Forza Horizon 6's latest patch released yesterday and with came a whole host of changes. But the ones that initially caught my eye were those concerning the AI drivatars, as they may go some way to curbing the rage of the infamous Bowie Knife99.

Under the subheading of 'AI' are the updates: "improvements to difficulty balancing" and "fixed an issue with drivatar race start behaviour". We're yet to see what this means, although there is some hope that it'll dial down the likelihood of a drivatar from sporadically t-boning you at the start line.

This likely won't, however, change the behaviour of drivatars for the rest of the week. Since Forza Horizon 6 released, there's been swaths of videos depicting Bowie Knife99 (among other drivatars) forcing players off the road, pushing them into trees, or flying through the air to then come crashing down on their heads. While there have been some players fighting back against Bowie Knife99's tyranny, it's still largely gone unchecked.

But the changes to the AI drivatars don't seem to be the most exciting part of this patch notes, instead players have latched onto the update which adds a "Roads Driven" percentage to the Region Overview. Players no longer have to blindly drive around regions attempting to complete all the roads available, or turn to message boards to help solve the puzzle.

"Literally was burning my eyeballs out of the socket staring at the map til I got the message in my mailbox that an update was out," one player says. It looks like the roads percentage overview will be a huge help to everyone trying to check off everything on their to-do list. While another mentions how they've been stuck on 670/671 roads completed for over a week now—no doubt this update will come as a godsend to many.

At last, the Fable reboot has shown off a lengthy 30 minute gameplay demo touting the word cloud-style reputation system that'll decide whether its 1000+ NPCs laud or heckle you as you traipse through their peasant hamlets. Every character has their own values and every decision you make has consequences! Unless you have enough gold, Playground Games is quick to reassure us, because then you can just pay for a new reputation.

Fable's gameplay demo starts off with a lot of things that I—an RPG and life sim fan with a fondness for systems and strategy—am really liking the sound of. All sorts of actions have an impact on your adjective-based reputation. Sparing someone's life makes you "merciful" in the eyes of the settlement you're in, and doing so by negotiating makes you "shrewd" while dropping a ton of cash on fancy clothes increases your reputation for being "rich" and firing random arrows in town makes you "reckless."

Fable soaks up all that info and feeds it back to you in some pretty direct conversation menus. Megan the Merchant, "an ambitious commoner" likes you because of your reputation for being "shrewd" and she thinks you're "savvy." Megan is like the translucent colored tech of the early aughts, the way I can see straight into the gears making her tick, but I don't mind the transparency. Systems-driven games are fun because they let me see the system and play with it.

That cloud of reputation epithets can do all sorts of things, like make a merchant who dislikes you jack up their prices or an employee who hates you blow off their shift, generating no profit for you.

Playground Games reinforces multiple times during the demo how this type of reputation is all about subjectivity, complexity, and shades of grey—quite different from the horns and halo 'good vs evil' system that the original series creator Peter Molyneux said it's "a real shame" to see go.

What Playground Games also mentioned multiple times during the demo was how you can just bypass the system they've built if you shell out some gold.

"If I don't like my reputations in Silverbrook, I can pay the town crier to change them," Playground says. "I give them gold—a lot of gold—and they spread a new reputation for me. If you're rich enough you can change what people think of you."

I can think of a few real-life rich people who keep desperately attempting to make that true.

Playground Games didn't give a peek at that town crier menu in the demo, so I can't say exactly how it works. It is a bit of a bummer though, to build this highly reactive morality and reputation system and then give us an opt out. They even reference later the possibility of changing your reputation through your actions.

"Once I'm known as a killer and a criminal it'll stick with me until I put in the work to change what people think or until I've made an expensive visit to the town crier," Playground Games reiterates.

RPGs in general, and Fable in particular, always encourage you to collect and hoard a robber-baron pile of gold by the time the credits roll. So the penalty to change your reputation manually seems like a finger wag more than a consequence. Making choices and then regretting them is what save scumming is for.

It also comes across as lacking in confidence, this sort of "don't annoy the player" design ethos of a big-budget project. That obsession with a frictionless experience as the requirement for broad appeal just doesn't hold up when some of the biggest RPGs in recent years, critically and financially, are things like Disco Elyisum, Baldur's Gate 3, and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, all of which proudly challenge and inconvenience us at times—and insist we live with our choices.

