This week, we clutched some newly found carrot seeds and punched the earth in a desperate bid to grow orange sticks of the highest quality; the most delectable, succulent vegetables that we’d be proud to serve at Odin’s dinner table. Turns out this is not how vikings grow carrots. Instead, we’d need to get hold of something more powerful than we could ever have imagined. Now, in real life, I don’t think I’ve ever laid eyes on a carrot seed, let alone planted one....

It’s also a shame because Windows 11 also introduces a feature I really like: Auto HDR. Borrowed from Microsoft’s latest Xboxes, it’s a niche yet impactful addition that can simply make your games look better, with no hidden tax on performance. If you’re unfamiliar, HDR (High Dynamic Range) content is presentedusing a wider range of colours and luminosity levels than the much more common SDR (Standard Dynamic Range); in short, games running in HDR tend to look more vibrant, with a higher ceiling for retina-searing brightness....

As any good nature conservationist will know, creating bird sanctuaries is a highly competitive business. Here, go and watch vidbud Matthew run the game through before you even consider setting up sanctuary in this neck of the woods again. Wingspan, in short, is a game about gathering the best and brightest birds under your enclosures. Each bird you gather earns victory points, but also plays its own abilities, each a nice nod to the animal’s real-world behaviours - Geese will form flocks, owls will hunt mice, pelicans will swoop up fish and so on....

In this guide, you’ll find three clues that you can use to solve the Wordle answer today. If you’re on your final guess and just need to know the solution, then simply scroll down a little further. Looking for today’s solution? Check out the Wordle answer for Tuesday 14 February! Wordle today: Hints for the Jan 14 Wordle word Before we reveal the Wordle answer for today, why not see if you can figure out the solution with the help of our handy hints below:...

Clearly you’re playing Wordle this weekend too, and perhaps came here in search of a little help with the answer. Lucky for you, there’s some clues for you just below; or you can scroll down past the video to see the solution in full. Looking for today’s solution? Check out the Wordle answer for Tuesday 14 February! Wordle November 26 hints Need some help with the Wordle answer today? Here are a few hints for you:...

Announced overnight during their RazerStore Live event, Razer’s Anzu smartglasses represent their first foray into the world of eyewear. Weighing in at just under 48g, they have blue light filtering lenses installed out of the box that cut down screen glare by 35%, according to Razer, but they also come with 99% UVA/UVB polarised sunglass lenses that you can swap in and out for when you go outside. You can also choose from circular or rectangular lenses depending on your preference, and prescription versions will be available as well thanks to their partnership with Lensabl....

As reported by the folks over at PC Gamer, the naked act of lizard matricide took place earlier this month on the European Zandalar Tribe server. Players allegedly came from a smattering of guilds, to strip off and work out just how to take down one of Warcraft’s most notorious bosses. It’s not that Onyxia isn’t numerically less intimidating than before, mind. From a stats perspective, she should be just as tough a fight as she was 16 years ago....

After Yakuza 6 finished Kiryu’s story, Like A Dragon introduces Ichiban Kasuga, another yakuza grunt who goes to prison for someone else’s crime then finally emerges to find find the world he knew changed - and so many people in need of help. It’s also set in a different city, Yokohama, rather than the familiar nightlife districts of Tokyo and Osaka. In short, it’s an easy jumping-on point for people bewildered by the rolling re-releases and remakes of the original games....

Sega have announced the English cast for several of the main characters, including none other than George Takei as patriarch Masumi Arakawa. Your party of protagonists are being portrayed by Kaiji Tang as Ichiban, Andrew Morgado as ex-cop Adachi, Greg Chun as former nurse Nanba, and Elizabeth Maxwell as Saeko the hostess club manager. I’m not here to litigate the subs versus dubs debate. I’ve watched my share of anime with English voice acting and played plenty of JRPGs that way too, but I have gotten quite used to Yakuza’s original Japanese performances....

But what happened to everything you’d been working on? How did the people around you cope? Did anyone really notice? I don’t suppose any of that matters. At least King Eryk is given a reason, I suppose. Eryk is you, by the way, assuming you’re playing Yes, Your Grace like I have been. And he probably has more reason to complain than I do. As Eryk, you are faced with lots of petitioners demanding decisions, and a limited time to prepare for both a trial and a hostile army....

