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Speaking to actor Samantha Béart about their fan (and PC Gamer)-favorite turn as Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3, I was surprised at how close we were to a different actor portraying the character.

Béart was initially turned down for what sounds like an early version of Karlach, as well as some side NPCs. It took a breakout indie performance and some off the cuff social media maneuvers to make it happen in the end.

"I auditioned in 2020 as a character called Kayra, and she was more of a fighter," Béart said. "Sarah Baylus, who wrote all the dialogue for Karlach, said she was a bit similar to Lae'zel, so they changed her quite radically."

Béart didn't get the role, and they had also auditioned for more minor NPCs, ones they characterized as "Goblin 49"-type guys. Béart ultimately didn't pursue these either, but noted that some of BG3's most prominent actors, including Theo Solomon (Wyll) and the BAFTA-winning Andrew Wincott (Raphael), put hours in the Random Side Character Mines.

As for Karlach, she seems to have been one of the most iterated-on characters in the game, and didn't fully come together until BG3's final release. "There was an art change, because they used [a standard Tiefling model], and then they beefed her up into the muscle mummy that we know and love," said Béart . "Shala Nyx is the actor who played her in early access," they added. "I think we sound quite similar, so people always think I did it."

Hobnobbing

"In 2022, I was in a game called The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, which had some really nice attention, where I played a very different role," said Béart (we gave it a 78% in our review). On Twitter⁠—confused readers will know it now as X, "The Everything App"—Béart noticed a Larian developer praising their performance. "As the only person in Britain who wasn't going to be in Baldur's Gate, I slid into his DMs." They requested any suitably major role still left in the game, no penny ante Goblin 49 action this time around.

"There was, and that was Karlach, and I had a home audition," said Béart. "I did an in person audition, and this was very quick after each other, and then was cast within a day. It was kind of crazy. My recall audition is on YouTube. If you want to go and watch it, you can see me move and everything."

Recording took "the better part of a year, on and off," at UK recording studio PitStop, where BG3's cast turned in their performances. "I had a full time job, and I did evenings and weekends at the studio," Béart said.

"They told me it was 10 sessions. It ended up being around 65," the actor recalled. "It's just one of those things like, 'Can you do another 10? Can you do another 10?' And I was like, 'Well, I can't leave my very well-paying IT consultancy job for this one videogame. And then they added up quite a bit. But by the end, we sorted it out.

"I quite like the intensity of it. Every other day is fine on the voice and the body. We're talking four-hour sessions here, and they didn't need to play me back my performance, because I'd only just done it the other day. So there was a really nice momentum to it, especially in a character who's very aware of the time she has."

Hey soldier

"It's been a bit of a shocker that this is where I've ended up," said Béart. "But I've been playing games a lot longer than I wanted to be an actor. I've been playing games since about eight years old, so this is very cool."

Béart credits their classical, Shakespearean training at the prestigious Guildhall school for preparing them to quickly adapt to motion capture work, despite not being specifically prepared for it.

"They teach you everything but audio and videogames," they said. "So it's a real testament to that training, the fact that I can take theater skills⁠—because you are using theater schools in mocap. It's a black box. You've got no scenery, you've got someone describing to you what's happening, but you've got no idea, you're being filmed 360 and you're going line by line.

Best of the best

(Image credit: Larian Studios)

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"[Baldur's Gate 3's performance directors] all came from that, so we had the same vocabulary, and it was just very comforting to have them in the room along with our voice directors. It was a lovely collaborative, fun, experimental sort of agreement, but you pick it up very quickly."

As for what's next, Béart hopes to be entering their "1990s Gary Oldman era," popping up where players least expect as a character actor. "I'm hoping to be very annoying and everywhere, like some of my contemporaries."

Béart can already be heard again in a supporting role in the recently released Tron: Catalyst, an isometric brawler from Thomas Was Alone and John Wick Hex creator, Bithell Games. Béart will also be appearing in the upcoming Fading Echo, and as a playable character in roguelike beat 'em up Absolum, which PC Gamer strategic director Evan Lahti called "the best game of Steam Next Fest."

Béart also has a podcast series on game development, It Takes a Village. They said that they'll be working on new episodes in the coming year, but you can check out the first season now on YouTube.

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Someone had to do it: An exceptionally skilled Elden Ring Nightreign player has soloed all eight Nightlords (and the new enhanced boss) as its squishiest character. And if my eyes don't deceive me, I think they did all of them in a row.

Reddit user PotatoFoSho calls it the "solo gremlin challenge" in reference to the flood of memes that depict the Revenant as a tiny angry doll usually wielding a sword twice her size. She's one of Nightreign's weakest characters in terms of survivability and is extremely dependent on finding powerful spells each run. When geared right, however, she can use her massive skeleton summons to distract bosses as she rips them apart.

PotatoFoSho dropped their relic setup for her, which notably includes a ton of stats to increase her mana and spell damage (not health!). They say fellow Revenant players should focus on cleaning out cathedrals for the seals that come with powerful incantation spells and to prioritize evergaol bosses for massive amounts of runes to level up quickly. The Wraith Calling Bell—which players have discovered is surprisingly powerful—is always good to have on you too, they said.

And like any good Revenant player, they recommend stacking up as many Starlight Shards as you can to keep your mana bar topped off since she has no way of restoring FP otherwise. They urge everyone to visit as many Sorcerer's Rises on the map as they can for them.

I have completed the solo gremlin challenge from r/Nightreign

As someone who just finished their first attempt on the new "Sovereign Everdark" version of the Gaping Maw boss, I'm impressed PotatoFoSho was able to take it out as a spell caster who has to also manage her skeleton minions. The finger gymnastics involved with that while also trying to avoid a rabid dragon and his massive hurricane must be practically Olympian.

I will stick to playing Revenant safely in groups of three so that when I inevitably get annihilated by a boss breathing on me, I will at least have some backup. Hats off to PotatoFoSho though, they've definitely earned the title of the Solo Gremlin.

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Sloclap's 5v5 soccer game Rematch came out strong yesterday, racking up nearly 93,000 concurrent players on Steam alone—impressive by any measure, and particularly so for a Thursday afternoon. Today the studio put an even bigger number on the scoreboard, saying Rematch pulled in a million players in its first day of full release.

"One million unique players in 24 hours," Sloclap wrote on X. "Seeing so many of you jump into Rematch on day one is incredible.

"The whole team is super grateful! And already hard at work on fixing and improving the game. We are just getting started."

That isn't straight-up sales, to be clear: Rematch is available on Game Pass, and a large number of those players could be coming from that direction. Even so, it's putting up strong numbers on Steam as well: More than 83,000 people are currently playing it there, according to SteamDB, and I would expect that number to climb even higher over the weekend.

(Image credit: Sloclap (Twitter))

Shortly after that message was posted, a small update for Rematch rolled out on Steam aimed at reducing crash issues, improving stability and performance, and fixing a desync problem caused by the ball hitting the goalpost.

In a separate message, however, Sloclap said some players are still having problems, and asked for further feedback, either in a reply on X or, better, via a bug report form.

The patch does not, unfortunately, address Rematch's absence of crossplay. Sloclap is working on it, but wasn't able to have it ready in time for release because of "unforeseen technical complexities."

The studio said yesterday that it has a "basic working version [of crossplay] from a technical standpoint, but we need to implement the relevant interfaces, before debugging and polishing it, and finally passing console certifications successfully." It said it would share a more detailed timeline for the rollout of Rematch crossplay as soon as possible.

The patch notes from today's hotfix, taking Rematch to version 1.200.005, are below.

Bugfixes

Fixed an issue where the ball would hit the goalposts and become entirely out of sync for all players.Ball sync issues might still happen under other circumstances.

Network / Performances

Pushed a fix to reduce the frequency of crashes occurring after scoring a goal on all platforms.Various fixes for stability issues.Various netcode improvements.Updates to matchmaking to further improve queue times.

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Horror luminary David Cronenberg's films are all thematically related, but 1983's Videodrome and 1999's eXistenZ feel especially like a diptych. Videodrome is about the virtual reality created by televised mass media ("television is reality, and reality is less than television") and eXistenZ is about an immersive VR game that erodes the realness of the world in a more explicit way.

eXistenZ is the more traditionally entertaining movie, with an eerily vacant Jude Law at one point building a biological gun in an unbeatable scene, but Videodrome's more abstract take on virtual reality was arguably the more prescient one. Today, it's social media feeds and 20 second video clips that have the power to define our reality, while playing games with actual VR headsets remains a somewhat niche hobby despite Mark Zuckerberg's big dreams.

But Cronenberg wasn't aiming to predict specifics about the future of videogames, telling GamesRadar in a recent interview that he's not much of a gamer himself.

"I think people interpret things they see in those movies in anticipation," said Cronenberg. "I mean, I've never been a great games player … but I was interested in [videogames]. It can be another art form—creating another world that is immersive, and so on.

"It intrigued me because, of course, in a way, movies have always been that as well. So people who think that eXistenZ anticipated some things about game playing—well, that's lovely. But, really, I don't think of art as prophecy."

To me, Videodrome and eXistenZ are foremost stories about mass media and the ideas of theorists like Marshall McLuhan (famous for his "the medium is the message" maxim) and Jean Baudrillard (the hyperreality guy), and I take Cronenberg's comment to mean that the VR game in eXistenZ was designed to serve the ideas that inspired it rather than to predict a specific future. (As is generally the case in sci-fi, however much it's accused of having gotten specific tech developments 'wrong.')

Still, there are parallels between eXistenZ's VR game and the games of today. Most superficially, there's the fact that VR headsets are now common. We don't have anything as advanced as what's depicted in the movie, but I can't not mention that Valve founder Gabe Newell owns a brain chip company.

