Lil Nas X went full-on JRPG final boss. His three different outfits mirror the three-phase boss battles of classic RPGs, like Final Fantasy VI’s Kefka. His three-tiered outfit isn’t the only way he pays homage to JRPGs of old. In countless JRPGs players go from fighting critters at the beginning of the game to killing God by the end. Lil Nas X’s oversized, glimmering cape would perfectly fit any number of Final Fantasy bosses as they descend from the heavens to destroy your party....

World Updates improve areas in a number of ways. On the lowest level (literally), they update the landscape with better detail. Then they brush up what’s upon the land, with new models for many bridges, airports, parks, rocks, sculptures, churches, towers, stadiums, a wind farm, lakes, and other landmarks. The Lego House in Denmark is what first caught my eye, but I do like that Arctic Cathedral in Norway. Plus you have five new bush trips to showcase the landscape and five new landing challenges (one for each country)....

I particularly like the Tower of Wind, the big sci-fi structure which provides ventilation for the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line tunnel below. The Japan world update is due next Tuesday, the 29th of September. Microsoft’s blurb explains: With only only 341 of the world’s cities being built of fancy photogrammetry in MS Flight Sim at launch, the rest having been auto-generated based on map data (leading to some wonderful glitches), some fans have turned to ripping monuments and landmarks from Google Maps to mod into the game and fill those gaps....

The blue/black screen of death is an agent of doom, popping up when something has gone so terribly wrong with your PC that all you can do is reboot, losing whatever was running. Back in the day, Windows was fragile enough that the BSOD was all too familiar and widely reviled. Hell, it earned that name. But with modern systems, I can easily go years without seeing a BSOD on my own PC....

Console players will get to meet MHW’s two new spicy beasts first in March but PC players will get them in April along with the third title update. The trailer below announces both the Raging Brachydios and the Furious Rajang. Short version: they’re both angry and it’s probably because they’re on fire. The new Brachydios variant slaps lava all over the place with its tail and the Rajang appears to be an electric type Pokemon monster that breathes actual lightning....

Monster Hunter World Iceborne Brachydios guide Our Monster Hunter World Iceborne Brachydios guide will explain the strategies for defeating the Brachydios, detail all of its weaknesses and resistances, and show the loot table for all the items you can get for defeating this beast. Monster Hunter World Iceborne Brachydios guide contents Brachydios weaknesses and resistances How to hunt Brachydios What happens when Brachydios becomes enraged? Brachydios materials Those new to hunting monsters, or if you just need to find a particular monster guide to get up to Hunter Rank 16 - needed to start the Iceborne expansion - should head over to our Monster Hunter World guide hub for a plethora of guides....

Get a load of the game’s opening cinematic below. It gives a brief overview (underview?) of Necromunda’s underhive, showing outlaws hanging out in the dark and dirty subterranean cities. You can spot some good haircuts and weird techy implants, too. In Necromunda: Hired Gun you play as a bounty hunter who can use all sorts of augmentations to help track down and take out targets. You can upgrade yourself (with abilities like the aforementioned wallrunning), as well as your robo-pup (who can do things like sniff out enemies and kill ’em for you)....

Sure, some new info about Apex’s next season has appeared, too, but sad lore!! The Scottish scientist has figured out a way to solve the energy crisis, but to do so, she needs some special space crystals. So off she goes, with a shady-looking co-scientist in tow, to find them, leaving her son behind and making a promise that she’ll return. Oh yeah, that’s when you know it’s gonna go wrong....

The Master Collection packs fancied-up versions of Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge. These aren’t the original releases, they’re revamps which each followed later. But NG Sigma and Sigma 2 are often considered worse versions, having not just added new bits but changed and removed some parts. It’s still Ninja Gaiden and that’s a good thing, but it’s a shame that we’ve waited years to not get the best versions....

Konami say in today’s announcement that the next-gen game (PES 2022?) “is being developed with an updated engine that will enable us to dazzle you with staggering improvements to all areas of the game. Expect more realistic player models and animations, enhanced physics, photorealistic visuals, and much much more.” They add that they’re working on “large updates” for the Master League career mode and Fifa Ultimate Team-esque myTeam mode too....