Despite that, I am still quite interested in this morality system Playground Games has built that, as they say, creates more interesting reactions than a single-axis reputation system can. I'll simply not visit the town crier, I suppose.

Captain Ahab had his white whale, Inspector Javert had Jean Valjean, and Forza Horizon 6 players have Bowie Knife99—an AI drivatar that has pushed players to breaking point with its erratic and borderline murderous driving.

If you're not familiar with the legend of Bowie Knife99, let me shed some light on the situation. You see, in Forza Horizon 6 lobbies can be filled with AI drivatars, many of which have names based on existing players, devs, or other influential accounts. You can then race against these at different difficulties. The only problem is that some of these drivatars are pretty aggressive and will go to any lengths to beat players in a race. Enter Bowie Knife99.

bowie knife99 just sent me back to Mexico from r/ForzaHorizon

This drivatar in particular has been wreaking havoc in races, hunting players down through the woods, crashing down on players from the sky, and just generally being a right pain in the ass and a really hard car to beat. "It's always Bowie," one player says. "The fucker always makes me repeat races."

In response to the torment some players have decided to fight back, and thus ensues the unending and perhaps unattainable quest to hunt Bowie down and beat it at its own game: "He can't keep getting away with this."

Justice for all the Bowieknife victims from r/ForzaHorizon6

Anything's game. Players have been knocking Bowie Knife99 off course, ramming it into barriers, pushing it off the road, doing pretty much anything to make sure the drivatar doesn't win, even if it costs them the race. The war cry "justice for all the Bowie Knife victims" rings throughout the rolling roads of Japan.

But on the brightside, all of this Bowie Knife99 mayhem has managed to not only unite the playerbase but has also proved just how fun NPCs are when they're full of character, even if its defining character trait is evil.

Great moments in PC gaming are bite-sized celebrations of some of our favorite gaming memories.

I like pirate survival game Windrose a lot, but playing it mostly just made me pine for my favorite pirate game of all time: Sea of Thieves. It's been years since I played Rare's oceanic sandbox, so I dragged several of my PC Gamer associates back into it with me and we've been sailing together again a few times a month.

A lot has changed since we last set out to sea: new enemies, new factions, new systems, season passes, and more cosmetics than you could shake a peg leg at. As we've tried to come to grips with those changes, it's also been nice to see that some things haven't changed at all.

We were sailing along on a multipart quest, having visited several islands over the past couple of hours, and were headed back to an outpost to sell off our loot. Then one of our crew members abruptly got a notification. It was an achievement titled "This is Unacceptable!" which informed us that "Another crew took one of your chests and cashed it in."

It was a surprise: we'd definitely seen a couple of other players out on the seas that night, but as we were on a four-player galleon and they were on two-player sloops, they all kept their distance. Or so we thought. Apparently, at some point, one of them had got close enough to sneak aboard and pilfer one of our chests, then slipped away to sell it somewhere.

No salt. Just admiration. Stealing treasure from other players in Sea of Thieves is a thrill, and as this mysterious and bold pirate demonstrated, it doesn't always have to involve cannonballs and sabers. Best guess, they waited until we'd disembarked on one of the islands, swam or row-boated over (if they'd shot themselves out of a cannon I think we'd have heard it), climbed onto our ship, and absconded with a bit of our loot. By the time we knew about the crime it had already been committed. Well played.

In the early days of Sea of Thieves I stole my share of loot too, though I was rarely as surgical. My main strategy was to spot a ship in the midst of a mission and then head to the nearest outpost to wait for them. When they sailed over to drop off their loot, I'd have posted up with a couple of carefully placed explosive barrels, and when they ran down the dock with their arms full of treasure chests, I'd open up with my sniper rifle. Boom. Their treasure is mine now.

It wasn't exactly sporting, and quite often it wasn't even successful, but there's something to be said for letting some other industrious pirates do the hard work of finding the treasure and then taking it off their hands so you can sell it yourself.

It's so satisfying to steal from someone else that I don't even mind when it happens to us, like when that silent, slippery buccaneer made off with some of our loot. All you can do is tip your tricorn hat. We're pirates, after all. Stealing's the name of the game.

