PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 3:04 PM The developers behind the remake of classic city-building game Pharaoh are approaching their task in a way comparable to Blue Point's handling of the remake of Demon's Souls - they're letting the original gameplay stay largely intact while applying a modern refresh to the visuals. The results look great in both cases, and today we get a look at how Pharaoh: A New Era compares with its ancestor. A new video provides some side-by-side comparison shots showing gameplay from the 1999 edition of Pharaoh before cutting to the same scene recreated in the upcoming PC game, Pharaoh: A New Era. Pharaoh was a pretty lush-looking game in 1999, but its low resolution graphics don't hold up well when blown up to 2K and 4K screens of today. The new look is cartoony rather than realistic, but also fresh-looking and far more readable than the original. You can see the details in the frescoes painted on buildings, and each animation contains many more frames, resulting in much smoother character movement as each walker travels through town, providing services for residents. |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 3:07 PM Simulation games have been a lifesaver this year, letting us experience our wildest dreams while cooped up in the house. They've been a great introduction to gaming for those less well-versed, and also provided a moment of peace for any hard-core gamer looking for something wholesome in 2021. After a massive year for the sim game, we've managed to narrow our shortlist down to just seven titles. We want to get your views on which of these expertly crafted simulation games should take the top spot in this Users Choice Award category, so have your say by casting a vote using the widget below. Our Users Choice Awards are powered by Fanatical, the online games retailer who developed the genius little tool Fanatical Assistant, which shows you automatically which of your favourite games are on offer. As part of our partnership with them, every person who votes and provides their email address below will get a free gift, ranging from a discount code to a full copy of one of this years' best games. If you've missed any of these sims and they sound enticing, be sure to check out the Fanatical Winter Sale also, where you can pick up a pre-Christmas bargain. |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 12:52 PM Winter has descended upon Amazon Games' hit MMO New World with the Winter Convergence Festival, a limited-time event running from December 16, 2021 to January 11, 2022. Amongst the gift-giving and merriment, a mysterious figure has captured the imagination of Aeternum's people – the Winter Wanderer. As snow falls on the land of Aeternum, seasonal festivities have begun in the MMO. New World's festive event is much more than just a fresh coating of snow, however. There are new quests, activities, items, weapons, and even a fresh helping of lore for fans to enjoy in the Winter Convergence Festival. New World's version of the festive season is largely inspired by a mysterious, mythical figure – the Winter Wanderer. His coming is hailed by the Northern Lights in the sky, but is he a benevolent Santa Claus or a sinister Krampus? No one in Aeternum can seem to agree, so naturally, these festive squabbles have escalated into full-blown warfare among New World's factions. While this might seem antithetical to the spirit of the season, it means plenty of fun for us New World players. After all, the true meaning of the season is loot! Let the war for the Winter Convergence begin. RELATED LINKS: New World system requirements, New World beginner's guide, New World review |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 12:41 PM Regardless of what's under the tree - or whether you celebrate a gift-giving holiday at all - you're getting a lot of free PC games this Christmas season. Epic's got two weeks of daily giveaways, and GOG is offering some gaming classics during the period, too. Today brings us a fresh giveaway of one of the best adventure games ever, and GOG is also offering a way to support videogame history in exchange for some further classics. I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream is currently available for free on GOG - well, free in exchange for signing up for the site's email list. You can claim it from the store's front page until December 25, and it'll remain in your library forever once you do. Just, uh… maybe save this one for after the holidays if you're looking for some seasonal joy. If you're in more of a giving spirit, you can pick up The Video Game History Foundation Support Pack. That'll get you a pair of classics with the RPG Darklands and the turn-based strategy game Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate, with all proceeds going to support the VGHF. |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 12:18 PM Being a Pokémon fan can be pretty difficult if you're primarily a PC gamer, as all we have are Civilization VI map mods of Sinnoh, a bunch of clones and alternative Pokémon games for PC, and the Pokémon Trading Card Game Live - the latter of which is the only official option. Fortunately, you can now profess your love for the cute little critters regardless of what platform you use, because Secretlab has a duo of Pokémon-themed gaming chairs. That's right, Secretlab has dressed up its Titan Evo 2022 seat with two of the most iconic pocket monsters from the first generation to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue. If you're familiar with the Pokédex, it'll come as no