The NPCs in eXistenZ also have some of the same uncanniness you get with today's large language model AI chat bots, and the way the VR game is influenced by the thoughts of the participants somewhat anticipates today's emphasis on user generated content in games like Roblox and Fortnite.

If any type of game has produced new realities, though, it's not VR games but the MMOs that came out within a few years of eXistenZ, namely EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and EVE Online.

EVE's simulated financial and political world has in particular been very real to many of its players, and it feels appropriate to mention here that developer CCP recently announced a plan to acquire the literal blood of some of its players to use as ink. (The medium is the message, indeed!)

Prophetic or not, Videodrome and eXistenZ would make a great double feature if you haven't seen them. Annoyingly and a bit ironically, the mass media entertainment complex hasn't made eXistenZ available to watch on any streaming platforms right now, and a recent 4K Blu-Ray run sold out fast, so you might have to hit up eBay.

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Monster Hunter Wilds has become the latest Steam review battleground as an influx of disgruntled players have tanked its review rating down to "overwhelmingly negative" in the last week. Since Monday, over 2,000 negative reviews have been filed, most of which criticize its poor PC performance and a lack of substantial fixes from Capcom in the months since it was released.

"It's been four months since release and the game hasn't seen any notable performance fixes," one Steam user wrote.

"This review will remain negative until they fix the terrible PC performance," another wrote.

The negative reviews paint a picture of a game plagued by crashes, stuttering, and visual glitches that sour the experience, if not completely preventing players from having an experience at all. Despite releasing a slew of updates over the past few months, Capcom hasn't solved these issues for a large number of players, nor has it really acknowledged them. Some of the Steam reviewers claim their performance has even gotten worse.

Mixed in with the performance issues are players expressing disappointment with some of Wilds' streamlined features and the general difficulty of the monster fights compared to older games, like Monster Hunter World. The first major title update introduced harder monsters, but series diehards want more mountains to climb.

"They charged $70 for a game that feels like it has less content than its precursors," wrote one Steam user.

Right now, there are more concurrent players in World than Wilds—which is somewhat understandable for a game that's been out longer and been on sale more often. But Wilds has been steadily declining since early April and has hit some of its lowest concurrent player counts in the last few weeks, sitting at just over 6,000 players, according to SteamDB. The Street Fighter collab that dropped in May wasn't enough to draw tons of people back, leaving the game in limbo until the next title update. Capcom plans to reveal the details about that on June 26.But there's no sign of a major performance patch coming to the game at the moment. Dragon's Dogma 2 suffered from similar issues last year and many players still say it's frustratingly rough on PC. In the face of this, many Wilds players seem to be losing hope that Capcom will do anything about it and are trying to make their concerns clear in the only way they know how.

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FBC: Firebreak did not live up to the hopes we had for it. But, as we noted in our 60% review, "many of Firebreak's problems are fixable. A thorough balance revision would immediately improve the experience." In an update posted on Steam today, Remedy said that's exactly the plan.

After the usual 'thanks for the feedback, we're reading it all' platitudes, the update gets into specifics, starting with the game's opening hours, which the Firebreak team admits "do not provide a good experience."

"Some of this is down to a lack of onboarding (more about that in a bit), explaining the game’s systems, how to take advantage of the tools at your disposal, and a lack of clarity as to what to do in the Jobs and how to do the work effectively," the team wrote. "In addition, the power fantasy isn’t great in the first hours of the game as starting (tier 1) weapons feel weak, and unlocking higher-tier weapons requires a bit too much grinding.

"We can see from the data and are seeing feedback that players who stick around and unlock more powerful tier 3 weapons and Perks, playing on higher Threat levels and Full three zone Job runs, are having a better time. It’s getting to that point, which is proving to be a struggle for many players. We are not naïve and think this is all there is to it, but getting you to the fun faster, giving you the nice toys quicker, is critical."

The absence of a worthwhile tutorial is indeed one of the big complaints about FBC: Firebreak, particularly for anyone coming to the game without having previously played Control. Having to grind through the game's Clearance system, which requires playing through chunks of levels multiple times in order to get to the good stuff, is also not great because it can lead to level burnout quicker than a straight-up linear playthrough: "By the time you reach the end of a Firebreak mission, you've already seen the bulk of it at least twice," our reviewer Rick Lane wrote. "So once I'd finished a job, I was kind of done with it, even though I'd spent less time in it than if it was a straight run to the finish line."

Remedy also said progression and gear unlocks are too slow: Lost Assets, the in-game currency used to unlock items, are too easy to miss (Remedy said 90% of FBC: Firebreak players have never picked up a single Lost Asset), and have you to finish a mission to collect your rewards: If you quit midway or get disconnected for any reason, you get nothing.

Some of FBC: Firebreak's problems, like the absence of a tutorial, will take time to solve. But a new patch that's out today aims to get the process started through various balance changes, making Lost Assets harder to miss, and changing the Clearance system so new players will start at Clearance Level 3 for the first job, Hot Fix.

"Today’s patch is just the beginning," the dev team concluded. "These are some of the most immediate changes, but we are actively discussing and planning broader improvements to the game based on what we are hearing and seeing."

The full FBC: Firebreak 1.2 patch notes are below.

Overview

We have overhauled core systems to make progression faster and more rewarding. Economy changes improve how you earn and spend currencies; the Requisition store now separates gear from cosmetics, and Job progression has been restructured to allow players to play full Jobs (all three zones) more quickly.

On top of that, there are many visible and under-the-hood improvements to the game included in this patch.

Read our extensive blog post about what is included in this patch and what improvements we are looking at bringing to the game in the near term.

Economy Changes

Upgrade currencies (Lost Assets and Research Samples) are now visually highlighted in the Jobs to make them easier to spot.All unlockable costs have been rebalanced to better match actual player currency earnings.Players will now earn and spend Lost Assets at a healthier pace, enabling smoother progression and gear unlocks.

Job Progression & Clearance Levels

New players now start at Clearance Level 3 (CL3) for the first Job, Hot Fix.Players can still choose to play at CL1 or CL2, but it's no longer a requirementTo unlock the next Job, you must complete a full three-zone run at CL3.Completing a Job at CL3 also unlocks the Corruption modifier for that Job.These changes provide faster access to full Job experiences and improve matchmaking and onboarding.

Requisitions

The Operational Requisition has been split into two categories:Essentials: Weapons, gear, Improvised Devices, Altered Augments.Expressions: Cosmetic unlocks, like sprays and armor sets.You no longer need to unlock unrelated items (e.g., gloves) to access key gear like weapons or augments.Overall, gear progression is now significantly faster and more focused.

Balancing

Decreased the time it takes to build the BOOMbox and Swivel CannonIncreased Hiss Trooper health and stagger thresholdThe Fix Kit’s Wrench now does damage at every TierIncreased the health pool of Powerful Enemies (the ones with names)The Stapler Corrupted Item is now less elusive and easier to follow

Audio

Fixed missing third-person perspective sound effects for Shock enemies that were not being played properlyFixed music transition issues when moving from the Main Menu to gameplayShield recharge sound effects are now properly audible, with a new implementation for out-of-range scenariosFixed a bug preventing harmful condition sounds from other players (such as fire effects) from being heard properlyAdded a sound effect when exiting weapon or grenade selection in Loadout menu, and added transition sounds for lobby Quick Kit selection

User Interface

Fixed Crisis Kit XP level indicators in the Results screen displayFixed player reputation overlapping XP progress in the post-match results screenFixed a crash issue when inspecting weapons in the Loadout menuFixed a misleading error message shown when the host leaves or disbands a party. It now correctly indicates that the party was disbandedYou can now ping ziplinesTemporary change: Removing the active Perks list from the top right of the in-game HUD due to performance issues (We will fix this urgently and bring the Perk list back)

Gameplay & Performance

Fixed an issue with the Humidifier where the water level changing was only visible to the player who placed the HumidifierEnhanced DualSense haptic feedback in different parts of the Main and other MenusJump Kit Impactor Tool can now be charged while sprinting.

Visuals and Rendering

Performance improvementsEntering or exiting a teammate’s Resonance Shield range no longer triggers blue screen flashes.Added a glowing highlight to Lost Assets and Research Samples to make them more attractiveImproved blood visual effectsImplemented distance fade for distortion effects inside fansFreezer Duty – Added a ramp to the top of one of the buildings in Zone 2 so that Hiss can now get there. Sorry.Ground Control – Fixed a wall in Zone 2 so players can no longer see through itUpdated various props and environmental elements

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It might not be immediately apparent, what with its pompous music and brutal murder of Patrick Stewart, but The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is a very funny game. For some players, like PC Gamer's Joshua Wolens, it's a big part of the attraction. But much of that comedic potential may be lost in Skyblivion, the upcoming remake of Oblivion in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, not because the developers are intentionally doing away with it, but simply due to the relentless march of progress.

"The problem there is that this remake of Oblivion takes place in a completely different engine," Skyblivion lead developer Rebelzize told Joshua in a recent interview. "Most of these bugs or funny features are very engine-specific. So for instance, lot of those funny clips from Oblivion stem from the game freezing when you're in a dialog with someone.

"With the assassination of Uriel Septim in the tutorial dungeon, Uriel will sometimes talk to you while the assassin has already appeared behind him, and he's like, 'Oh, I hope nothing bad will happen to me!' Like the guy is just staring [at him], breathing down his neck. It is hilarious."

A lot of those amusing moments are entirely unintentional, the result of bugs or jankiness in the Gamebryo engine that are unfortunately no longer present in Skyrim's Creation engine. That means the Skyblivion team would have to intentionally recreate those moments, and Rebelzize said doing so just isn't feasible.