Speeding through Shibuya Crossing in a souped up kei truck, Babymetal blaring out of the stereo, it's easy to fall in love with the fantasy that Forza Horizon is selling. Recognisable locations stitched together across a large open world, a huge number of cars picked from multiple eras and disciplines, and a seemingly endless suite of events and races to help you make the most of your ever-expanding garage.

It's slick. It's polished. It's consistently fun. It's also a continuation of what the series has been doing for over a decade.

Forza Horizon 6, like every Forza Horizon before it, is another big, bombastic racing festival, featuring mostly the same event icons but on a different map. It's a game of small, marginal changes; sometimes meaningful, but always subtle. If you have played any of the previous games, you inherently know how this one will feel. It's the same, only now it's in Japan.

Fortunately the setting makes for one of the better locations in the series' history. As a collection of biomes it's less varied and dramatic than Forza Horizon 5's Mexico, instead feeling more reminiscent of Forza Horizon 4's version of the UK. It turns out that island nations with a rich automotive legacy are a great fit for what the series is trying to do—giving plenty of opportunities for Playground Games to express its deep love of car culture.

As with the previous games, the map is highly interpretive—a patchwork of real-world Japanese locations strewn across the map. Here, Hokkaido's flower gardens are south of Toyama's snow walls. Irabu Bridge—in reality part of the Okinawa prefecture—lives northeast of Tokyo, which itself is truncated down to its most recognisable sites and expressways.

Big in Japan

The point isn't realism, it's vibes. The various points of interest—be it the multi-story spiral of the Kawazu-Nanadaru Loop Bridge or the scenic view of Mt. Fuji from the Izu Skyline—are all in service of a memorable driving experience; something pretty to look at as you build skill chains across the open world, or something challenging to master as you race. And while there's still many miles of generic country roads, there's enough flavour throughout to do justice to the setting.

One small but somewhat notable change for Forza Horizon 6 is the splitting of campaign progression into two separate ranking systems: One for the festival itself, and another for extracurricular activities dotted around the map. This second collection, Discover Japan, contains everything from street races to sidequest stories—things more directly tied to the setting and open world exploration.

As you tick things off from its checklist, you earn points and rank up to unlock new barn find rumours. I actually like this as a way to stop the general shape of the campaign from feeling so homogeneous. It's not revelatory by any means, but as a small nudge towards a more purposeful reward path, it works.

The best activities in the Discover Japan path are the new touge events—head-to-head races down narrow, winding mountain roads. These are tight, technical routes that make for an enjoyable challenge, and limiting the competition to just a single opponent keeps the action focused more on the driving than on fighting against the pack.

As for the sidequests, they range from day trips to notable locations to a whistlestop tour of Japan's drifting scene. Thematically they're all fine, but they suffer from repetition. Most involve driving to a place, watching a short cutscene, and then completing some concluding challenge for a rating out of three stars. Do a big jump. Get to the checkpoint before the time runs out. Go fast through a speed trap. Get to the checkpoint before the time runs out while also keeping your speed above 80mph.

If you have played any of the previous games, you will have done all of this many times before. And while it's not a major issue—going fast in cars is, after all, why we're here—it's made worse by how bland the dialogue is. It's all trite platitudes and empty positivity. Everyone's having an amazing time, which they are constantly explaining to you with the same superficial tone that my local supermarket's in-store radio uses to tell me about the latest deal on tinned tomatoes.

My favourite series of quests focuses more on the cars, and a local mechanic who's been asked to custom tune a fleet of iconic Japanese vehicles for a festival parade. It's the same rotation of basic challenges, but with the added twist of driving the car both before and after it's been tuned. It's an effective showcase for the potential of the game's own tuning options, which let you dramatically alter the feel of a car—for instance turning a usually quite skittish Mazda MX-5 into something that better holds traction for fast cornering.

It attempts to use dialogue to explain the specific tweaks being made and the reasons behind them, but the amount of information imparted is dwarfed by the constant reinforcement of what a gosh darn privilege it is to be here. It's peak second-screen gaming, words that simply wash over you in all their banal triviality. We're all having so much fun! Are you having fun? Well? Are you?

