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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is out Friday. I started playing it over a week ago, and while it’s undeniably a great game (read my review), it ran like crap on both PCs I tried it on. As Wes remarked earlier this year, we’re living in a new age of bad PC ports. Jedi: Survivor is just the latest of a string of releases that struggle to hit a minimum 60 fps mark and slow to a crawl at an alarming frequency.

Now that other reviews are out, it’s clear I wasn’t alone: several reported generally poor performance on machines that would kick my PC’s butt, including broken cutscene audio and slowdowns into single-digit frames when using the galaxy map or loading into a new level.

As spotted by Tom’s Hardware, German PC publication GameStar recorded some pretty disappointing stats in an 11-minute demonstration of Jedi: Survivor running on a 4090 and a top-shelf CPU: 30-40 fps at 1440p with occasional bumps up to 80-90 fps in enclosed areas. Even worse, the game devours up to 21GB of VRAM at times and only utilized around half of the 4090’s power. That’s more-or-less in line with how Star Wars ran for me with a 2080 Super and i9-9900KS CPU, except I played at a measly 1080p.

T…

As promised, Starfield’s big DLSS update is now live in beta testing on Steam, which means Nvidia owners can finally take advantage of the higher frame rates their GPUs are capable of.

It seemed weird that Starfield did not support DLSS at launch, given that more than 80% of PC gamers have Nvidia graphics cards in their rigs (according to the most recent Steam hardware survey). Fingers were pointed at Bethesda’s partnership with AMD on the game, although AMD later said that the developer could throw in DLSS support anytime it wanted. Modders picked up the torch, but even so it was welcome news when Bethesda confirmed last week that official support for Nvidia hardware was on the way.

Now it’s here, albeit in a pre-release state. Today’s update enables owners of compatible Nvidia cards to take advantage of DLSS Super Resolution, Deep Learning Anti-aliasing (DLAA), Nvidia Reflex Low Latency, and DLSS Frame generation. You’ll need to have Vsync switched off to see any advantage from DLSS Frame Generation right now, but Bethesda said that will be made an automatic adjustment in a future update.

It is important to note that this beta is not actually an update, but a…

We pretty quickly learned that the fastest way to make money in Starfield isn’t by harvesting resources or scanning planetary data or pawning stolen spaceships. It’s from selling all the guns you collect while shooting your way through hordes of Starfield’s space pirates and serpent fanatics.

So what if I could give you a quick shortcut to spawning tons o’ guns in mere seconds without ever once putting yourself in danger? Not only could you sell the guns for extra cold hard space cash, you could wind up with some epic or legendary weapons in your holster for your next big fight.

It’s done, as you might guess, with a glitch. The handy exploit, posted here by Reddit user PNWTroglodyte, runs through the steps you can take to quickly spawn a ton of random guns, and it’s remarkably easy. 

All you have to do is:

• Build an outpost beacon on a planet
• Build a weapon case (found under Displays in the build menu, it costs 2 titanium and 1 polymer)
• Save your game
• Load that save
• Open the weapon case
• Surprise! There’s a gun in it

So, you can imagine what happens if you build, say, 50 weapons cas…

Everyone’s favourite boys, their vibrating eggs, and their computer-destroying hair will finally cast off their Epic Games Store exclusivity next month. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin will hit Steam on April 6, giving everyone who still stubbornly tries to keep their games library on a single digital shelf a shot at killing Chaos. You can see its new celebratory trailer here.

To celebrate its transition—and to coax you into spending money on it—the game is getting a permanent price cut. Its former price tag of $60/£50 is being reduced to $40/£35. Witnessing the destiny that awaits Jack when he has severed all binding ties of fate is easier on your wallet than ever.

If you’ve somehow avoided the memes, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a Final Fantasy game centred around Jack, a beefcake/lughead who really, really wants to defeat the evil overlord Chaos alongside his buddies Jed and Ash. Jack is dressed in an outfit he got on sale at The Gap and wields a greatsword, and somehow this all amounts to an alternate universe prequel to the original Final Fantasy on the NES.

It’s kind of wonderful? Don’t get me w…

Whether you’re in the market for a cheap gaming PC, or just a graphics card upgrade over this year’s Amazon Prime Day event, there’s probably some AMD silicon with your name on it. There are plenty of slightly older AMD components still being sold for great prices today, and that’s not to say you can’t find its most up-to-date products with a tasty discount. 

We’re talking budget gaming PCs with impressive AMD CPUs backing them up. Machines with current-gen AMD GPUs like the Radeon RX 7900 XTX that will smash 4K with the majestic power of chiplets for just over $2,000 altogether. Or if you’re looking for something a little more portable, there are some fantastic gaming laptops with AMD silicon going cheap for Prime Day, too.