"Just the way Skyrim's engine is a lot more streamlined, those bugs often don't survive the transition," Rebelzize said. "If it's purely interesting dialog or delivery of lives, that stuff will still be goofy. I think in a lot of cases, the quests themselves are just really well written, or written in a way that it's maybe not supposed to be funny, but the way it plays out is funny. Stuff like that, to an extent, will still happen, but I think it's a much more mature experience."

Skyblivion's humorous high-step may also be flattened by other efforts to make the game "more mature." Rebelzize cited the example of a castle in Kvatch which appears essentially untouched when players enter it in the original Oblivion; in Skyblivion, however, it will look more like a battleground, reflecting the death and damage wrought by the invading Daedra.

"I'm looking right now at a corpse that I've placed very specifically in an area where the player can miss it of a burned person and their child, they're cradled together," Rebelzize said, describing a bit of the game they were working on. "There's a lot more fleshed out and more mature designs in the game that I hope really sell [the idea] that the world that these people live in is literally aflame, and it's death everywhere you look. There's a lot more urgency because this is what's going to happen all over the place."

Yeah, that's not very funny. This is, though.

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Have you ever thought to yourself, boy, I sure would like a Duke Nukem TV series? Well you might be getting one anyway, as Adi Shankar, producer of the Devil May Cry and Castlevania shows on Netflix, said in an interview with Esquire that he's acquired the rights to make one.

Most of the interview is about how Shankar ended up doing Devil May Cry—apparently Capcom suggested it and Shankar, who said he's been a fan since 2001, leapt at the opportunity—his approach to making the show, and animation in general. But near the end, it veers into what he's got cooking for the future.

"I got videogames in production. Obviously more Devil May Cry," Shankar said. "I'm being approached with different IPs and companies that want to work with me. I bought the rights to Duke Nukem. Not the gaming rights, but I bought it from Gearbox."

His vision for Duke Nukem, he continued, is "a middle finger to everybody."

"When Duke Nukem blew up, a bunch of people sat around trying to turn it into a brand, when it's just a middle finger. Duke Nukem can't be made by a corporation, because the moment a corporation makes Duke Nukem, it's no longer Duke Nukem. I don't intend on having anyone tell me what to do on this one."

Duke Nukem 3D is a fantastic FPS, as good as any shooter to come out of the groundbreaking days of the mid-1990s. It's also the only genuinely good Duke Nukem game ever made: The first two games in the series are standard Apogee platforming fare—perfectly fine, but no Commander Keen—and what's followed in the years since has careened between unremarkable and outright bad. But for some reason, the legend of Duke Nukem—that it's a much-loved pop-culture touchstone, rather than a poorly-aged flash in the pan—persists.

Which isn't to say a Duke Nukem TV series (or a new videogame, for that matter) will inevitably be bad. PC Gamer's Robert Jones shared some ideas in 2023 about how Duke could be resurrected in ways that don't suck, and I agree pretty much across the board: Duke could work very well as an Austin Powers-style send-up of testosterone-drenched action heroes.

But that would require three things: An understanding and acknowledgement that Duke Nukem in his post-3D iteration doesn't work; a willingness to ignore the small but surely very vocal minority who thinks it does work, or at least that changing it would be some kind of sacrilege; and smart, sharp writing to make it actually happen.

Could Shankar pull all that together? Maybe—the Devil May Cry and Castlevania series were both well received, and Shankar showed a willingness to change things up for DMC that didn't leave some fans entirely happy (but did earn it a second season). Anything's possible, I suppose. Hell, sign Alan Ritchson up for it and I might even tune in.

As for why he'd want to bother trying in the first place, Shankar alluded to that earlier in the interview when he talked about taking on Devil May Cry.

"I didn't want the biggest thing," he said. "Don't give me Street Fighter or Assassin's Creed. I was a fan of so many things that disappeared and I was in a position of power to bring them back. I could make more Dino Crisis! And if I blow up Dino Crisis into Jurassic Park, I should do that."

And in case you'd forgotten, as I had, this isn't the first time someone has floated the idea of pulling Duke out of the world of videogames: In 2022, Legendary Entertainment picked up the rights to do a Duke Nukem movie. A persistent legend indeed.

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Balatro was PC Gamer's 2024 Game of the Year for many good reasons, but one of them was that no-one on the team could stop playing this thing. We weren't alone either: developers went gaga for the poker roguelike. And now it turns out that even Balatro creator LocalThunk just can't stop banging his head against the wall he created.

LocalThunk is pretty good at his own game: last year he spoke about beating Balatro with every deck on every difficulty. He also played a few rounds at GDC, anonymously, wowing bystanders with his savant-like knowledge of the tips and tricks. But even with such achievements under his belt, LocalThunk still wants to "100%" the game, and has run up against the challenge to end all challenges. Erm… which he created.

LocalThunk is currently trying to score Balatro's toughest achievement, which is for a completionist++ run. A completionist++ run is extraordinarily difficult and, while better Balatro players than I may disagree, leaves an absolutely enormous amount up to RNGesus and what Jokers pop up when.

To get the completionist++ achievement, you have to "earn a gold sticker on every Joker." To get a gold sticker, a Joker has to be on your team after beating the Ante 8 boss on a gold stake run (the game's hardest difficulty). Problem is that not all of the game's 150 Jokers are great, while some are downright useless, and the gold stakes rules are brutal: small blinds give no reward money, required scores get higher faster, fewer discards, and Jokers that can last forever, or degrade, or that you have to pay to keep.

(Image credit: LocalThunk)

Not for me, thanks, though I bet PC Gamer EIC Phil Savage has had a good go at it. LocalThunk has been trying his best, and posted the "are ya winning son?" meme with an embedded "game over" screen from Balatro, showing him losing to The Wall (one of the game's most brutally difficult bosses).

"But for real I'm at 146/150 for completionist++ and getting a taste of my own medicine," added LocalThunk (thanks, GR+). A user called Mark had the appropriate response: "Well well well if it isn’t the consequences of my actions."

LocalThunk has managed the completionist+ achievement, which is hard enough (beat gold stakes with every deck). But I for one am glad that a game that has kicked my ass many times is also doing it to its own creator.

Balatro will at some point be receiving a 1.1 update that will be adding some new Jokers to the game, among other things, but even the publisher doesn't know when that's happening: "He's just gonna show up one day and say, 'Here's 100 Jokers.'"

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The cover's blown on 007 First Light, IO Interactive's stealth action game starring a young James Bond. After some teasing and years of quiet work on "Project 007," we finally know what kind of game the Hitman developer has been cooking up for the iconic character. A short trailer that debuted during Sony's June State of Play gave us a look at 007 First Light's original version of Bond, the many locations the story will take us to, and a release date. Well, okay, a release year.

First Light's announcement trailer has moments that look quite a lot like Hitman as Bond ducks behind cover and tosses objects at enemies, but it also seems to have the kind of explosive action setpieces ripped right out of the films. Unlike Agent 47, though, this baby-faced Bond has a lot to learn before he can truly take on the role of MI6's spy extraordinaire.

Here are all the details we've been able to decode from Bond's dossier so far.

007 First Light release details

(Image credit: IO Interactive)

007 First Light will be released sometime in 2026 for PC, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2. IO Interactive didn't give an exact date at the end of the announcement trailer during Sony's June State of Play, but it did promise to reveal more about it later this summer. The trailer also mentions that signing up for an IO Interactive account on the website will unlock the "On Duty" skin for Bond and the "Gilded Wraith" golden weapon skin—which are the kind of concrete in-game bonuses that make me think it's far enough along that it'll drop earlier, rather than later, in the year.

007 Fight Light trailers and gameplay footage

A lot of details are packed into the opening conversation in 007 First Light's announcement trailer. We not only get a sense of the tone IO Interactive is going for, but a broad picture of its version of Bond through the eyes of his handlers. They describe him as a "bullet without a target," much like how creator Ian Fleming conceptualized the character back in 1953 as a blunt instrument wielded by the government. This Bond is young, naive, reckless, and unbelievably lucky when things go awry—a perfect lump of clay for MI6 to mold into a dashing killer.

The rest of the trailer plants the seeds for what kind of gadgets and weapons we'll be able to use as we chase our target, rogue agent 009, across the globe. There's a watch that sparks a jet engine in a dirt bike, detective vision for highlighting nearby enemies, some kind of pocket tranquilizer dart, a wristwatch laser beam, cars, boats, and a whole arsenal of guns.

Exclusive interview with IO Interactive

We visited IO Interactive for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the development of 007 First Light. Check it out!

007 First Light story and setting details

(Image credit: IO Interactive)

We only have the announcement trailer to work off of, but thankfully it's packed with hints at what we can expect as Bond earns his numbers in 007 First Light. MI6 recruits Bond after making a surprisingly heroic act on a mission in Iceland and fires him directly at rogue agent 009. The trailer shows several brief shots of all the places Bond will visit as he tracks his target down.

Here's everything about 007 First Light's story we know so far:

After losing his parents on a climbing expedition when he was 11, this version of Bond rabble roused through several boarding schools before ending up in the royal navyThe story is set in the modern day and begins with a 26-year-old Bond who's picked up by MI6 after a heroic act during an Iceland missionHis mentor, Greenway, thinks he's a risk, but reluctantly agrees to train himRogue agent 009 is his target and is described as a "master manipulator"Bond will travel to several locations, including what looks like Slovakia and VietnamFamiliar characters from the franchise will return, including M, Q, and MoneypennyAt some point Bond and Greenway will be tied up in a pit full of crocodiles

007 First Light gameplay features

(Image credit: IO Interactive)

The announcement trailer made it pretty clear that 007 First Light will be a third-person stealth action game that leans more toward the action. There will be a variety of levels set around the world with objectives to chase after. And once you finish the campaign, you'll be able to revisit each mission with "additional modifiers," much like Escalations in Hitman.