Yes, I am having fun. As always, the driving is peerless—an arcade sensibility given just enough realism to trick you into thinking you are good at handling these vehicles. Even with limited assists, the cars, by and large, do what you want them to do. For the vast majority of my time in the game—in a race or just driving across the world—I'm still loving what Forza Horizon offers. It's just that, eventually, a character will open their mouth to pull me out of the moment.

Maybe I'm the problem for expecting more from a team that seemingly has no interest in improving its unconvincing dialogue. Except Forza Horizon 6 clearly cares about the lore because it features driving cameos from characters pulled from previous Horizon games, which I only know because a) the game told me, and b) I double checked a wiki. I recognised none of these people because this series does not have characters, only delivery mechanisms for insipid chat.

Back to basics

At least this time there is an arc to your main progression through the festival proper. Rather than entering as a returning superstar, immediately given the best and coolest things to do, you start out as a nobody—traveling to Japan with your pals to make a name for yourself. After completing a series of qualifying events, you're invited to compete in the festival—competing to earn points to gain entry to a capstone event that unlocks a new tier of wristband and the new races that it brings.

Those opening qualifiers restrict you to C-rank vehicles, with each successive wristband increasing the performance cap. It's an obvious move—it's how basically every other racing game works—but this is the first time since the earliest Horizons that the series is even attempting any sort of progression curve. And yeah, obviously it works; it's tried and true. It's also nice to have a proper excuse to wheel out some modestly priced classics, better utilising the full scope of Horizon's roster of vehicles.

Not that these restrictions actually prevent you from earning or driving more powerful cars. As a reward for playing the previous games, my garage was instantly gifted a small collection of higher-tier vehicles, and between wheelspin rewards, collection completion rewards and the cars you buy from the credits you earn, your available selection will quickly balloon. The game is constantly throwing new (and old) cars your way.

I think that's fine, as is the fact that the Discover Japan street races feature no class restrictions. After all, Horizon in its totality is more about the sandbox than the campaign. With its pokedex style approach to cars—550 available at launch—there's no sense in holding back. It also means that, by the time you unlock the highest tier wristbands, you'll have plenty of S1 and S2 performance options to let loose with.

In terms of Horizon's races, the action is firmly in familiar territory. Road, dirt and cross-country races once again make up the bulk of the action, and play out much like they do in any other game in the series. Courses are, for the most part, constructed from the game's open world—courdoned off to limit the action to the 12 racers on the track. That makes their quality pretty variable throughout. Some have enough personality to stand out, but many blend together across the hours you spend with the game.

It's another reason the touge races shine so brightly—those feel constructed for their purpose, with the winding paths to support them. The broader, more general races struggle to match that clarity of vision.

Nevertheless, the racing feels good once you've tuned the difficulty a bit. The AI opponents are generally clean racers, but not afraid to fight for their position or trade paint during an overtake—a level of aggression that suits the type of racing Horizon prioritises. I found a good level of challenge on road and drift races particularly, with some quality mid-race jostling eventually leading into an exciting fight for first place.

That's the ideal, at least, although it can be inconsistent—with difficulty spikes in both directions depending on race type and track restrictions. AI drivers in cross country events have an annoying tendency to clump together in the mid-pack, leaving first and second position free to forge ahead. Spend too long fighting through the crowd, and that distance becomes insurmountable given the lack of technical corners to make up time.

The sandbox nature of Horizon at least means that even the most punishing conditions and harder difficulties can be overcome with the right car choice. After struggling with a series of A-class cross country buggy races, I eventually found a modified Subaru BRZ that instantly chewed through all competition. Even if you don't want to splash the cash for a new ride, new upgrades and tuning set-ups are relatively cheap, and offer a significant boost to your race capabilities.

In fact, Horizon 6 does more than any previous game to get you in the right car for the job. Sure, you can head to the festival site or one of your purchased houses to browse the extensive showroom. But you'll also find plenty of cars for sale parked out in the open world. Drive up to one, and you're given the option to buy it at a discount, and many of the cars you'll find will come with upgrades pre-installed. Inevitably these cars are placed right next to race events that they're perfectly suited for. That Subaru? It was sitting next to the very event I'd been struggling with.

