Shadow of War’s captain Baranor stands out by fitting in

Warad, a child from the southern lands of Middle-Earth, is taken from his family and sent north as a hostage of peace. Adopted by one of the principal families of the country, he takes on a new name — Baranor — and rises through the ranks of the Gondorian army to become second-in-command of one of its principal fortresses. One of the few men capable of keeping the forces of darkness at bay. With that background, you’d be forgiven for believing that Baranor is the main character of Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. He isn’t, initially. He’s a prominent NPC in the campaign (even fighting alongside you in some missions), a player skin, and finally, in DLC campaign Desolation of Mordor, he’s the starring character.

This growth is impressive, not just because he’s a cool character, but because Baranor is a playable black man. Someone who, in many other fantasy games, wouldn’t exist. (more…)

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SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics gets a VR overhaul

It’s not often worth talking about old console emulation packages here, but Sega have pulled out all the stops with this one. Once just a loose collection of old ROMs wrapped in a crunchy emulator shell, the Mega Drive & Genesis Classics collection is now a high-budget VR-era production, all thanks to a free update. It now boasts online multiplayer, leaderboards, challenge modes, new graphics options and – most impressively – full VR support, allowing you to play around with virtual cartridges in a digitally recreated messy ’90s bedroom.

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Rumour: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey revealed by promo tat

As E3 approaches, rumours and teasers are flying off all over. Here’s a new rumour for you: Ubisoft are following up on the Egyptian Assassin’s Creed Origins with a visit to ancient Greece in a game named Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. That’s the buzz from French site JeuxVideo-Live, who have a photo they say is a keyring promoting the game from a source they trust. The supposed promo tat is in the shape of a Spartan helmet, like that movie with the radge from Paisley in the leather pants, so: rumour is, the stabmen are off to Greece. Ubisoft, of course, have announced no such game. (more…)

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Bus Simulator 18’s co-op multiplayer sounds delightful

As much as I enjoy a lonely life on the road with my big rig in American Truck Simulator, I’m also well up for a spot of larking up with my pals in a different transport sim. Bus Simulator 18 is coming next month with four-player online cooperative bus-driving, and it sounds promising. Here, come watch this new trailer with a four-bus convoy taking up the whole road and trundling through town like the world’s slowest hoons. You’ll also see the greatest treat of video game trailers: people squirming and waving controllers as they pretend to play. (more…)

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Descent’s true spiritual successor Overload is out today

1994’s Descent was a game before its time. While other FPS’s at the time were only beginning to ask people to aim with the mouse, Descent demanded full 360-degree rotation and strafing on every axis. Perhaps now the time is right, as the original developers have reassembled as Revival Productions to deliver Overload, a true return to form for the free-flying shooter. It’s out today, and having played a preview build to death this past week, I can confirm that this one is very good indeed.

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Roccat’s Titan switches suggest new mechanical keyboards are on the way

After years of championing the membrane keyboard, Roccat look as though they’re finally preparing to jump headfirst into the world of proper, honest-to-goodness mechanical keyboards thanks to their newly-announced partnership with leading switch manufacturer TTC.

Officially know as the Titan Switch (or the Titan Switch Tactile to give its full mouthful of a name), these will be the first mechanical switches Roccat have designed in-house, and we’ll see them inside a new mystery product very soon at next week’s big Taiwanese tech fest, Computex. I wonder what it could possibly be? (more…)

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Warhammer: Vermintide 2 adds mod support, more hats

First-person ratbasher Warhammer: Vermintide 2 today blasted its first content update, following a string of patches with fixes and tweaks. Along with officially launching mod support, the update adds new challenges and daily quests to complete for loot, and boshes in loads of hats, skin recolours, and other cosmetic bits. The mod SDK doesn’t include a map editor, sadly, but it does let modders fiddle with game logic, graphics effects, the user interface, textures, and other bits of gameguts, so it’ll be interesting to see what people make. (more…)

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Total Warhammer 2 unleashes Norsca horde & new DLC

It’s a big and fighty day for Total War: Warhammer II, with extra factions, units, and lords flooding in from all over. The first Total Warhammer’s Norsca DLC race have become playable in Twarhammer 2’s cross-game Mortal Empires campaign, the new ‘The Queen & The Crone Lords Pack’ paid DLC is out now, new free DLC adds a brooding new High Elf for everyone, various races have received powerful buffs, and elite units from the first game are now in the sequel too. As I said, a big and fighty day, whether you’re buying anything new or not. (more…)

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Best gaming monitor 2018: Top 1080p, 1440p and 4K HDR displays

When it comes to upgrading our PCs, we so often forget that one of the most important parts of our system is the big black box sitting right in front of us, which is why we’re here to help you find the best gaming monitor to suit your needs and budget. Let’s face it – buying a new monitor is hard. It’s one thing to look at the specs, but trying to judge whether that screen actually produces a good picture or not is nigh on impossible to do from the comfort of your own home.