IO Interactive has been clear about one thing though: 007 First Light isn't Hitman with James Bond. Agent 47 may be a trained killer like Bond, but his speciality is getting the job done completely undetected. Bond's approach "has a lot more forward momentum," narrative and cinematic director Martin Emborg told told PC Gamer in an exclusive interview.

"You need a lot of patience to play Hitman," Emborg said. "You need to be sitting there seeing the patrol—he goes over there, and he likes wine, and you overhear that thing. But Bond, he can also just walk through the front door. 'I'm actually just going to go and talk to them. I'm just going to go punch him right now'."IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak told PC Gamer that there are "elements in the game that you would expect from IO Interactive—with the freedom of approach, solving puzzles in different ways, and social spaces that are very deep with rich crowds." But despite having some major differences from Hitman, Abrak said that, for the team, 007 First Light is "all that skill, all that practice coming together and finally seeing the ultimate spy fantasy come to life."

It's frighteningly possible Bond knows what TikTok is

(Image credit: IO Interactive)

Look at him: He's a barely-out-of-school twenty-something who probably grew up with an iPad. There's no way he knows what a cassette tape is—which has me convinced he's got TikTok installed on his phone. I just need one mission to involve Rainbolting the location of a target via someone doing a viral dance on a fake TikTok video.

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US President Donald Trump has once again pushed back a deadline requiring TikTok to be sold by its Chinese owner, Bytedance. Last year the US passed a law requiring either a sale or that the app be banned. This marks the third time that Trump has extended the deadline.

Trump signed the executive order yesterday, which does raise the question of whether TikTok will ever be forced into the sale: under this administration, at least. Trump did try to force TikTok's sale during his first term, in 2020, but late last year decided it was great, actually: "I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok, because I won youth by 34 points."

Trump is here referring to TikTok's impact on the US Presidential election, which remains unclear. His claim to have won "youth by 34 points" has been debunked by multiple fact-checkers: Trump obviously won the election overall, but Democratic candidate Kamala Harris outperformed him among younger voters.

Anyway. Following Trump's decision, TikTok issued this statement: "We are grateful for President Trump's leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President Vance's Office."

All sounds very cosy. US Lawmakers had argued that TikTok posed a threat to national security, and that Bytedance could be forced to hand over data on US users to Beijing (both of which TikTok denies). The ban was first passed by Congress before being upheld by the Supreme Court: Trump extended the ban on January 20, again in April, and the third extension pushes the date for a deal or sale back to September 17. Any deal is likely to need Beijing's approval.

(Image credit: Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images)

"[Trump's] making an extension so we can get this deal done," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. "It’s wildly popular. He also wants to protect Americans’ data and privacy concerns on this app. And he believes we can do both at the same time."

The decision has been criticised by Democrats. "Once again, the Trump administration is flouting the law and ignoring its own national security findings about the risks posed by a PRC-controlled TikTok," said Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Vice Chairman Mark Warner. "An executive order can't sidestep the law, but that's exactly what the president is trying to do."

With this third delay, the Tiktok situation is now a "deadline purgatory," analyst Jeremy Goldman told the AP, "starting to feel less like a ticking clock and more like a looped ringtone. This political Groundhog Day is starting to resemble the debt ceiling drama: a recurring threat with no real resolution."

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I love a good fishing game, which may be a controversial opinion for the PC Gamer team, but I stand by my convictions. Fishing is a nice, calming experience that gives me a desperately needed break from my regular horrifying and brutal games. But sometimes fishing with Willie in Stardew Valley doesn't quite cut it, and that's where Steam's Fishing Fest (a fishing-themed sale that ends soon), and Scale the Depths come in.

Scale the Depths is a cutesy pixel-art fishing game which sees players catch fish and prepare them to sell off to hungry patrons. Not human patrons, though: There's a ton of different visitors who'll come to your boat situated in Loch Ness, like otters and ospreys, selkies and kelpies, and of course the Loch Ness monster if you're doing particularly well.

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Every creature has different needs, with a couple of small fishes being enough for the otter and a whole host of massive fish for Nessie, and your job is to make sure all leave happy and well-fed.

But it's not charity: each patron will pay you for the food they get. The money you make then can go to upgrading gear which will let you get better fish and in turn more money. The cycle is pretty basic, but that's what makes it so great.

Everything quickly becomes a habit, and after the first couple of fishing outings I soon became a well-oiled machine, catching, preparing, and selling fish as if I were an old fisherman who'd lost his arm in the Nordic sea and tells tales of Krakens and monsters seen in the deep ocean. Honestly, the only thing separating me from that dream is the fact that the only part of this game I can't quite get the hang of is the fishing.

(Image credit: Glass Gecko Games)

Now that sounds really pathetic, but I assure you that it's only a little pathetic. You don't just drop your line and wait for fish to come knocking in Scale the Depths, you go full-blown hunting. You can control your fishing line to actively chase the fish you want to catch, but the controls are a little finicky.

Instead of following the direction of your mouse, you use the A and D keys, which is all well and good when you want to go left or right. But for some reason as soon as I want to do a 180 turn or god forbid a full circle my brain times out and all coordination leaves me, as you just need to keep pressing A or D—although this is clearly a skill issue instead of anything actually wrong with the game. Upgrading your kit does make hunting down prey slightly easier, even for me.

By browsing the in-game shop you can upgrade several key items. There's your fishing rod which will increase hook speed, and give you more line so you can venture deeper, the hook which will increase the damage fish take—some fish need to be hit a couple of times before they can get caught—the knife which makes it easier to de-scale and prepare fish, and lastly your inventory size.

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The most helpful upgrade has to be the longer line. With this, you can actually start exploring the sea below you. There's better fish to be found, alongside levers which open doors to new areas, and some trinkets like treasure and a message in a bottle.

These new locations host bigger and better fish to catch. The humble minnow is in abundance on the surface of the water so isn't very effective, but the Atlantic Salmon, Northern Pike, and Ferox Trout, which all hang out in the depths, are big enough to fill your patrons up almost instantly. Although the rarest and most sought-after inhabitant of the deep sea is the Beithir.

This is a mythical serpent-like dragon which is prevalent in Scottish folklore, known to inhabit remote mountainous caves and corries, closeby to rivers or lochs. It's also bloody massive, so it'll feed even the most hungry patrons.

In the end, after scaling the depths, catching mythic monsters, and feeding all the residents of Loch Ness I was able to upgrade my gear to the Iron Rod, Harpoon, Zweihander, and the plastic crate. And in doing so I'm one step closer to my dream of turning into a seasoned fisherman.

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Grounded 2 is just around the corner, and it’s looking like you can expect big things from this tiny survival-crafter.

Five years after its predecessor entered early access, Grounded 2 was announced at the recent Xbox Games Showcase and promised to deliver even wilder miniaturised adventures for fans of the original game. Hey, we’re even wandering beyond the confines of the back yard this time.

I’ve brought together all the need-to-know info on Grounded 2, so you can stay up to date with all the key details on the upcoming sequel. Whether you’re looking to be filled in on Grounded 2’s early release date, gameplay, story, or story, it's all here.

Grounded 2 release date and platforms

Early access for Grounded 2 begins July 29 on PC and Xbox Series X|S, meaning it really won’t be long until you’re ant-sized and battling bugs once again. That said, it’s difficult to say exactly how long the game will be in this early access period.

Grounded spent about two years in Xbox Game Preview before the full version’s release in 2022, if that’s anything to go by. However, what’ll really be the deciding factors behind when the 1.0 release drops are how the development team’s early access roadmap pans out, and how the existing build is received by players.

Will Grounded 2 be available on Xbox Game Pass?

(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

Grounded 2 will be available on PC and Xbox Game Pass during early access. Given that the small print doesn’t specify a particular Xbox Game Pass tier, it’s safe to assume that all subscribers (from Core to Ultimate) will be able to play Grounded 2 as part of their subscription.

When is Grounded 2 coming to Playstation and Switch?

As of yet, there hasn’t been any indication of Grounded 2 coming to Playstation 5 or Nintendo Switch 2. For reference, it took two years after Grounded’s full release for the game to come to a platform other than PC and Xbox. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Grounded 2 receive a similar timed exclusive treatment.

Grounded 2 trailers

Grounded 2 was the big surprise during Xbox's Summer Showcase this year. We got our first look at the Grounded sequel just over a month prior to its early access release.The announcement trailer opened with an in-universe TV commercial for a new Yoked Girth toy (Grounded’s silly, muscle-bound parody of He-Man) before cutting into a breaking news segment. Here, we learn that—two years after their original ordeal at the hands of Ominent—the four teens from Grounded have mysteriously vanished. What the authorities don’t realise is that the teens are still in the park where they went ‘missing’; they’ve just been shrunken to approximately the size of an ant… again. The rest of the trailer shows the teens fighting and exploring through the abandoned park, taking on everything from battling scorpions to climbing giant mountains of ice cream.

Grounded 2 story

(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

Grounded 2 takes place in 1992, two years after the events of Grounded. As far as the public are concerned, Ominent—the malevolent corporation behind the events of the first game—is undergoing a bit of a redemption arc, as the company dedicates a statue to the four teen heroes that turned Dalton Schmector into the authorities. However, the reality of the situation is a bit more complicated than that.

During the unveiling ceremony in Brookhollow Park, an explosion erupts (a distraction or a malfunctioning SPAC.R?) leading to the apparent disappearance of the kids and Dr. Tully.

In actuality, the teenagers have been shrunken down and are fighting for survival in the grass below everyone’s feet. You take up the role of one of these puny protagonists and work to embiggen yourself once more, all while taking on the deadly threats found within the park and discovering who exactly is behind the plot to shrink you in the first place.

Yeah, yeah. That’s cool and all but will Grounded 2 finally reveal the identity of the fifth teen?

