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So why do we recommend these drives, and these deals? Well, the Crucial X6 is a small, rugged and super-fast portable SSD that offers transfer speeds up to 540MB/s - putting it in direct contention with SATA-based SSDs that are limited to around 550MB/s. As a USB-connected drive, latency is a bit higher, but transfer speeds remain excellent. I use a drive like this to move downloaded videos from my PC to the TV downstairs, playing them in full quality rather than relying on dodgy streaming....

In a forum post yesterday, Creative Assembly said they’ve been listening to players, and “your feedback has not only helped us understand the areas where your expectations of the current release have fallen short, but have helped drive the direction of where we go from here.” They say they’ve been glad to see players figure out workarounds and fixes for some problems for some people, but blanket fixes for stability and performance problems are harder....

The investigation now has a pretty clear timetable laid out for the next few months, which you can read here. The CMA decided in September that Microsoft’s proposed buyout would need further investigation. This was due to concerns the competition authority had over the potential for Microsoft’s control of popular game series such as Call Of Duty and World Of Warcraft to “harm rivals, including recent and future rivals in multi-game subscription services and cloud gaming”....

Unknown 9’s teaser was revealed at Gamescom Opening Night Live, a livestream to mark the first night of Gamescom (and, by dint of being hosted by Geoff Keighley, inextricable in my mind from the never ending Geoff Keighley summer of games). Give it a watch to see Hoona avoid an attack in the street by using a cool time-stop power. An interesting thing to note about Unknown 9 is that a whole slew of adjacent media in what the official site calls a “Storyworld” already exists....

I hadn’t heard of Unspottable before, but after watching VidBud Matthew and Hardware Queen Katharine play together, I am both impressed and intrigued. It’s a multiplayer versus game where you have to blend in with a group of identical NPC robots (or robits, as is more correct), whilst also trying to spot which robits are your fellow players. Once you think you have spotted an interloper, you must deal with them in the traditional manner of dealing with interlopers: that is to say, you punch them a good’un....

Currently, Valheim’s dinners bring a combined boost to your hit points, your stamina, and your healing rate. The new system splits things up a little, and will let you craft foods that heavily favour health or stamina, while still providing a small buff to the other category. A final food option will provide a balanced boost to both. They’re claiming this will give players targetted options when dealing with tasks....

How to set up your Valorant crosshair You can customise your Valorant crosshair at any time in-game, even during a match. All you need to do is hit ESC and click Settings, then navigate to the Crosshair tab at the top of the screen. Here you’ll be presented with a visual indicator of your crosshair (in front of a background, so you can see how it shows up against various colors and textures), and below you’ll find plenty of settings that will allow you to customise every facet of your crosshair....

In an attempt to reassure fans, Riot are awarding up to £80,000 to anyone who manages to use Valorant’s anti-cheat for ill-will. Over the last week or so, Valorant’s new “Vanguard” anti-cheat system has come under fire for its alleged invasiveness. I’m not much of a tech buff, but from what I understand, one of Vanguard’s component is a kernel-level (or Ring 0) driver that runs at start-up, with full administrator privileges....

As of yesterday’s update, the Operator’s price has increased from 4500 to 5000. Its firing rate has been reduced, and its equip time has been increased so it’ll take longer to whip it out after defusing a bomb or interacting with something, for example. And there’s more. It becomes inaccurate sooner when starting moving, and more accurate later after stopping. Finally, its scoped movement speed has been reduced too. Phew, it really has taken a punch to the barrel hasn’t it....

I played Breeze during a preview event and found it refreshing to finally have a Valorant map with some colour. I also very much enjoyed the random trap door down one of Breeze’s corridors. I don’t fully understand its purpose yet, but it’s fun, and that’s what really matters. For the next two weeks, you’ll be able to play in a Breeze-only unrated mode to try out the map before it shuffles into rotation with all the others....

