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In far future of the 55th octillionth millennium, there’s no new strain of coronavirus. There aren’t even any people, really. There’s only walking. Walking Simulator A Month Club’s first volume is Far Future Tourism. Weird and terrifying alien worlds caught at the end of time, impossibly huge megastructures and decayed ruins long-since removed from any context they may once have held. These are proper vast spaces too, ranging in scope from 5 square kilometres to worlds a little larger than New York City....

Here’s how to get your dynasty off to a good start in Crusader Kings 3. Stick with the tutorial The first step to Crusader Kings 3 success is playing the tutorial. It’s actually really well explained and shows you the basics of building, conquering, and diplomacy. Of course, it isn’t going to teach you everything about this incredibly deep game, but it’s worth doing if you’re new to the series or grand strategy genre....

“The Covid pandemic led Crytek to support its staff to work from home wherever possible. Development on games including the award-winning Hunt: Showdown and the recently announced Crysis 4 stayed on track, keeping pace with Crytek’s pre-pandemic game productions,” said Crytek in the announcement. “After engaging with employees about how they wish to work going forward, Crytek is pleased to confirm that remote work will continue to be an option for current and future colleagues....

GOG have a We Love Games sale hub with a curated selection of discounts, though weirdly quite a few of the games in these collections seem not to have any discount at all? Mysterious. Unless you’re the prepared sort to have a Wishlist to check, the best way to see discounted items is probably to start with browsing GOG’s Discounted category then filtering to taste. The discounts don’t seem particularly remarkable, the usual prices on the usual games, but that’s how it goes these days....

The thought: Cyberpunk 2077 has as much in common with early ’00s Eurojank as it does with the Rockstar games it aspires to. I’m OK with this. If it’s a choice between a less polished Grand Theft Auto or a high budget Boiling Point, I’d choose the latter every time. Eurojank games like Boiling Point, The Precursors, or even arguably the Stalker series, aimed for vast open worlds and absurd systemic complexity....

Get the Dell S2522HG 240Hz gaming monitor for $150 (was $300, 50% off) So who’s this monitor for? With its 24.5-in span and 1080p resolution, this 240Hz model is a great choice for owners of entry-level to mid-range PCs that want a fluid experience in faster-paced games, especially competitive titles like Call of Duty, Counter-Strike and DotA. It’s not limited to FPS and MOBA titles either, as the extra fluidity enhances platformers, racing games and basically any game where timing is key....

The maze-traversing fights will be updated for the game’s full release with new quests, mechanics, enemies, and more, plus an expanded soundtrack. Lo-fi* beats to have your rag-tag army chewed through to. (*As far as I know it’s not actually lo-fi.) PvP servers are also being readied, so you can finally solve that pesky argument with your friend about whose wildly underequipped army of squishy soldiers would come out on top....

Bungie broke the news in an announcement posted earlier today, explaining that “doing what’s best for the game” means postponing the expansion by a couple of months. To their credit, Bungie have been among the more vigilant studios when it comes to Covid preparedness. They were among the earliest to pivot to remote work - and while Google’s streaming service seems to have vanished as far as consumer use goes, Bungie vouched for Stadia’s ability to keep their dev teams running....

Bungie get into more detail about the Exotics on their site. They are: The pulse rifle No Time To Explain returns from Destiny 1 with the same ability to refill ammo on precision hits (plus Stasis-stricken targets this time), and the new ability to… charge up and summon a portal which fires bullets from another timeline? Alrighty then. A bit like a Warlock’s Arc Soul, but attached to a gun?...

Lightfall will kick off the penultimate chapter of Destiny’s “Light and Darkness saga”. Our absolute best mate and favourite game show host, Emperor Calus has turned out to be dead serious about wanting to watch the end of the universe and has become a full-on Disciple of the Witness. So off we go to Neptune to fend off his new forces, pushing back with our new ‘Strand’ subclasses. Seeing that Hunter zoom around an unruined corner of humanity’s grand reach out into the stars, swinging on the grappling hook and swooshing the rope dart, rope dart makes me really want to return to Destiny 2....

Sony announced yesterday that they plan to buy Bungie for $3.6 billion (£2.6b), citing their experience with multiplatform development and live service games as two of the reasons they want ’em. Bungie say they’ll keep full creative control and publishing independence for the Destiny universe, and that it’ll remain a multiplatform game with cross-platform play. But I’m less concerned about what Sony might do in the future than I am what Bungie are doing right now....

“We hope you can join us on August 24 for some exciting news about the future of Destiny,” Bungie say in a news post today. “These are our favorite times, and we look forward to sharing more with you, but for now… no spoilers.” No spoilers indeed, because there’s not much to know about The Witch Queen just yet. Back in February, Bungie announced that they’d be delaying the expansion from this year until early next year....

Runes Explained In Diablo 2, many gear pieces will drop with one or more sockets. You can fill those sockets with Gems, Jewels, and Runes. Each of these socketable items provides different stat bonuses depending on the type of gear they are socketed into. Runes, however, have some additional properties that make them uniquely powerful. Runes in Diablo 2 each have names, like Nef, Tal, or Shael. On their own, Runes provide stat bonuses to gear....

Our Alice Bee played the recent open beta and she too questioned her memory, at first. She said, “even as I was playing I was like, ‘Ehhh, doesn’t look that different. What’s the big deal? Could just play the old one still if y’ask me.’ Time makes fools of us all, and I didn’t remember old Diablo II looking substantially different. Except it is! And Resurrected will remind you of this, because if you tap G it will instantly switch back to the old look....

This isn’t the first we’ve heard of DokeV. Pearl Abyss first announced it back in 2019, along with a handful of MMOs. This is the first proper footage we’ve seen of it though, and what we’re seeing is a lot. So, the beasties in DokeV are called Dokebi, and a press release says they’re based on creatures made from people’s dreams in ancient Korean mythology and folklore. It seems like they might also be based on things from popular monster-collecting RPGs, but hey, I’m down for another Poké-like I can play on PC....

On the subject of simultaneous releases, Hulst said that he “honestly can’t see us doing that with one of the platform-defining experiences that we’re making at PlayStation Studios.” “Typically, there have been about two years between the release on our platform and the PC platform. But you can rely on us to continue to create platform-defining exclusive content for PlayStation – that’s part of the reason why we exist. It’s really important for us to squeeze the maximum out of the platform, to build showcases for the platform, and really let the audience see what these great features are contributing to the overall experience....

Rip and tear, Isabelle. Rip and tear until you’ve paid off your mortgage. Created by modder itsmeveronica, Isabelle is impervious to all damage and will follow you to hell and back. The chirpy dog’s even got a bit of bloodlust herself, and will do a little slaying of her own with confetti bombs, hammers, or a good ol’ shotgun. Not very Nintendo friendly, that. Like Bioshock: Infinite’s Elizabeth, she might even toss health or ammo your way in the middle of a fight....

Hellraid’s armoury has been reworked as part of the update so you can store all weapons and items there. This update sees the arrival of Hellraid’s only firearm, the Deathbringer shotgun, which you can nab by completing the Loaded for the Undead bounty. Thirteen new weapon blueprints are included in the update too. There’s the usual array of bug fixes, which Techland promise to detail in the full patch notes a few days from now....

Though there is no military value in bog roll, Escape From Tarkov thrives on loot. All the gruff men scouring the levels, with their carefully arranged layers from a tactical Urban Outfitters, are basically popping out for something from the shops/corpses. It might play a bit like a survival shooter, and it might also feel like a battle royale game, but “winning” is simply a case of getting out of the vast levels with more stuff than you entered with....