Grounded isn’t all base building and figuring out how to perfect block; there’s a surprising bit of lore too. A lingering question that has bugged players since the release of the first game is who exactly emerged from that fifth slot in the kid case. While the remains of a camp that seemingly belonged to the fifth teen in the first game, their fate is unknown. We don’t even know if they survived the challenges of the backyard.

That said, there are some clues that suggest the missing fifth kid might play a role in Grounded 2. For one, the Steam page for the game reads, “something else is out there, and it hasn't forgotten you,” which leaves room to theorise that the fifth kid could’ve survived to hold a grudge against the other four for leaving them behind. So, we might see the fifth teen in Grounded 2… but they could be a friend or a foe.

Grounded 2 gameplay

(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

While Grounded 2’s gameplay will feature the same mix of building, exploration, combat, and survival, there are a couple of key changes in the sequel that we’ve already gotten a glimpse at.

For starters, Grounded 2’s map is three times bigger than the first game's. With such a big world to explore, your little legs can only take you so far before your stamina starts to take a hit. To help lighten the load and get you where you need to go faster, Grounded 2 introduces a new variety of insect mounts called buggies.

Alongside helping you to get from A to B(ee), buggies also offer support with exploration, building, and combat, with each species having its one set of unique abilities. We haven’t gotten a full picture of every kind of buggy the game will include, but we do know you definitely can pop a saddle on a red ant or opt to ride an orb weaver spider for some hardcore arachnophobia exposure therapy.

Another new addition in Grounded 2 is the Omni-tool. While inventory management may be some folks’ idea of meditation, it can also be an unwelcome distraction from the real business of surviving and/or crafting. To save you the hassle of juggling a shovel, an axe, a hammer, and a wrench in your backpack all at once, Grounded 2 graces players with the Omni-tool, which does the job of all four tools in one.

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Looks like hackers are trying to flog a fresh batch of user passwords on the web, again. Or are they? A recent report has been rotating around the web claiming that 16 billion passwords are up for grabs following a "record-breaking data breach", though many cybersecurity experts argue it's not what it seems.

The original report comes from Cybernews, an outlet that previously claimed to have knowledge of a breach of 10 billion passwords last year, and 26 billion records just before that. Woah, that suggests password breaches in excess of billions happen all the time… or do they?

Turns out, what's likely happening here is that someone is putting together one Very Big File including the many data breaches that have occurred in the past. That is, it's not a new data breach; it's a collection of previous ones, known as a package or simply a collection. In this case, this may not even be a single collection: the researcher behind it, Bob Diachenko, says it is from multiple sources, bound together to get to that 16 billion figure. That's the 'breach' that Cybernews is reporting—less of a breach, more of a compilation of breaches from the past couple of decades. Now That's What I Call Breaches.

Here are well-known malware and cybersecurity experts, vx-underground, on the new package:

No.It's common for Threat Actors to take collections of compromised websites and assemble them into packages. There are many packages available.The thing CyberNews discussed was a new "pack" which contains 16,000,000,000 records. This is true, a new "package" does exist.…June 19, 2025

Here's another account with a similar note:

16 Billion Credentials Leaked – What Actually Happened?Cybernews first broke the story, reporting that their team had discovered multiple smaller datasets over the past six months. When combined, the data amounts to over 16 billion credentials.Many major media outlets have…June 19, 2025

Vx-underground makes another good point: if this many passwords had indeed been breached, why aren't any of the companies affected talking about it? And why didn't they talk about the last breach of 26 billion accounts or the billions before that?

According to some reports, Apple, Google, and Facebook have all been included in this breach, and yet these companies remain notably silent on the matter. Looking across various social media platforms, it seems the only people talking about it are other news outlets and a litany of verified accounts on X pushing conspiracy theories about perceived government backdoors being supposedly to blame.

But is there anyone or anything to blame here, beyond poor cybersecurity practices over the past few decades? This collection likely came about from a gradual process of hacks occurring over a very long period of time through various channels, using a range of attacks, schemes, and tools.

CyberNews pushed the same fucking story last year. It's even written by the same author.You can't keep fear mongering people every time a Threat Actor assembles a data leak package pic.twitter.com/NlcjYyWQ95June 19, 2025

Here's Infostealers on the supposed breach. They claim there's no evidence of a mass infection that could lead to any number of computers being breached to reach this 16 billion figure. They also claim the package is likely filled with recycled or even fabricated data. Essentially, they're saying the same thing as vx-underground.

A great way to check your own login details and for any recent breaches is by visiting haveibeenpwned.com. The last breach noted by the site was the Ualabee breach in May 2025, noted in June, containing over 450,000 records from the South American mobility services platform Ualabee. There have been no billions of passwords added to haveibeenpwned's page in recent days.

The largest breach noted by haveibeenpwned is actually a collection of passwords from many sources called Collection #1, which was posted in early 2019. Yep, the same sort of collection as seen here.

So, yes, it's fair to say the language does get a bit fuzzy around what's a data 'breach' and what's not, but a collection of old and likely outdated data poses a significantly reduced risk to a new breach exposing up-to-date information and targeted at a single platform or database. Also note that the 26 billion password breach suggested by Cybernews in 2024 isn't logged in the list.

(Image credit: haveibeenpwned.com)

So, should you be worried about your passwords? Well, yes and (a little bit) no. This might not be a new breach of massive proportions as claimed, but it's still a good warning of the dangers of poor cybersecurity practices. If you rely on a single password for multiple websites, you're increasing your risk of theft, fraud, or even identity theft. Grab yourself a password manager—there are many good options, but I'd recommend Bitwarden or Proton Pass from my own experiences with them—and turn on two-factor authentication where possible (2FA).

And don't let me see you use any of the popular passwords noted in NordPass' yearly report, including '123456' and 'password'.

Using a single password for everything was very much my MO when I was a kid, but luckily I lived to see another day, set another password, and with my Runescape account safe. Sadly, I did lose my Adventure Quest login to hackers… don't let those b******s get yours.

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The Legion Go 2 is a known entity but what's not known yet is when we'll get our hands on it. That might've changed thanks to a slip of the tongue: the Legion Go 2 is headed our way this September, according to none other than Lenovo itself.

Yep, Lenovo may have leaked its own handheld launch, though we can't be too sure if the information is totally accurate yet. Even if it is, there's still plenty of time for plans to change. But, alas, it's our best idea of when the AMD-powered handheld will arrive, and it comes from a comment made by the Lenovo LATAM account on Facebook.

Reported by a Redditor and picked up by Videocardz, Lenovo LATAM responds to a user enquiring when the Legion Go S (Z1 Extreme version) and Legion Go 2 will be available in their region. They tell the user than they hope it will arrive in their online store in September, and tell them to keep an eye on social media for any new developments.

Sure sounds like an announcement is on its way, though as I mentioned earlier, we do already have a pretty good idea of this handheld. That's because Lenovo had units on show at CES 2025, the Las Vegas tech show, and detailed the specs in a press release. Here they are:

8.8-inch, 16:10, 144 Hz OLED screenDetachable controllersAMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme processorUp to 32 GB LPDDR5X-750074 Whr batteryUp to 2 TB SSD

That all sounds pretty good, and would have the Legion Go picking up the mantle of detachable controllers right where the Legion Go left off. I had worried that we wouldn't see the return of detachable controllers after the Legion Go S ditched them in favour of a more compact and pared back approach, but they've made the cut for the second-generation. They're surprisingly handy for a handheld gaming PC, too, as I found in my Legion Go review.

Lenovo promised back in January that the Legion Go 2 would be arriving "worldwide in 2025" and September sure fits the bill. It's enough time for Lenovo to eke out some more details before then, but not quite leaving the launch to the last minute.

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The SanDisk Extreme Pro has given me a glimpse at what proper USB4 external SSDs like this have in store for us, and it's enough to make me rather excited. Mainstream usable 40 Gbps USB4 drives are finally here, and they're fast. This, too, in the same year that SanDisk has shown us the first mainstream, usable PCIe 5.0 internal SSD with the WD Black SN8100. 2025 really does seem to be a year of transition and evolution for PC storage.

Although I couldn't find an official spec that lists the specific controller inside this SanDisk Extreme Pro external SSD, it must surely be the use of a new controller that allows this drive to finally sustain USB4 speeds, and do so at a decent temperature. The few previous USB4 drives on the market simply weren't capable of this.

Previous USB4 drive controllers, such as those in the Adata SE920, for instance, couldn't sustain peak speeds at low temperatures. The SE920 uses active cooling to help things out on this front, but my tests have shown that even then it can't match this SanDisk in performance and temps (and therefore also in form factor).

Whatever the reason for it, there's a definite generational improvement in performance on offer here with the SanDisk drive, and I mean both in terms of sequential and RND4k performance, ie, for file transfers and for your system tasks, such as running games from the SSD.

Extreme Pro USB4 specs

(Image credit: Future)

Capacity: 2 TB (tested) / 4 TBUSB Gen: USB4 Gen 3x2 (40 Gbps)Rated performance: 3,800 MB/s read / 3,700 MB/s writeFlash memory: 3D NANDPrice: $280 / £264

The drive is rated at up to 3,800 MB/s and I found it to maintain transfer speeds just shy of this for pretty much two minutes straight, which means about 450 GB of data transferred in just two minutes. Then (once the pseudo SLC cache runs out) it drops to about 2,000 MB/s for another two minutes, then back up for another two, then rinse and repeat.

The speed that it drops to in these dips, crucially, is the same as, or even slightly higher than premium USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 drives, such as the Samsung T9. USB4 is just that much better, but of course you have to have a USB port that can handle the 40 Gbps spec for it to be worth it. Most new laptops these days come with at least one such port, but it's worth checking just in case, otherwise you'll have spent USB4 money only to be capped at USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 speeds.