Fortunately, we’ve done the hard work for you, as below you’ll find a list of all our top recommendations across a multitude of different screen sizes and resolutions. Tried and tested at Castle Shotgun itself, the only monitors you’ll find here are the ones we’ve had sat in front of our own eyeballs and measured with our trusty X-Rite Display i1 Pro calibrator. Naturally, this means we’ll be updating this list as and when new gaming monitors come in that we think deserve a place on our coveted hot list. Case in point: BenQ’s new EW277HDR, which sits newly-crowned as our best 27in 1080p monitor.

We’ll also take you through everything you need to know about screen sizes, resolutions, refresh rates, panel types, inputs and adjustable stands. By the time you’re done here, you’ll be fully equipped to find the best gaming monitor for you. Let’s begin!

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Just Cause & Rage 2 devs Avalanche bought out by the world’s oldest movie company

There we were, being all surprised that Just Cause/Mad Max outfit Avalanche Studios had been handed the reins to Id sequel Rage 2, and now here we are, being all surprised that Avalanche are now owned by a 111-year-old Danish movie studio. Nordisk Film, the world’s oldest still-active film production firm, have doled out some $103 million to take control of Avalanche’s three offices, but the claim is that the Swedish games studio will retain creative independence. In fact, the plan is to work on more self-published titles, though they don’t plan on giving up work for hire just yet.
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Corsair HS70 Wireless review: My new favourite wireless gaming headset

PCs are a messy business. Most of us have wires up the wazoo, and probably not an insignificant number of knots and snarled cables to go with them. Problem is, not many of us are willing to forgo the speed and reassurance that comes from having a wired set of peripherals – except, that is, when it comes to our headsets. Life is so much better when you’re not getting throttled as you desperately try and untangle yourself from your wider pool of leads and flexes when you need to answer the doorbell or go downstairs for dinner, but good grief wireless headsets do cost a lot of money, don’t they?

Fortunately, Corsair have taken note, as their brand-new HS70 Wireless headset has finally arrived for just £100/$109. That’s a heck of a lot more appealing than the £140/$160 demanded by HyperX’s Cloud Flight and even the £130/$150 you’ll need to spend on the excellent Steelseries Arctis 7. Corsair hasn’t skimped on features, either, as you’re still getting virtual 7.1 surround sound and up to 16 hours of uninterrupted play time. Can it break into our best gaming headset rankings? Let’s find out.

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Wot I Think: Cultist Simulator

In my time with Cultist Simulator, I’ve browsed hidden book shops for arcane grimoires, sent loyal acolytes on doomed expeditions, and felled nosy investigators with poisoned tea. I’ve been reduced to begging in the street for opium money, and I’ve sacrificed followers with antique daggers in secret rites to restore my vitality. Weather Factory’s first outing is what I imagine playing solitaire with Necronomicon pages might feel like, if those pages then formed a map to the location of a much older, much more cryptic tome that made the Necronomicon look like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. (more…)

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Ace VR stealth ’em up Budget Cuts budged back again

I had a little VR party on the day I got my Vive, and my guests all regarded the Budget Cuts demo as the highlight. That’s partly because it felt slick and stylish in a way that hasn’t been matched by anything I’ve tried since, but mostly because watching VR newbies fail to sneak past robots is the most fun you can have with a pair of cyber goggles. I still vividly remember one friend getting so startled that he froze rock solid, spent a second doing terrified jazz hands, then crumpled straight to the floor. It might have been the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

The full version of Budget Cuts was originally meant to come out “soon” after that demo did back in 2016. Then it was meant to come out at the start of this month, and then it was meant to come out today. Turns out it’s actually (well, probably) going to come out in “approximately 1-2 weeks”, because developers Neat Corporation aren’t quite happy with it yet. (more…)

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