“Unlike Ys VIII, where co-op was mostly limited to combat, the second player is largely equivalent to the primary player in terms of capabilities in Ys IX, including movement and combat abilities, using Monstrum Gifts, discovering and triggering landmarks, enemies and events, opening chests, picking up collectibles, and initiating dialogue,” the announcement explains. “Only interacting with menus and the map is restricted to player one.” The co-op is only for local multiplayer, but it’s easy to do that online these days thanks to things like Steam Remote Play Together—which this does officially support....

Get the Samsung C24RG50 144Hz gaming monitor for $130 (w/ code EMCEXET49, was $170) That’s an incredible price for one of the best budget gaming monitors. The RG50 comes with a 24-in curved VA panel that provides deep blacks, excellent contrast (3000:1) and good colour reproduction, while the 144Hz refresh rate, FreeSync support and low input lag makes it a great choice for fast-paced games, like Warzone, Counter-Strike or Valorant. The subtle curvature found on this monitor is clever too, helping to eliminate the poor viewing angles common to VA panels by ensuring that you don’t look at the sides of the monitor off-axis....

This is the future. Here’s a video demonstrating all these things together. The embed below should start at 4 minutes and 27 seconds, which is when Vermeulen starts the test, but it’s worth going back to the beginning to get a better sense of how it’s set up, too. There is a very obvious clunkiness to this. Bobby, the NPC, says that City Hall is at “City Hall street location”....

Yes, even stranger than that cyberspace Oregon Country Fair. As spotted by PCGamesN, Activision’s Gallery Of The Gamer starts with a choice of two doors. Any good critic will find this a throwback to The Stanley Parable’s famous decision, presenting a meta-commentary on player agency in first-person videogames. This gallery raises the stakes, asking you to consider an existentially thought-provoking question: are you a gamer? It’s all a ruse, of course....

Still. AMD’s next-gen, RDNA 3-based GPUs are an unknown quantity, and the RTX 40 series will at first focus on high-end models like the RTX 4090. Even if its RDNA 2 architecture is on the way out, could the RX 6650 XT not find room in the pack as one of the best graphics cards for 1080p and 1440p? To find out, I’ve been testing Sapphire’s Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT, which further tunes up the maximum boost clock speed to 2694MHz – though you’re more likely to see speeds around the 2523MHz ‘Game Clock’ while playing....

Frictional explain that Adventure Mode “removes all life-threatening encounters with monsters, as well as the harrowing sound and visual effects that would affect Tasi’s fear levels.” Levels are brighter too. I was very grateful for Soma’s similar Safe Mode, and this goes further to push the game in a slightly different direction to fill the gap left by monstermurder. They’ve put in some extra puzzles for Adventure Mode, which is a clever idea....

But Among Trees, a woodland survival sandbox released into early access during this year’s PC Gaming Show, is different. It doesn’t seem so hostile. And, joy of joys, it has three different difficulty settings and a “Zen” mode that removes dangerous creatures like bears. For the hardened survival game veterans that might be a turn off, but for me it means Among Trees is a game that can be many things to me when I need it....

The announcement doesn’t have any more details about the project than that. Skydance New Media was co-founded by Hennig, however, with the aim of making “inviting and accessible” interactive adventures that could live on “traditional gaming platforms as well as emerging streaming services.” I’m going to wildly speculate that this will look like Uncharted but with skippable combat bits - which sounds ideal, really. Only a little is known about the Star Wars project Hennig was working on at EA....

About the only thing they have in common is that they both have what one might call ‘cute’ NPC companions. Dad Of War is joined by his eager archer “BOY!” Atreus, while Kena has her gaggle of black, fluffy Rot friends (above, right). According to the widely accepted law of big googly-eyes, I should find the Rot absolutely adorable and thus beyond reproach. Atreus does not have big googly-eyes (they are merely wide and naive), but he is certainly a lot cuter than God Of War’s other main companion, a talking disembodied head....