Admittedly, and as you can see below, to get this consistency you need to enable drive write caching, which can in theory lessen stability and increase risk of data loss. But in practice that shouldn't be much of a risk, and at any rate it still achieves decent sequential peak frequencies even with the write cache function disabled.

It's not just file transfers the SanDisk Extreme Pro smashes, either. My CrystalDiskMark testing showed the drive's RND4k read performance to be 34% better than the other USB4 drive, the SE920, and to offer over twice the performance of the Samsung T9, which is a very premium USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 drive and was previously my go-to for, well, everything. Crucially, this benchmark mimics the hundreds and thousands of tiny read/write actions a drive will go through in more general usage, such as when you're running applications directly from a given drive.

The reason the USB 3.2 Gen 2 T9 was my go-to ahead of the USB4 SE920 is because the latter is a chonky thing that gets incredibly hot, even with the strange spring-open active fan cooling solution on offer. But there's none of that nonsense with the SanDisk Extreme Pro; it's a thin drive that I found to cap out at just 66 °C during my testing.

The Extreme Pro doesn't have your usual external SSD's design, though. While it's certainly thin enough, it's bigger than most previous-gen drives across the other dimensions. At 140 x 68.7 x 11.9 mm, it's essentially phone-sized. Don't believe me? Here it is in my hand.

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That makes it bigger than the Corsair EX400U, for instance, another new USB4 drive. It also has a hoop, as you can see, which is presumably to keep it hooked or locked, but I didn't find use for that. It's certainly not for use on a keychain, given how big it is.

Its textured top feels nice to hold, as does the entire SSD. It feels very solid and premium, and when I put it on my desk, its wide, rubberised base kept it from moving at all. It doesn't exactly stick to the desk, but it doesn't budge from a simple nudge, either.

While it is a little wide, that won't matter much if you're just keeping it flat on your desk or on top of your PC. Which brings me to a genuine use case for it: as a drive to store your games and play them from. This is the first external drive that's really pushed the boat out on this front in a long time.

That's because its RND4k performance translates to some serious gaming performance. I pitted it against 3DMark's storage benchmark, which tests the drive in real-world gaming scenarios such as loading saves in modern games, and it wiped the floor with every other external SSD I've tested. We're talking about 2.5x better than a quality USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 drive like the T9, and about 50% better than the USB4 SE920.

Buy if...

✅ You do big file transfers: This drive will breeze through big transfers thanks to its sustained write speed, provided you have a USB4 port that can properly utilise it.✅ You want to use it as a game library: This drive offers better RND4k performance than we've seen on any external drive, meaning it's great for gaming.

Don't buy if...

❌ You don't have a USB4 port: If you lack the proper port, you might as well save your money and opt for a good USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 drive.

I also tested gaming myself and ran into no issues at all. My crustacean hopped its merry little way through Crab Champions with no stuttering at all, and levels and textures loaded right away. Transferring the 1.7 GB game over to the drive was instantaneous, too.

For this sheer performance you can, of course, expect to pay a premium. But somehow it's not as much of a premium as I expected. The 2 TB version I tested comes in at about $280. At the time of writing, you can get a 2 TB T9 (a premium USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 drive) for about $210 and an SE920 (a USB4 drive) for about $270. It's more expensive than premium USB 3.2 Gen 3x2 drives but it's smack in the USB4 price range and performs just as well as its price tag indicates, which is more than I can say for the SE920 now that this SanDisk exists to compete.

There are other new USB4 drives on the market now, too, but the only other one I've tested in addition to this SanDisk ran into problems and didn't offer anywhere near the performance of this one.

For the massive speed increase you're getting, it's certainly worth the premium if you want something incredibly performant. That's true whether you're looking for a drive to do lots of backups and transfers (ie, with good sequential performance), or one to game from (ie, with good RND4k performance). It's the new drive to beat, I reckon.

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If there's one thing I've learnt in my hours with Oblivion Remastered, it's that Oblivion's dungeons kind of suck. They're labyrinthine, exist as one of three types, and when you get to the end of them your grand prize often turns out to be, like, 5 gold and a journeyman retort. And then you have to retrace your steps to get back out.

Bethesda didn't really crack its dungeon formula until Skyrim, where you could at least be relatively sure you had some kind of prize awaiting you at the end of a long session of hackin' and slashin': an enchanted weapon, a new word for a shout, that kind of thing.

When I sat down with Skyblivion lead dev Rebelzize for a chat about the upcoming Oblivion-in-Skyrim remake, it sounded like back-porting that dungeon philosophy to Cyrodiil was gonna be a key goal of the mod project.

"I think for a lot of people that play Oblivion now, it will be frustrating at times," said Rebel, "there's just old game design that doesn't really translate anymore, and some of that is still present in the remaster from Bethesda themselves, because they've not remade it, which is a key difference [from Skyblivion], which is good for us."

It's a neat point of divergence between Skyblivion's fan-made remake of Oblivion and Bethesda's remaster, which went out of its way to retain all the strange foibles that made the OG game what it is. "We still have something to offer in that we have more or less redesigned every aspect of the game," says Rebel.

(Image credit: Bethesda, TESRenewal)

"The easiest example is something that was introduced in Skyrim… once you're at the boss chamber, the final area, you get a loop back to where you started." In original Oblivion and the remaster, by contrast, "most of the time there's nothing at the end. There's no boss or loot or anything to make that delve rewarding. Then once you've done that very unrewarding delve, you have to backtrack all the way."

Not so in Skyblivion. "That's something I've been trying to really hammer on with everyone in the teams, that we make the dungeons fun. And if a dungeon serves no other purpose than to just distract someone from what they're doing, then it can't just be a bear den—you know, with a really big black bear—at the end."

This is pretty exciting to hear, at least for me. While Oblivion Remastered is very much the Oblivion you remember from 2006 in a lush new wrapper, it sounds like the Skyblivion team is deliberately, consciously pushing things into 'remake' territory, and they're not scared to slaughter some of the OG's sacred cows if they think it'll make for a better game. "Oblivion is one of those games that look really good from a distance, because it has those really lush forests, but once you're in a forest there's usually nothing between city A and city B."

The possibility of scattering in new details, new design philosophies, new stuff is, says Rebel, "Where the power of a proper remake comes from, and where I hope we will have some relevance and staying power within internet culture and the Elder Scrolls fandom."

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When it was announced at our very own PC Gaming Show, I thought the premise of TerraTech Legion was pretty irresistible: a Vampire Survivors-like where instead of playing as a person, you're a fully customisable battle car.

Now there's a demo available on Steam, and I can confirm two things: building your dream vehicle and then running over hordes of alien robots with it is great, and also I am a terrible driver.

(Image credit: Payload Studios, Mythwright)

You start each run with a small, pre-built car—the demo only offers one option, a chunky little red one with an SMG on top. But as soon as you've levelled up by killing a few enemies, you're able to start tweaking it with any car pieces you've looted.

The super simple system of blocks and parts makes it a surprisingly smooth process to completely reconfigure your vehicle. Blocks simply click together in whatever orientation you choose, and elements like wheels, guns, and gadgets attach to them on a grid. Whenever you want to change things up, it's as easy as selecting something, pulling it off the car, and sticking it somewhere else or back in your inventory.

This system is the real star of the show, and as you get more and more parts, it's great fun building up from a little buggy to a bizarre death-truck. The level of freedom it allows is kind of remarkable—as I discovered to my detriment, it will even let you out of the hangar with no wheels—and yet experimenting is never daunting or complicated.

(Image credit: Payload Studios, Mythwright)

Where things do get a bit more tricky—at least for me—is when you're actually driving the thing. The game isn't shy about sending enormous hordes at you, and manoeuvring around them while trying to get a good shot in can be surprisingly hard, particularly because of how much the physics-based handling is affected by your own choices. Several of the car parts have penalties as well as bonuses, affecting things like acceleration and grip, and beyond that how long, wide, and heavy your car is has an obvious impact.

All of which is to say, an embarrassing amount of my deaths so far have occurred during Austin Powers-esque failed three point turns, as I try to slowly get myself back on the right track while cyborg mantises the size of minivans puncture my engine block.

(Image credit: Payload Studios, Mythwright)

To get the best loot, you need to attack enemy bases, destroying buildings like you're a unit in an RTS—but these walled fortresses make for quite confined arenas, and without plenty of open road, it's easy to get yourself into a bad situation. Easy for me, at least.

In this demo, it does feel like the game is missing some kind of meta-progression, allowing you to upgrade somehow between runs to take the sting out of some of these self-inflicted disasters. I'm hoping the final game will include that, alongside the wider array of starting vehicles that can be seen locked off in this build.

(Image credit: Payload Studios, Mythwright)

But even without that, I've been enjoying diving back in after a death to try out a completely different approach. One run I'm a speeding demolitionist, my car's back bristling with grenade launchers pointed in all four directions. In another, I'm a deadly bumper car, crashing into enemies and tearing them up with a set of giant drills.

It's great fun, though the more I play, the more I wonder if there might be a bit too much customising happening. Having that freedom is great, but level ups are frequent enough that you end up spending almost as much time building and tweaking as you do actually driving. That can make the pace feel awkward, and when a run does end to misfortune or a silly mistake, it hurts all the more knowing how much time you spent fiddling around in the garage for nothing.

(Image credit: Payload Studios, Mythwright)

Still, that hasn't dulled my desire to get my hands on the full game's wider array of parts and stick them all over my latest stupid creation—and I'm keen to see what marvels cleverer engineers than I are able to put together.

You can try out the TerraTech Legion demo for yourself on Steam now. Just try and drive safer than I do.