It all fits together into an experience that offers an incredible sense of forward momentum, to the point where I had to turn off the automated event recommendations that pop up after you finish a race. With them on, I entered a sort of hypnotic flow state of progression, always on the move towards the next thing on the checklist—the game constantly pushing me towards more as if it was scared I might stop for a second and lose interest. But Forza Horizon is just as much a game about dicking around—doing a big slide in a field through trees that split apart under the smallest amount of pressure. A big silly world where everything that isn't relevant to having fun in a car is exorcised from existence.

Don't mech me laugh

On the topic of silly, let me derail this review to gripe about the bit of the game where you race a mech. As in other Horizon events, new campaign tiers are placed behind big showcase events—usually a race against something that isn't a car. Hot air balloons in Horizon 1, for example, or a steam train in Horizon 4. There's a lot of potential here for a game set in Japan. I was looking forward to racing the bullet train or the Shonan Monorail or, you know, something real. Instead, I get a mech.

It is, by some distance, my least favourite moment of the game. An incredible opportunity squandered for some sci-fi nonsense. For a series that, underneath its inherent ridiculousness, displays such a deep love of engineering and craft to waste fully half of its showcase races—there are only two, the second against some stunt planes—is such a missed opportunity. I'd almost understand it if this was some big crossover, like Horizon 4's Halo race. It certainly has the soul and execution of a brand deal. But no, it's an unlicensed knock-off Gundam. They did this because they wanted to. Maybe you think mechs are cool, I won't begrudge you that, but my disappointment was profound.

The reason there are only two showcases this time around is because they've been intermixed with a new capstone event type, Rush. These are time trials on custom built courses that have a little visual flair to them but are mostly focused on technical driving. I loved them. What they lack in spectacle they make up for by being some of the most interesting routes in the game. I'm starting to realise I might just be a freak for precise cornering, but still I'd love to see Playground expand this concept more.

None of Forza Horizon 6's weaker points are particularly new things for the series—if anything, many are born from just how resistant these games are to change. But its lack of ambition around reinventing itself is more than offset by just how absurd a proposition it remains at a basic level. There is a staggering amount to do, and an absurd number of cars to do it all in. No other racing series operates on this scale, with this much sandbox freedom.

It's a fantasy that travels from the sublime to the ridiculous. From the sheer thrill of tearing down the expressway in a souped up hypercar, to the nostalgic joy of the unspectacular but iconic. As a kid, my dad drove a Mini Cooper S. At university, my flatmate had a beat down Subaru Impreza that bravely soldiered through the last undignified miles of its life. As an adult, I got to ride in a Radical track car as it did laps around Castle Combe circuit. That there's a racing game—not just a dry sim, but something so big and audacious and approachable—that can bring together all these disparate memories is nothing short of miraculous. There's simply nothing else like it.

Ultimately, Forza Horizon 6's only competitor is the previous Forza Horizon games—itself a scary thought given the regularity with which Microsoft removes them from sale. While I'd love for the series to flex its creativity a bit more, that desire doesn't dampen my deep appreciation for what Forza Horizon 6 does achieve.

After struggling to compete with the PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, Microsoft's gaming division has spent the last few years trying to remake the Xbox brand into a software label first and foremost: it started with Steam releases and cloud streaming, continued with the painful "This is an Xbox" ad campaign, and culminated in phrases like "We're able to honor the Halo legacy on PlayStation" which could only be read as admissions of defeat. Now with the abrupt retirement of longtime boss Phil Spencer, incoming Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma has said that the company "will celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox starting with console."

What, exactly, does that mean for the last few years of Microsoft's gaming strategy?

Maybe it means precisely nothing. It's the sort of reassuring but nonspecific language we expect from executives who want to soothe fan (and more importantly, investor) worries that shit's about to get cray cray. And Xbox leadership has repeatedly stated it will continue making consoles, though we have to imagine that the RAMpocalypse has made some plans that seemed on solid ground just a few months ago now much less certain.

The full text of Sharma's introductory message to her team, made public on Microsoft's blog, follows the carefully polished C-suite playbook of implying a bold sense of direction while committing to nothing in particular. In Sharma's words, Microsoft Gaming will:

• "Recommit to our core Xbox fans and players" while also "enter[ing] new categories and markets where we can add real value"
• Move with "urgency because gaming is in a period of rapid change," but also "not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop"
• "Celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox starting with console" yet simultaneously "expand across PC, mobile and cloud … [and] break down barriers so developers can build once and reach players everywhere without compromise"
• "Return to the renegade spirit that built Xbox in the first place," while Microsoft is worth some $3 trillion.

