limited-time mode. Seraphine is a famous musician and member of Anima Squad, an organization that fights against dangerous Primordian monsters. While there are many ways to battle these pesky invaders, Seraphine uses her abilities to damage foes from a distance, all while protecting her allies. View the full article

Xbox gamers appear to be having issues logging into their Xbox Live accounts as of 6:57 pm EST. Unfortunately, gamers have been running into some problems with Xbox Live services lately, and the community has become frustrated. View the full article

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has called Microsoft’s recently announced Game Pass price rises “exactly the sort of consumer harm” it tried to stop by fighting the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Following a court victory for Microsoft last year, which the FTC is currently appealing, the corporation completed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October 2023. The agency is continuing to submit evidence while its appeal is considered, and in a new filing on Thursday, it highlighted Microsoft’s new Game Pass tiers, which include a price increase for Ultimate and a new Standard tier that doesn’t include day one releases. Read More... View the full article

Paramount+ has cancelled its Halo live-action series after two seasons. The decision comes after Season 2 of the show premiered in February. According to Deadline, Amblin Television, Xbox, and 343 Industries hope to find a new partner to continue the series. A spokesperson for Paramount+ said in a statement: “We are extremely proud of this ambitious series and would like to thank our partners at Xbox, 343 Industries and Amblin Television, along with showrunner and executive producer David Wiener, his fellow executive producers, the entire cast led by Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief and the amazing crew for all their outstanding work. We wish everyone the best going forward.” Read More... View the full article

Image: The Verge If you’re trying to play online games on your Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, or even Xbox 360 right now, you might be running into some issues, as Xbox confirmed there was a “major” Xbox Live outage on its status page as of 6:57PM ET. “You may not be able to sign-in to your Xbox profile, may be disconnected while signed in, or have other related problems,” according to a status message. “Features that require sign-in like most games, apps and social activity won’t be available.” For players who could sign into their accounts on consoles, online-connected games couldn’t connect and showed their own Xbox sign-in errors, while other people reported issues with features like remote play. “We are aware that users may be unable to sign in at the... Continue reading… View the full article

A World of Warcraft fan just discovered that the icon for Khaz Algar changes when mousing over it on the world map in The War Within. This neat new feature helps to highlight the vast underground zones of the expansion and is not found in any other region on the World of Warcraft map. View the full article

Starfield players may adore the games' companions but with this fantastic mod, they can become actual assets rather than simply following explorers around the galaxy and ******* at anything that looks vaguely threatening. As enjoyable as the game's companions are when it comes to chatting about the cosmos and their own personal aspirations, it's widely accepted that the AI governing their actions leaves a lot to be desired. Whether they're running into a wall or refusing to duck for cover during a firefight, they'd be a lot more effective if they just followed orders. View the full article

The 2024 Steam Summer ***** is over, and that clears the way for the next big seasonal event in Steam's lineup: The Team Fortress 2 2024 summer update... Read more.View the full article