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Dear reader, my job is to find clever, informative, and interesting ways to deliver news to you—but upon hearing that the Forked Tower, a raid at the end of Final Fantasy 14's recent exploration zone the Occult Crescent, wasn't given a normal version most people could do because of "cost"? I am struggling for words that aren't just 'c'mon, man'.

Some context: FF14 has a prioritisation problem. I go into it in more detail here, but the jist of it is that, since Endwalker, casual-to-midcore activities with long tails have been deprioritised in favour of Savage Raids and Ultimates. Depending on who you ask, this problem's always existed—Bozja didn't come out until Shadowbringers' midpoint, after all—but it's been exacerbated by a dev cycle that's slowed down in recent years, not up.

The Occult Crescent is, overall, a great bit of that missing midcore food for folks to feast on, even if it came out almost a full year after the expansion's launch. There is one problem, though: The Forked Tower is a pain to get into. It's an (up to) 48 player raid within the Occult Crescent that requires strong player coordination, has a high punishment for failure, and is accessible only under certain conditions.

In a recent live letter, producer of FF14 Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P) revealed a couple of facts that've just made my stomach sink (thanks to the FFXIV subreddit's Discord for the translations). First off, the Forked Tower has been cleared about 400 times in 23 days—and I need to put that number into perspective, for a moment.

The Forked Tower scales with players up to 48, but let's assume the best-case-scenario. Let's say every clear had 48 players in it (they didn't). That means around 19,200 players (it'll be less) have cleared The Forked Tower in a month.

We're going to get into speculative territory, now, as I draw on the fan census made by LuckyBancho. To be clear, this census is unofficial and an educated guess—LuckyBancho's been doing this for years, they aren't some random, but it's not official. If their estimation of around 950,000 active players is accurate, that means that maximum, 2% of the active playerbase of FF14 has completed The Forked Tower.

In the game's last exploration zone, Bozja, the equivalent raid Delubrum Reginae had both a Normal and a Savage version. The Normal version was still challenging, but could be completed by a pick-up group and queued into—the Savage version was more on the level of The Forked Tower we have today.

So why didn't Square do that, this time around? "The simple answer on why we didn't have a normal and savage version is cost, I know this doesn't 'matter' for a customer … We weren't able to do this for this instance, but for the future instances of Occult Crescent we will try to have both a normal and savage version."

In other words: Creative Studio 3 was making a new patch for a game with a historic problem with delivering casual-to-midcore content, serving a slice of its community that'd been waiting almost a whole year. It ran into budget issues with said exploration zone. Rather than prioritise the kind of experience it had been missing, it then decided to funnel those resources into a harder version of the raid which, almost a month on, has only been cleared 400 times. Why.

"Cost" is also a poor excuse when Square Enix's reports have been sharing that FF14 is a major breadwinner for the entire company. This one's less Yoshi-P's fault, but for the love of Hydaelyn, Square: Why is one of your main earners struggling with its budget when trying to deliver basic features every other MMO has as standard? Your direct competition's been doing laps around you! Wake up!

I'm really baffled and disheartened. Final Fantasy 14 has some work to do before it regains my whole-hearted support, even though it aches to see one of my favourite games put in such a weird spot. I seriously hope some major structural changes are in Creative Studio 3's future, because otherwise Square Enix's golden goose is gonna starve to death.

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In the build-up to Skyblivion's release Bethesda has been rather normal. It's not only let the modders carry on with their competing Oblivion remaster without any legal qualms, but has also been quite supportive—handing over Oblivion remaster keys and inviting them over to Bethesda HQ for tea and sweet rolls.

The trip actually started as something rather impromptu with the project lead for Skyblivion giving Bethesda a call just because he was in the area. "I was gonna go to Boston for Pax East," Skyblivion lead Rebelzize tells PCG's Joshua Wolens in an interview. "When I go there for work, I also take a few days of vacation, and this year, I was going to go to Washington and New York. Washington is kind of close to Bethesda, so I just asked, like, 'Hey, I'm going to be in the area. Could we come and say hello?'" And that was all that was needed for the Skyblivion team to be invited over to Bethesda for the day.

Oblivion console commands: Cheats new and oldOblivion lockpicks: Where and how to use themOblivion vampirism cure: Rid yourself of the afflictionOblivion thieves guild: How to join the crewOblivion persuasion: Master the minigame

"They invited me to the office," Rebelzize continues. "They were fantastic. I didn't see a single person that didn't look like they absolutely loved being there. I spoke to a lot of people that worked on Oblivion, that worked on Skyrim, and that worked on Fallout. People that have been there for years and years and years."

But it wasn't just a facade or a PR stunt, at least it didn't feel that way to Rebelzize. They ended up chatting about all things Oblivion and modding for hours: "We arrived at 11 am and we didn't leave until 6 pm. People had been going home for a while, and we just kept geeking out.

"It's so fun to be able to talk with people that have used the tools that are on your level, like you use all these terms that no one ever understands, but these people understood, and they had so many interesting questions that no one ever asks."

(Image credit: Bethesda, TESRenewal)

The aspect that the devs at Bethesda were most interested in was how the Skyblivion modders got on with the tools they had, and whether things could be improved in any way. "Bethesda is a company that has a really strong connection to mods and modding, and the folks there were really interested in hearing our perspective," Rebelzize says. "How we experienced using those tools, what kind of issues we run into, and what we'd like to see in terms of documentation."

A wish that Rebelzize did share was how he missed the video series that would accompany the release of a creation kit, as they did with Skyrim: "They had one of the designers make a dungeon with us, stuff like that is something I would love to see for every game that they make."

But a day at Bethesda wouldn't be complete without an appearance from Todd Howard. It's clear that Howard is no stranger to talking someone's ear off or just wanting to be really involved. Nevertheless, Rebelzize was still surprised by just how enthusiastic he was.

"He could have stopped by for 10 minutes, shook some hands and then walked off," Rebelzize says. "He's in a position to do that, but he was genuinely so interested in talking to every single person that was there and about what they do in real life, and what they do in the project. It was just a really fantastic culture all around. There's a lot of lot of passion and love in that company."

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Remember the Daggerfall Unity GOG Cut? Odds are you don't. It was, in essence, a pre-modded version of The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall, in the excellent fan-made Daggerfall Unity engine reimplementation. The idea was that if you wanted to play Daggerfall but didn't want to go through the rigamarole of modding it into modernity, you could just download the GOG Cut and be on your way.

But there were issues. It quickly became outdated as the mods it included got new updates that GOG didn't wrap into the GOG Cut, and even if it had kept everything on its latest version, some of the included mods just didn't quite mesh. It wasn't the best way to play Daggerfall in the 2020s, and ended up delisted from GOG's storefront earlier this year after languishing there since 2022.

But GOG is taking another crack at modding with its one-click mods program, which will let you install stuff like Skyblivion, HoMM 3: Horn of the Abyss, and other meaty mod projects much like you install any other game on the platform. As it begins to flex its fan-content muscles, it says its learnt a lot from the DF GOG Cut experience.

"In this case, usually, for the mods it will be on them [to keep mods up-to-date]," says GOG's Rudy de Marco. "They will have more access than previously, because at the end of the day it will be easier for everyone to trust them to actually update their stuff whenever they want, right? So that's how we plan to go."

(Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)

So, presuming mod authors keep on top of their updates, we shouldn't run into yet another scenario where mods on GOG end up woefully outdated compared to their counterparts on sites like Nexus Mods. It's not a free-for-all, though: GOG of course has to approve which mods it hosts on its service, and de Marco tells me that the store does "give heads up" to studios whose games are being modded on the platform. "It's for us, but for the mod creators as well, right? There are stories in the past where mods could have been shut down completely for a specific franchise, and it's not something where we want to put anyone at risk… We are kind of a middleman to make sure that everything's okay."

I get the impression that GOG's come quite a way from the first days of the DF GOG Cut. Which, you know, you'd certainly hope is the case. In our chat, de Marco told me that assembling the DF GOG Cut was so ramshackle that "Our main person in charge of [the GOG Cut] did not have a premium account on Nexus, so he could send one message a day to people that weren't his friend." Kind of made securing all the necessary permissions for mod authors a bit hard.

I'm interested to see where GOG goes with modding. The whole scene has hit interesting times in the wake of the departure of the 24-year head of Nexus Mods, with some users fearing the site's new owners might put the stalwart platform on a path to enshittification. Perhaps we're due a shake-up in the mod-hosting scene. Perhaps GOG is well-placed to take advantage of it. It probably has a premium account by this point.

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It can be all too easy to think about the environmental impact of AI in the abstract—especially when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attempts to minimise ChatGPT's water usage by throwing fractions out. However, for the citizens of Memphis, Tennessee, it's a subject that hits so close to home that it simply can't be ignored.

The NAACP notified xAI on Tuesday of their intent to sue, alleging that the company's operation of their Colossus data centre has violated the Clean Air Act (via Ars Technica). In a letter addressed to Elon Musk, among others, legal representatives from the Southern Environmental Law Center urged xAI to come to the table to discuss "effective remedies for the violations noted" or to otherwise pursue "negotiations in the absence of litigation" within 20 days of the notice being served.

This is in the hopes that these remedies could be implemented before the full notice period runs out. Otherwise, the organisation will file its lawsuit once the full 60-day notice period has elapsed.

Besides Musk selling X to xAI back in March, the company turned on Colossus—the data centre powering the Grok language model—last year, after an intense three-month build. Located in South Memphis, the data center has raised environmental concerns from the start. To meet Colussus' appetite for guzzling between 50 and 150 MW of power, xAI installed a number of methane-burning gas turbines that now sit at the heart of the NAACP's legal challenge.

The letter reads, "Over the past year, xAI has installed and operated at least 35 combustion turbines and other sources of air pollution at the Colossus site without ever obtaining the necessary preconstruction or operating air permits, actions which have resulted in numerous and significant violations of the Clean Air Act, as set forth herein. These turbines have the potential to emit more than 2,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (“NOx”) per year and numerous other harmful pollutants, worsening Memphis’ already poor air quality."