• We’re curating all the best Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals right here.

It would be rude not to mention the Steam Deck in an AMD roundup, since Valve’s application of red team silicon in a handheld is one of the more affordable around today, and still manages to nail games like Elden Ring. Yep, I have fond memories of sitting atop a grassy knoll with one of my besties slayi…

The Silent Hill 2 remake trailer that appeared during Sony’s State of Play showcase in January did not make the best possible impression. Fans on Reddit described it as “rough,” “wooden,” and “straight out of SH Homecoming, which is a PS3 game.” Among the people who didn’t care for it was, somewhat unexpectedly, Piotr Babieno, CEO of Silent Hill 2 developer Bloober Team, who said in an interview with inwestorzy.tv that the trailer “does not reflect the spirit of the game.”

As reported by Eurogamer Poland, (via DeepL), Babieno said Bloober Team is “not responsible for the marketing” of the game, and instead pinned the video on publisher Konami, who “is entirely responsible for this.”

“Certainly this trailer does not reflect the spirit of the game,” Babieno said. “It is not the spirit of either what it used to be or what we are creating now. We try to reflect this romantic vision of the game, which debuted 22 years ago. We think that when players see real gameplay, the real game, they will evaluate it in a completely different way.”

Associate editor Tyler Colp shared similar sentiments in his thoughts on the trailer: It was more action-focused than fans of the se…

PC Gamer’s all-singing all-dancing all-action 30th anniversary issue is on-sale today, and includes a slew of major interviews with the creatives that have shaped our industry and some of the most important games in history. PCG’s editor Robert Jones sat down with Warren Spector and Paul Neurath, key members of the original System Shock team, which is generally considered the first game you could call an immersive sim, with its influence is still prevalent in the contemporary industry across the likes of Arkane’s various titles and 2K’s Bioshock series.

The origins of the game go back to its lead programmer Doug Church who, while Warren Spector was polishing up a proposal for something called Alien Commander, shared how bored he was with the then-industry’s over-reliance on genre tropes. 

“Doug Church was hanging out in my office one day, and we were both talking about how sick we were of fantasy games, and dungeons, and rescuing princesses, and heroes that were built like the Mighty Thor,” says Spector. “He and Paul [Neurath] were working—I didn’t know—on another similar project. They were sick of that as well, as I understand it. Doug came to…

Following Baldur’s Gate 3’s wildly successful PC launch and a few bug-squashing hotfixes, Larian CEO Swen Vincke says that the D&D RPG will get one more hotfix (there have been three so far) before its first big patch, which will include “+1,000 fixes and tweaks.” That patch will then be followed by—and you might’ve been able to guess this—another patch, one which’ll start to respond to player suggestions.

“We’re all very enthused by your feedback. It’s very rewarding,” wrote Vincke. “Our focus now is fixing any issues you report, but we are listening to suggestions. Current roadmap: a) Hotfix 4, b) Patch 1 (+1000 fixes and tweaks), c) Patch 2. The latter will already incorporate some requests.”

In an interview with PC Gamer last week, Vincke also confirmed that official mod tools are on the way, which is slightly juicer news than ‘game will get patches.’ We mentioned that tidbit in an article last week about Larian’s absence of expansion plans, but I didn’t shout about it too much because I’d hoped to get clarification on what kind of mod tools we’re talking about.

I’m still waiting on that, so for now I’m not sure whether Vincke was talki…

Upcoming puzzle-crafting-programming game Craftomation 101 gives you a frozen planet, some politely agreeable robots, and a bunch of raw materials. From there it’s your job to tell them how to assemble enough heat, power, and industrial materials to bootstrap a terraforming process that’ll make this world a warmer place.

The most appealing bit is obviously the tiny robots, the CraftoMates each of whom can be scripted using a straightforward visual language to go and do what you want them to do. At first it’s easy stuff like make spark with rock to light fuel, place fuel in firepit, but from there you teach them to keep themselves fueled up, then to collect the ingredients you need for further expansion into ever-more-complex ingredients.

You can do a lot of it by hand, of course, but the enjoyment I got from programming the bots—even in just the demo—was enough that I made the bots do almost everything anyways. Craftomation 101 has the bones of yet another good one from Luden.io, an indie outfit that have made some of the first genuinely fun educational games I’ve played in decades.

You may have seen other games from Luden.io, who have for my attent…

With a saving of nearly $22, the best wireless gaming mouse you can buy right now is well worth picking up. The Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro might not look very special but it boasts a 30,000 DPI optical sensor, an 8 kHz polling rate wireless dongle, and a build quality second to none.

However, I don’t think you should buy it. Not because it’s a poor deal—far from it—but simply because there’s a better deal to be had. Well, I say deal, but it’s not technically on sale in the Prime Day event, even though it’s a few dollars cheaper than the Razer’s MSRP.