surprise that the Secretlab Pokémon #006 puts the fiery Charizard front and centre, while the Pokémon #025 edition features Ash Ketchum's best friend, Pikachu. Since these are based on Secretlab's 2022 series, they have the same features as the other 108 designs, including better ergonomics than the previous 2020 lineup, magnetic cushions that sidestep garish straps, and swappable armrest covers. RELATED LINKS: Best SSD for gaming, How to build a gaming PC, Best gaming CPU |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 12:32 PM After years of handheld gaming PCs like the Aya Neo coming out of the woodwork, Valve has thrown its hat in the ring with the Steam Deck, hitting shelves in December. There are three models to choose from ranging between $399 and $649, all of which take design cues from the Nintendo Switch. Under the hood, it's powered by a custom AMD APU combining the Zen 2 and RDNA 2 platforms - the latter being the same architecture found on team red's best graphics card. While Valve hasn't been forthcoming with benchmarks, it claims it has "more than enough performance to run the latest AAA games". And, with the purchase of an additional dock, you can use it just like you would a normal computer, plugged into a keyboard, mouse, and monitor on the best gaming desk. It comes with the new SteamOS 3 Linux-based operating system, but you'll be able to install Windows to the device for compatibility with more of the best PC games. However, Proton compatibility has dramatically improved to the point that you probably won't need to. RELATED LINKS: Best SSD for gaming, How to build a gaming PC, Best gaming CPU |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 11:49 AM The best VR headsets can act as a doorway to inhabiting the best PC games, with some companies going one step further with VR candles that stimulate your sense of smell. However, if you're hungry for something more, a new device in Japan could offer a taste of the future (provided you're fine with licking it). As reported by Reuters, Japanese professor Homei Miyashita has cooked up a prototype lickable display that uses a combination of 10 flavour canisters to simulate the flavours of food. Miyashita says the goal of their 'Taste the TV' device is "to make it possible for people to have the experience of something like eating at a restaurant on the other side of the world, even while staying at home". The weirdness of licking a screen aside, there are so many videogame delicacies we'd be curious to try. Imagine, in this strange new reality, if you were able to sample an authentic Skyrim sweet roll, or recently remastered grapes from Final Fantasy XIV? Although, to change mediums for a moment, we do wonder if the food from any Studio Ghibli film tastes as good as it looks. RELATED LINKS: Skyrim mods, Play Skyrim, Games like Skyrim |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 11:33 AM For most of us, buying a VR headset can make a reasonable dent in the bank account. If you've just shelled out a few hundred bucks for an Oculus Quest 2, the last thing you're going to want to do is drop another couple of hundred on games - but, thanks to this deal from Fanatical, you can now get a whopping eight VR games for under $15. Containing a broad mix of genres, from undead shooter Zombieland: Headshot Fever, to the puzzle game Gadgeteer, the Quest VR bundle gives players a taste of the sheer variety of games that can be played as part of the VR experience. At full price, the total cost for all the games included would usually set you back $129.92, but the 88% discount means you save $114.93. For context, that's a third of the total cost of the Quest headset alone. If you're intrigued and want to know more about each title in the bundle, then we've given you a short breakdown below.. RELATED LINKS: Best VR games, Build yourself a VR-ready PC for $793, How to set up your Oculus Rift |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 11:56 AM Looking for the best 3-Line Rifle loadout? Warzone Pacific has brought a huge number of Call of Duty: Vanguard weapons from the base game into the battle royale game. For those who like to camp on the opposite side of the map, zoomed in and picking off baddies from miles away with your sniper rifle, the 3-Line Rifle just might be your perfect match. The 3-Line Rifle is a formidable weapon, capable of dealing devastating damage from a distance. Best combined with a sniper support assault rifle like a Cooper Carbine, the best 3-Line Rifle attachments ensure you'll tear through anyone unlucky enough to wander into your sights - though this does come at the cost of your mobility, as you may expect. The best 3-Line Rifle loadout is very different from the likes of the Kar98k. No quickscoping here - we're maxing out bullet velocity, range, and accuracy while aiming, as well as avoiding detection until you've blown the enemy to smithereens. Here's a list of the best 3-Line Rifle attachments and why we recommend them. |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 11:18 AM The best gaming headsets come in many shapes and sizes, but they should all provide excellent sound quality for immersion in-game. Getting this right can be all that's needed to push your gaming setup to the next level and help you land those extra few Modern Warfare or Valorant frags. We've collected the cream of the crop so you can choose between the best high-end PC headsets and the top budget gaming headset under $100. Sure, it's nice to kick back with the best computer speakers when you want to relax, but choosing the right pair of cans can