Powered by a new version of the Steam operating system, Valve promises that playing games on the Deck will be as easy as hitting the power button and signing into your Steam account. There’s a full suite of controls, including dual analog sticks, face buttons, a D-Pad, and two thumb pads to simulate a mouse cursor. It even has gyro controls and a quick resume feature that will let suspend your game when you hit the power button, and wake exactly where you left off when you press it again....

The subpoena is part of Apple’s pending legal conflict with Epic Games, in which Epic are alleging that Apple’s app store, and the mandatory 30% cut they take from everything sold there, is anti-competition. Apple want data from Valve’s Steam digital distribution platform in order to help demonstrate the size of the market available for games like Fortnite, presumably to argue that Apple have no monopoly. Specifically, Apple want information on 436 games available on the Steam store, including sales data, as a representative sample of the entire platform....

I’m going to be frank with you: I have no idea what’s happening with the story. I think it’s about a war between humans and robots, where you’re a member of a police force trying to uncover some corporate conspiracy. It doesn’t seem to tell a story, though? Like, all the cutscenes are largely just hot air or confusing time-skips. And sandwiched between each mission you’re forced to hang out with three dudes, two of which make my brain leak, and one who kicks the leakage about, creating a mushy streak on the floor....

My eyes are open now, though. Verdansk is vast, and should be appreciated. I’ve been running around for about a dozen hours, and there are still plenty of places I haven’t seen. The big dam to the north. The hills of Novi Grazna, to the south. I still haven’t managed to make it inside the prison, though me and my war buddies did once spend about ten minutes laying siege to it....

The Ian Games Network have given an outline of what to expect. They’ll have the announcement of a new game from Funcom and The Outsiders, the folks behind the now-cancelled Darkborn. Merge Games, who published the physical releases of Streets Of Rage 4 and Dead Cells, have a “classic revival” to announce. Some Chivalry 2 news is coming, which I’d assume is a release date for the first-person stabber. Then a load of trailers, gameplay videos, and other bits....

Spoilers: it did not. In its favour, Wattam definitely has that Takahashi weirdness. It’s there in the childlike squeals and giggles, erupting from the sentient shapes, toys and assorted grocery items which gradually come to populate Mayor’s strange, empty world. It’s there in Mayor’s signature party trick, where, with a lift of his black top hat, he sends himself - and anyone in his vicinity - shooting up into the air in a big, laugh-fuelled explosion....

“One” is their name, and they lead the story mode, in which you’re a functionally immortal human carrying out One’s purposes. That’s more of a framing device than a straightjacket, since you’re free to do what you want. Die, and you’ll reappear at your homebase as a fresh clone with your memories intact. You can’t oppose One, but there’s no reason to anyway. Other than that you have a free hand, and working with them means getting more ships, equipment, and resources....

Ding! What’s a level-up if no one celebrates your effort with fanfare? Some bigger numbers? More tools to better handle future difficulties? Ugh, no thank you. Give me that ding! It doesn’t have to be a dinging bell, of course. A little orchestral flourish. A dramatic drumroll crashing into a cymbal. Some grand surging of energy. A cool electronic noise which sounds like a hacker jacking into an anti-piracy public service announcement....

With that in mind, if you get one, what do you plan to do with it? Will it be an extension of your desktop gaming, taking your progress with you? Do you hope you’ll work out how to appreciate different types of game on the device? Can you imagine using the dock and accessing the underlying OS? Tell us below. I asked myself this the other day. I was explaining the concept of the device to my partner, and until that moment I hadn’t really thought about what I could do with it, other than pick it up and marvel at it....

So, the offerings are a Master Chief Mjolnir helmet made from a single piece of crystal, and a pointy Covenant Energy Sword cut from 13 pieces of crystal. Only 117 sets have been made, in reference to Master Chef’s Spartan number. There is some weird gamer merch out there, but these have got to be one of the more baffling items I’ve seen. I’m sure there are a handful of people who have interests in both Halo and Swarovski crystals, but it’s such an odd matchup....