I’m talking about the DeathAdder V3 Pro’s lesser sibling, the V3 HyperSpeed. Its optical sensor isn’t as capable, rated to a peak of 26,000 DPI, and the wireless system has a polling rate of 1,000 Hz (though you can buy a separate dongle if you want the full 8 kHz rate).

But forget all about that, as few PC gamers would ever be able to tell the difference or at the very least, it’s not so cut down in specs to be significant in gaming. Truth be told, the V3 Pro is best suited to genuine professionals, whereas the V3 HyperSpeed is simply a great wireless gaming mouse that’s perfect for everyone.

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Friends, here is my story: Coming home to the UK from Summer Game Fest, hungry and heatstruck, I arrived at one of Los Angeles International Airport’s many food and coffee stands. Blearily, I ordered a latte and some kind of egg salad sandwich composed mostly of bread. The cashier told me that this humble repast would somehow be $21, in violation both of the social contract and mankind’s covenant with the Lord God.

Being an assertive and self-confident type, I said absolutely nothing and meekly paid up. But I shouldn’t have, because if I still had that $21 I could have bought the entire Dragon Age trilogy—base games and all the DLC—twice over in the currently ongoing Dragon Age Steam sale. In place of a thin film of egg smeared on a loaf of wholewheat and a latte that tasted of nothing and which I eventually tipped down a new shirt, I’d have 300 hours of quite excellent fantasy RPG. Yes, Dragon Age 2 included: 94%, baby.

Until June 24 at 10 am PDT / 1 pm EDT / 6 pm BST, you can acquire Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, and Dragon Age: Inquisition on Steam for a mere $10 (£8.50). The first two games cost $3 (£…

Need some Wordle help? Keep your win streak safe with our daily dose of hints and tips. There’s a fresh clue for today’s game waiting below if you need a bit of guidance, some general tips if you’d like to improve your guesses, and of course, the answer to the January 9 (934) puzzle if you need it.

Talk about a game of extremes. My first guess was a bit of a dud. My second was one letter away from a win. As was my third. And my fourth. And my fifth. It took all six rows before I finally found today’s Wordle answer—I’m just glad you won’t have to go through the same ordeal. Not unless you want to, anyway.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Tuesday, January 9

Today’s answer can unhelpfully mean one of several unrelated things. In some cases this is an ocean-going passenger ship so large it’s almost a holiday destination in itself, in others it’s a pen, pencil, or brush used to apply shape-defining makeup around the edges of the eye area. 

ViewViewViewView

Is there a double letter in Wordle today? 

No, there is no double letter in today’s puzzle. 

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every…

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Technically any gaming monitor with an aspect ratio above of 21:9 or above is deserving of the title of ‘ultrawide’. But few have earned it like this Samsung Odyssey G9 DQHD. 

Effectively two 1440p gaming monitors strapped together, this Samsung monitor comes with 49 inches of 240Hz, DisplayHDR 1000 panel to play with. That all sounds expensive, and I guess it still is, but it’s a bit easier on the bank account thanks to a deal that whips $500 off the asking price. It’s down to $800 over on Amazon today.

Just be sure to hit the $100 coupon check box for the full discount. Otherwise you’ll pay an additional $100 tax for being clumsy. 

I fondly remember the first time I gawked at a 49-inch gaming monitor. It also was a Samsung and I was the envy of all the office. I particularly enjoyed having the screen separated as two independent inputs, from one or two PCs, which is a feature that’s carried over to this newer model, too. Back then, however, these mammoth panels weren’t anywhere near as adept for gaming as they are now. 

This Odyssey G9 comes with a blisteringly quick refresh rate of 240Hz and a response time to match at 1ms. That may prov…

I love a Civilization reveal. The grand strategy series has been going for 33 years, and Firaxis always finds something to change with each new one, always controversially. Civilization 6 unraveled cities into districts that span multiple hexes, for example. Will Civilization 7 stuff them back onto one tile? Or revamp something else entirely, like combat or the victory conditions? Will they make another stab at a battle royale mode? (Probably not.)

We’ll have answers later this month. First, we’ll see Civilization 7’s debut gameplay trailer at Opening Night Live, the Geoff Keighley showcase that precedes the Gamescom convention in Germany. That’ll be on August 20 at 11 am PT, viewable on the Gamescom Twitch channel.

Immediately after that, Firaxis will stream a 20 minute showcase with “insights and deep dives across new features and innovations” in Civilization 7. That’ll be on Firaxis’ Twitch channel.

Firaxis’ press release sadly gives us Civ-heads little to speculate about. The studio says that Civ 7 is a “revolutionary new chapter in the franchise” and that it includes “innovative new features,” but those are of course the sorts of things that are s…