It seems very unlikely that the gaming division of a company so devoted to AI and cloud computing will pull back from putting its software on as many devices as possible to "recommit" to selling games on a single console. It seems just as unlikely that it would stop selling its PC games on Steam, when years of work on the Xbox app have yet to result in an interface that anyone particularly likes.

Perhaps there's a hint here that Microsoft is ready to jettison its all-in-on-Game-Pass strategy, now that it's abundantly clear the service will never pull in the tens of millions of anticipated subscribers and that it might have even cannibalized sales of the games Microsoft spent billions of dollars to acquire.

I mean, really, what else could Sharma's statement "We are witnessing the reinvention of play" possibly mean?

Okay, it could mean literally anything.

But if I may pick out one single phrase that I think I can accurately translate from CEO speak into human language, it's this line, from near the letter's end:

"We will invent new business models and new ways to play by leaning into what we already have: iconic teams, characters, and worlds that people love. But we will not treat those worlds as static IP to milk and monetize. We will build a shared platform and tools that empower developers and players to create and share their own stories."

Emphasis above is mine, and here's what it means:

The kids love Roblox, and they make all the games themselves! How do we get a piece of THAT?

It's not uncommon for videogame sound effects to be sourced from sound effect libraries, which is why you sometimes hear the same ones show up in movies and TV shows. I've heard the whooshy Doom door sound effect in Doctor Who, Event Horizon, Galaxy Quest, and plenty of other places. But there is one specific bird sound, a tremolo warble that I know from Age of Empires, which I seem to hear more than anything else.

Mostly it's in pop songs. It plays repeatedly over the outro of Anaconda by Nicki Minaj, and you can hear it in Babylon by Lady Gaga. It's in Pacific State by 808 State and Animals Beat by Skrillex. It's in multiple tracks by Aphex Twin. I think it's in Michael Jackson's Thriller, but that might be a different sample of the same call, and I'm halfway convinced it's been used in heavily processed form in Lana Del Rey's Million Dollar Man. According to Who Sampled, it's in at least 190(!) tracks. Basically, anywhere someone wants things to sound a bit wild and maybe like you're in the jungle, this is the go-to bird cry.

Which is why it's so funny that it actually comes from a Canadian bird called the common loon. That eerie cry belongs to a bird so ungainly that, depending on wind conditions, it can need up to a quarter-mile run up before it takes flight.

I first noticed this sample being used outside Age of Empires when I heard it in Hold the Line by Major Lazer. In my former life as a music journalist I interviewed Switch, a producer who was at that point half of Major Lazer, and asked him if he got it and the other animal sounds he used from the classic realtime strategy game.

"They actually are from a CD that I got in Japan with a lot of computer game sounds," he said, "so it could well be from that particular game. I don't know, I've never played that game before. It fitted in with the whole concept of the album where it's kind of fun and cartoony and stuff like that."

That CD was probably one of the Audiosparx or Sound Ideas library discs, though before that the track Common Loon, Single Call was part of the Emulator II Sound Library volume 22: Wind Chimes, Birds and Streams as "Loon Garden". According to a deep dive published by Pitchfork it was recorded by the late Richard Burmer, a composer and sound designer who worked for E-mu Systems, and it was one of the presets on the E-mu Emulator II, a synthesizer that was used by the Pet Shop Boys when they recorded West End Girls and Peter Gabriel in Sledgehammer.

It was also the synth played by John Carpenter when he was scoring various movies throughout the 1980s, and Matthew Broderick when playing vomit sounds in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Movies tend to prefer a different loon call, the longer wail that is used to signify things are a bit spooky that's been used in Platoon, Avengers: Infinity War, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and so many other movies it has its own TV Tropes page as well as a Vox video investigation into why Hollywood keeps using it.

Videogames aren't as hooked on loon sonics as movies and music are, though once you know what you're listening for, the specific Age of Empires loon sample is in Valve games like Counter-Strike, as well as several of the Lego games, Majora's Mask, Banjo-Kazooie, and Two Worlds. Different samples of loon calls show up in plenty of other games too.