help you pick out footsteps around the corner like some audio-based wall-hack and transform your entire experience when you're playing the best PC games, binging the latest TV series, or listening to music. Our headset reviews put Razer, HyperX, SteelSeries, Sennheiser, HyperX, and more to the test, helping you figure out what the right set of cans are for the games you play. Are you an isolationist who needs a pair to block the outside world or a set that will deliver the most natural soundscape possible, regardless of leakage? Do you need the best wireless gaming headset, or is wired just fine? Do you even need a dedicated gaming headset at all? At least that last one's easy - yes, you do. RELATED LINKS: Best SSD for gaming, How to build a gaming PC, Best gaming CPU |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 11:13 AM With just over two months to go until the release of Total War: Warhammer 3, developer Creative Assembly is shovelling coal into the hype train at an unprecedented rate. The studio has not only revealed all the launch races, but gone into greater depth about their mechanics than we've ever seen at this stage. It's a bottom-up approach to hype - red meat for the core fans who can tell from these fiddly details just how radical and ambitious the game will be in its design. But for many fans - and certainly for me - the macro stuff is a big part of the anticipation too. Previous Warhammer entries have done more than any other Total War game to try to tell a story in the series' traditional sandbox setting. When CA is emphasising at every turn just how big Warhammer III will be, what does that look like? CA has stated that it won't recreate the End Times, the in-universe apocalypse with which publisher Games Workshop pulled the plug on the Warhammer Fantasy tabletop game back in 2015. But with such a sense of escalation behind it as the crescendo in a trilogy, one which also stars the Chaos Gods who were behind the End Times, it's an understandable guess for some fans to have made. Exactly how wide of the mark were they? RELATED LINKS: Total War: Warhammer 3 release date, Total War: Warhammer 3 races, The best strategy games on PC |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 11:04 AM Are you an expert in all things PC, hardware, and tabletop? Do you have experience in senior positions in online media, and a head bursting with ideas for the future of this industry? Network N needs you! We're hiring two publishers to support the company's owned and operated editorial brands alongside the publishing director, and the rest of the expanding senior management team. The Publisher - PC will help the editors of PCGamesN and our sister sites PCGameBenchmark and Wargamer to push our brands to new heights, as well as oversee any potential future launches or acquisitions that fall within this purview. If entertainment or mobile and multi-format gaming is more your speed, you can also check out the Publisher - Multiformat & Entertainment role. The successful candidate there will look after Pocket Tactics, The Loadout, and The Digital Fix instead, but fulfil the same function. For both these roles we're looking for experienced veterans in online entertainment media who are ready to take on a big new challenge. You'll sit within the senior management team of Network N, and alongside the director of its publishing division, will shape the future of one of the best portfolios of its kind. We're a creative, dynamic, hungry company, and for the Publisher - PC role, we need someone who is deeply passionate and knowledgeable about PC and tabletop gaming, and who knows how to develop online brands. |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 11:00 AM Wondering how to play Marvelous Merchandise? Marvelous Merchandise is a recurring Genshin Impact event, and it's back for the festive season. Each day the event is live, you'll be able to find Liben, a merchant from Liyue with a groovy moustache, somewhere in Teyvat. In exchange for a few basic materials, Liben will give you a Box o' Wonders full of rewards. These rewards are certainly worth your while, as they typically include a handful of primogems alongside other valuable goodies - perfect if you've got your eye on one of the upcoming Genshin Impact banners in the 2.4 update. The materials Liben requests are relatively easy to get your hands on, too, if previous events are anything to go by. Marvelous Merchandise runs for seven days, and if you manage to redeem five Box o' Wonders in that time, you can also claim a Mega Box O' Marvels, containing even more sought-after rewards. Here's how to exchange materials with Liben and get daily rewards in the Marvelous Merchandise event. RELATED LINKS: Play Genshin Impact for free, Genshin Impact character tier list, Genshin Impact leveling guide |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 11:01 AM The holiday festivities continue today, which means it's time for another free PC game over on the Epic Games Store. Today's is Vampyr, which is an action-RPG game about waking up during a devastating pandemic with a powerful thirst for human blood. In Vampyr, you play as Dr. Jonathan Reid, a veteran of the First World War who returns home to London only to wake up in a mass grave. Reid has somehow contracted vampirism amidst the outbreak of the Spanish flu, and quickly learns that there's more to the pandemic than meets the eye. Vampire hunters stalk the streets, and bloodthirsty monsters prowl Whitechapel's alleys for fresh victims. If you imagine a version of Bloodborne made by Bioware, you'll get a sense of what