I played Not For Broadcast for approximately three minutes at PAX West last autumn before quickly realizing “oh no, I am bad at this.” You have to actually attune to all the video and audio at once, you see. As the new gameplay trailer below explains, you press different buttons to send each of your available video feeds to the broadcast. Oh and of course you’ll need to slap that “censor” button over top of the bad words that are apparently all too common....

“The RTX 4080 12GB is a fantastic graphics card, but it’s not named right”, reads Nvidia’s statement. “Having two GPUs with the 4080 designation is confusing. So, we’re pressing the “unlaunch” button on the 4080 12GB.” “It’s not named right” is one way of putting it. Personally I was holding judgement until benchmarks, but the RTX 4080 12GB reveal went down pretty poorly with PC hardware fans, and reception just got worse upon the confirmation of more in-depth specs....

The wired Pulsefire Haste (£20, normally £50) is the cheaper and lighter option, weighing in at 59 grams, while the wireless Pulsefire Haste Wireless (£40, normally £90) offers more freedom but requires recharging every 100 hours. It also weighs a tiny bit more, at 61 grams. HyperX Pulsefire Haste - £20 (was £50) HyperX Pulsefire Haste Wireless - £40 (was £90) I’ve tested both mice for Digital Foundry, and found them unexpectedly excellent, as HyperX (now part of HP) aren’t as known for their gaming rodents as their competitors....

Squeenix said that Thursday’s patch “addresses the bug that has, since the previous update, been causing the inventories of certain players to be wiped.” It wasn’t intended to actually restore lost items, mind - that’ll come later. They added, “While we are confident that the patch will prevent inventory wipes in future, we do want to use the weekend to continue monitoring the situation and ensure that no more players are encountering any related issues before we move onto the restoration process....

I’m not sure what part of Sigma’s (somewhat iffy) backstory as a bog-standard “mad scientist” qualifies him as a composer - but if it means he gets to don a nice suit and shoulder pads made of cellos, well, who am I to stop him? Sigma’s Maestro follows the release of Overwatch: Cities And Countries, an album of bops taken from across the game’s maps. Staff newsie Imogen was right when, in covering that release, she assumed that “it’ll likely be that thing again where if you win nine matches you’re rewarded with a cool skin for the character the event’s focusing on,” akin to previous events like Mercy’s Recall Challenge....

When I sat down to talk to both Clarke Smith and technical director Phil Crabtree about Paradise Killer’s new update, it turns out that niche has already become quite large. Even Crabtree’s dad has played Paradise Killer, though Crabtree isn’t sure he really understood it. Crabtree also tells us he sometimes get messages from friends saying someone they know just played Paradise Killer and was talking about it. “It just seems so weird that that there is this audience there that we never expected, and it doesn’t seem that far away,” he says....

Paradox previously ran a trial of this EU4 sub service for selected players, and as of yesterday it’s now available for everyone. For a monthly fee of £4/€5/$5, players get access to the expansions and various content packs, present and future. It’s the same price as a CK2 sub, though EU4’s base game isn’t free like CK2’s is, so you do need that too. That wodge of DLC would currently cost £220 or thereabouts, though obviously some are less important than others and they’re often much cheaper on sale....

From January 15th to February 16th, players will have access to an unranked mode where Ubisoft say, “matches are Bomb matches with Pick and Ban, 3-minute rounds on a 3-round rotation.” While playing on the new Stadium map during the event, you’ll be able to play as any of R6’s operators, even those you haven’t otherwise unlocked. Alongside the month long event is the Road To SI 2020 Battle Pass with 35 tiers....

Wren is a fantasy idle game where you build up a village, recruit and equip warriors, and send them out on quests to auto-battle baddies. You can earn a trickle of resources from sources like farming (clicking on crops) or fishing (clicking on fish) every 20 hours of real time, but you can get a big splash of this ‘mana’ by doing exercise out in the real world. Connecting to a Strava or Fitbit account, Wren coughs up great gobs of mana as a reward after you do a recorded exercise (not just cycling: also walking and the bad sport, running)....

In practice, Potion Tales is a 3D puzzle game. People come to you - I use the term people broadly because the tutorial level involves helping a fire spirit and soon after you’re approached by what appears to be an aggressive daisy who is the local gravekeeper - and present you with a problem. They ask for a potion to solve the problem. That’s all the steer you get. It takes some getting used to, but the Steam demo shows an impressively flexible game with a good sense of humour....