Website for Grok AI, an xAI creation, shown on a laptop screen. (Image credit: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It is also alleged that xAI has not engaged in transparent communication with the local community—for instance, the total number of in-use turbines was only confirmed via aerial thermal imaging. In a news post, the Southern Environmental Law Center also alleges, "These turbines emit dangerous chemicals like formaldehyde and smog-forming pollution. These pollutants can cause increased rates of asthma, heart disease, and cancer."

As detailed at great length in the NAACP's legal notice, it's possible these turbines are subject to some sort of permit exemption due to their non-traditional use.

It's acknowledged in the letter that the Clean Air Act does allow "for some portable internal combustion engines known as 'nonroad engine[s]' to escape permitting requirements if they are operated at a given site for less than a year and meet certain other requirements." However, it's also argued that the Colossus turbines would not be subject to this exemption due in part to their size and how long they are believed to have already been in use.

Though it remains to be seen how xAI will respond to this notice of intent to sue—if at all, over the next two months—it is known that the company is already planning to build a second data centre in Memphis. According to the Southern Environmental Law Center, this second site will also leverage the use of methane gas turbines to meet power demands.

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The ultimate gaming chip on a budget? That's what we were hoping for out of the Ryzen 5 5600X3D, which did live up to the hype, except it only launched in a handful of Micro Center stores. Now, it looks like AMD might be launching another promising mid-range chip in the Ryzen 5 9600X3D, though I'm not holding my breath for a global launch just yet.

The Ryzen 5 9600X3D has been spotted in no less than AMD's own driver notes (spotted by MelodicWarrior on X, via WCCFTech). The chip is mentioned within the SI driver for the Radeon AI Pro R9700, included in a list of all compatible processors with this specific driver package.

The driver page notes four CPUs ending in X3D, three that we knew of before today: "AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D / Ryzen 9 9900X3D / Ryzen 7 9800X3D / Ryzen 5 9600X3D".

That 'X3D' suffix denotes the use of AMD's 3D V-Cache technology on the chip. This sees it stack a chiplet containing L3 cache stuffed below (previous versions of 3D V-Cache had this above) the chiplet containing the cores, known as the CCD. The benefit of this extra cache is pretty huge in games, which tend to benefit from rapid access to local cache more so than many other applications.

We cannot totally confirm that this chip exists. Nor if it does, it will actually be released to the public. Nor if it is, it will actually be released to large numbers of the public. There's a chance it only heads out within PCs made by system integrators (SIs), or, like the Ryzen 5 5600X3D, only to the DIY market in specific regions or retailers.

That's because this chip would be manufactured using leftover chiplets from other Ryzen X3D chips that didn't make the grade. Though its spotter on X suggests it will launch to SIs first and later the DIY market, towards the end of the year. At least we can make some assumptions about what a Ryzen 5 9600X3D might look like if it were to see the light of day.

The existing Ryzen 5 9600X contains six cores, honed out of the Zen 5 architecture. It has access to 32 MB of L3 cache, a base clock of 3.9 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.4 GHz.

(Image credit: AMD)

Existing Ryzen 9000-series X3D chips don't see a dramatic drop in clock speed for the use of 3D V-Cache, unlike their predecessors. This is one of the key improvements with the newer 3D V-Cache chips. In fact, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D maintains the same speeds as its non-3D V-Cache version. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D boosts only 100 MHz lower than the Ryzen 9 9900X.

By that logic, we can expect to see clock speeds largely maintained between the 9600X and the proposed 9600X3D, which is good news for gaming performance. The even better news is that we should expect another 64 MB slice of L3 cache loaded under the existing six-core CCD, for a total of 96 MB.

That's a lot of rapidly accessible L3 cache for a mid-range processor. The impact of which should be huge on gaming performance. Our pals at Tom's Hardware managed to snag a Ryzen 5 5600X3D to test in 2023 and found it easily outperformed the Ryzen 5 5600X in games and very nearly reached the lofty performance of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Our Nick also tested the Ryzen 7 5700X3D, which is an 8-core chip, but recommends it for its affordability and top-tier performance.

All promising signs for the Ryzen 5 9600X3D. Now, if only AMD would give us a more promising sign that this chip is set to launch anytime soon. Lisa Su, Frank Azor—any news you'd like to share?

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As I wrote when it first launched, I've quite enjoyed Occult Crescent, the Bozja-esque field operation mode. It's far from perfect, mind—it's a real 'you snooze, you lose' mentality that'll see you late to any fight you're not speeding towards within 0.2 seconds of it spawning.

Its biggest problem by far, though, is Forked Tower. It's a 48-player dungeon that can only be entered from inside the Occult Crescent, and requires some serious external organisation if you want a chance at clearing it. Yet even before you enter into its gauntlet of difficult boss fights, you have to face something far more chilling: Trying to get all 48 people into the same instance together.

For some demented reason, Occult Crescent doesn't allow parties larger than your standard eight-player composition to queue in together. If you manage to herd 48 players for Forked Tower, that's six separate parties desperately attempting to land in a single instance. It's a frustrating change from Bozja's equivalent, Delubrum Reginae, which allowed folks to queue in from the standard Duty Finder menu.

I've been fortunate enough to clear Forked Tower four times now—thanks to being in a group with excellent shotcallers and players who are far more talented at not standing in bad than I am—and playing 'instance gacha' has by far been the most frustrating part of the experience. Nevermind the fact that once you're in an instance you usually have to wait around 30 minutes for Forked Tower to then spawn. It's a lot.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

That'll all be changing in August, however, as director and producer Naoki Yoshida revealed during a recent livestream in which he went over player feedback for both Occult Crescent and Cosmic Exploration, the other mode that arrived with Patch 7.2

"Many players have tried to clear and prog the Forked Tower, as of yesterday [June 19] there have been more than 400 clears, not 400 players but 400 clears," Yoshida said during the stream (thanks to the live letter translators over on the Final Fantasy 14 community Discord).

For starters, that number seems crazy low. Our other resident Final Fantasy 14 sicko Harvey Randall crunched the numbers and on the higher end that's only a little over 19,000 players who've cleared. If we take a look at LuckyBancho's unofficial census, that's only around 2% of active players who've cleared the whole thing.

But I digress. Yoshida acknowledges that "it is difficult to get into the same [Occult Tower instance] as a group of 48," before revealing that August's Patch 7.3 will finally let premade alliances queue in all together.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

It does come with the caveat that the UI for setting all that up might look a bit crusty for now, but it's still a change I am incredibly happy to see. It was an entirely unnecessary additional friction, one which I admittedly wish was being rectified a little sooner than "early August."

Square's also making changes to Sanguine Ciphers, the currency you needed to enter Forked Tower. If there are more than 48 players the game'll pick from random, but you can throw more ciphers in as a way of essentially entering your name into the hat more times. Currently you can't actually see who has put in how many ciphers, but Patch 7.3 will make that information visible.

All in all it's nice to see Square is actually sort of listening to complaints. Though I would have preferred them to straight-up switch things back to the Delubrum-based system, it's at least the compromise I was hoping for.

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Final Fantasy 14 has a technical problem—it's been ongoing for a few months now, but the jist of it is this: A change to the game's blacklist system, designed to help reduce stalking, accidentally opened the door for modders to obtain info on every character their targets had, making them more vulnerable than they were before. Square Enix tried to fix the issue, but it didn't work.

At the time of writing, FF14's client sends a scrapable (but hidden) account ID to a client when a player, say, pops up on a search list. This ID has some layers of obfuscation on it, but as seen in the link above, it's long since been cracked.

There are positives to the intent behind the system Square made. Regardless of whether a stalker has access to someone's account ID (and thus, their alts), that player still won't see their character in the world. But the reality has been an unfortunate tale of Creative Studio 3 repeatedly missing the mark.

At the centre of this controversy lies (lied, now) PlayerScope—a mod that would scrape these account IDs into a database which could then be accessed through the mod. Its author, Generall, attempted some half-hearted token gestures of caring about privacy which, to be clear, weren't good enough—such as suggesting that stalking victims hand them their account IDs to get them removed from the mod.

Which is a lot of trust to put in a complete stranger, especially one who made the thing that's making you more vulnerable. Well, PlayerScope is no more. According to the mod's creator on the PlayerScope's Discord, they were sent a cease & desist order.

"Due to a formal cease and desist notice I received, I've made the decision to permanently shut down the PlayerScope project and all of its supporting infrastructure," writes Generall, revealing they've gone all scorched earth on it.

"The web backend has been taken offline. All stored data, including character and user records have been permanently and irreversibly deleted. The plugin files have been completely removed from GitHub and GitFlic, and have also been fully erased from my personal server. As of this announcement, I no longer host, maintain, or distribute any part of the PlayerScope plugin."

(Image credit: ‪@notnite.com‬ on Bluesky.)

So that's it, right? Unfortunately, no. One head of the hydra's been cut off, but there's still a dozen hidden underwater.

The problem is that, even before PlayerScope brought this vulnerability into the public eye, it's very likely that bad actors had figured it out beforehand—getting access to people's account IDs and using private tools or third-party mods to trail victims.

It's good that Square Enix is shutting down public efforts—but it needs to be doing more than simply sending cease & desists or asking nicely. Make no mistake, this is a blunder on the studio's part. While third-party tools are against FF14's terms of service, you can't code a game under the assumption that no-one will break them. Bad people will always exist—and it's Square's responsibility to make sure their targets are protected properly.

Best MMOs: Most massiveBest strategy games: Number crunchingBest open world games: Unlimited explorationBest survival games: Live craft loveBest horror games: Fight or flight

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