Vampyr's like to play. It doesn't have the same level of fast-paced, brutal combat as FromSoftware's werewolf game, but it makes up for it with a compelling narrative that pits Reid's principles as a medical doctor against his need to consume human blood, which is strengthened by the game's RPG mechanics. RELATED LINKS: Vampyr review, Vampyr skills guide |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 9:59 AM AMD FSR might not have been around all that long, but it's proven to be an invaluable tool in helping everyone boost fps with minimal impact on image quality. In celebration of the technology's six-month anniversary, AMD has announced there are now over 70 available and upcoming FSR-enabled PC games, and that it's the company's "fastest adopted software gaming technology in AMD history". It's easy to see why, as FSR is much easier to implement than its main competitor, Nvidia DLSS, in addition to being compatible with both AMD and Nvidia GPUs. We've previously recommended turning it on in games like Back 4 Blood and Call of Duty: Vanguard, and this extends to basically every current and future title that supports it. Prior to its release, there was some concern that the adoption rate of AMD FSR would suffer due to the technology arriving over two years after Nvidia DLSS. However, it has since appeared in ten times the amount of PC games than its rival within the same six-month timeframe, but credit should be given to Nvidia for kickstarting the gaming PC upscaling revolution in the first place. RELATED LINKS: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X review, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT review, Best CPU for gaming |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 11:21 AM If you've been keeping a close eye on Total War: Warhammer 3 news, you'll have seen the Chaos God reveals pouring out over the past few months like daemonic Nurgle slime, ahead of the strategy game's arrival in February next year. We've seen the Nurgle, Slaansesh, Tzeentch, and Khorne factions make their gruesome pre-launch debuts - but it seems they won't be the chief architects of the game's chaos (heh). Instead, the "real villain" will be some mysterious other being. That's according to principal writer Andy Hall, who we spoke to about the game's narrative and lore now that the veil's been lifted on the four main Chaos Gods. As long-time fans of the tabletop game will know, these gods rallied behind their 'Everchosen', Archaon, to destroy the setting on which Total Warhammer is based in a big event called the End Times. Since we know Warhammer III will also feature the gods, fans have been wondering if it'll tell a similar story - Creative Assembly has been clear that it isn't doing the End Times, but has kept other details under wraps. We took the chance to probe Andy about the key differences. "Well, the End Times was the grand design of the Chaos Gods and their direct scions," he tells us. "For once they stopped playing the Great Game against each other and focussed their servants on all-out annihilation. RELATED LINKS: Total War: Warhammer 3 release date, Total War: Warhammer 3 races, The best strategy games on PC |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 9:11 AM We're less than two weeks away from CES 2022, but some companies simply can't help themselves and are already teasing what they'll bring to the show. LG might have something special on its hands with its absurd answer to the equally ridiculous question: what if someone stuck the best gaming monitor onto the best gaming chair? Introducing the LG Media Chair, a reclining seat that comes with a flexible 55-inch LG OLED TV built-in to the curved frame. The screen features a 1,500R curve and Cinematic Sound OLED tech that vibrates the display's glass to create sound rather than relying on a set of speakers. As you might expect, the chair isn't ordinary, either. At the touch of a button on the armrest, you can switch the display between a horizontal and vertical orientation. Combine this with the ability to rotate the screen in tandem with the chair so it's always eye-level, and you have an even deeper immersion that could genuinely be one of the best ways to experience classic arcade rail shooters, driving games, and flight simulators. RELATED LINKS: Best SSD for gaming, How to build a gaming PC, Best gaming CPU |
PCGamesN Thursday, December 23, 2021 11:46 AM Disco Elysium puts you in the shoes of a troubled detective on a path to crack a murder case, so naturally there's a whole lot of mystery to grapple with - and now developer ZA/UM has added even more to the beloved RPG. The studio has just launched a new patch called the Jamais Vu ('never seen') update to coincide with the holiday season and a big Steam-y discount on the Final Cut of the game which adds a batch of new mysteries to solve. The announcement aptly comes heaped with plenty of mystery. "The static hisses in your ears as you slowly spin the dial," it teases. "Nothing but warbling data from a planar anomaly. Is there anything at all? A small sadness creeps in. '...' Wait! Go back. Between your finger and thumb the hiss becomes a hum and your hairs stand to their end. You hear the sounds of waves roaring; a formidable chorus of water. "A small splash, and then... '... or weaker… now ... dying is an art,' it continues. "The static returns. But there is no doubt. A man's voice, one you've never heard before, telling secrets from a place that could be anywhere and nowhere at all." Hmm. Mysterious indeed. RELATED LINKS: Disco Elysium review, Best RPGs on PC, The best PC games |