Now I've cursed you with this knowledge, like me you'll be haunted by it. You'll hear a loon in The Long Dark and think, that's not right, the lake's frozen over. How could a loon take off on that? You'll hear a loon in Halo Infinite and think it's weird a bird more typically found around the Great Lakes region is on an alien planet. Most disturbingly of all, you'll hear the sound Dark Souls' mushroom children make when they die and realize, yep, that's definitely just another common loon. They're everywhere.

Blade was the only thing I was really looking forward to seeing in last night's Xbox Games Showcase. I ended up being pleasantly surprised by Grounded 2, at least, but when we finally got to the end of the barrage of trailers I was still waiting for my vampire fix.

I'm mostly just bummed out by its absence, but I'm also a wee bit worried.

While a Marvel game doesn't feel very Arkane, Blade actually seems like a pretty decent fit. He's sneaky, supernatural, tactical and slick AF—all things that play to the studio's strengths.

The cinematic teaser shown off at The Game Awards in 2023 was heavy on the vibes and light on the details, but it genuinely got me excited. The one thing we did learn was that Blade would be hanging out in Paris, doing some old world vampire slaying. And Paris should be a great playground for Arkane's exceptional brand of level design.

Concept art released shortly after only served to make me salivate more, and reinforced my excitement over the setting, as it echoed Dishonored and, more overtly, Dishonored 2.

At the time, Ted said, "You've got that distinctive 19th century European architecture contrasting with harsh industrial tech⁠—it's practically screaming artist Viktor Antonov's iconic designs for Half-Life 2 and Dishonored." It was ticking all of my very specific boxes.

It's now been a year and a half, and we don't know the setup, we've not been given any hints about how it will function mechanically and we don't even know if it's going to be first or third-person.

The Xbox Games Showcase would have been a perfect opportunity to fill in some blanks—even if it's not going to be out this year, which it absolutely won't be. But it looks like Arkane's not ready to show anything off yet.

And yeah, let it cook. I don't want Arkane to rush. But it worries me that it was ready to announce the game all the way back in December 2023. Games get announced way too early all the time, sure, but this still suggests that Microsoft, Bethesda and Arkane expected to have more to show off in the near future.

That they haven't given us anything makes me wonder if there have been some major road bumps. Arkane hasn't even tweeted about it since it was announced.

I have no doubt that Arkane can produce something exceptional if it's just left to it, but it's an Xbox studio now. And Microsoft is absolutely ruthless. Just look at how it treated Tango Softworks. Even if you do release a great, popular game, you still might end up on the chopping block. And Microsoft didn't just shutter Tango Softworks, it also killed off Arkane Austin at the same time, following the failure of Redfall.

So Arkane's already been a victim of Microsoft's cost-cutting measures. And it was a vampire game that led to this dismal state of affairs. I really don't want another vampire game to spell the end of the surviving Lyon studio.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I don't know if Arkane is in trouble, and Blade's development might be going smoothly. But it's an incredibly tumultuous time for the industry and we're losing talented studios left, right and centre, so this lack of communication is noteworthy.

I'm also concerned that Microsoft probably isn't going to have Arkane's back because it's not a big earner. The studio has given us some of the most incredible immersive sims and stealth romps to ever grace PC, but these games simply don't sell well. Giving Arkane a Marvel game—as much as Blade is a good fit—feels like a desperate attempt to find something for it to do, something that might make Microsoft some cash.

But all you need to do is look at Midnight Suns—despite being one of Firaxis's best games, it landed with a thud—to see that the Marvel label isn't a guaranteed winner these days.

So yeah, feeling a bit nervous about this one, folks.

When Obsidian unveiled Grounded 2 during today's Xbox Showcase, all my cynicism washed away. I don't want to spend my weekend watching trailers, but a tease for the sequel to my all-time favourite survival game? And the announcement that we'll be able to play it next month? Yeah, even I'm excited.

After the showcase, Obsidian went ahead and spilled the shrunken beans, giving us all the details about the imminent sequel, and honestly it sounds like everything I could have wanted. There was a lot to digest, but it's the new environment I'm most excited about.

Instead of a suburban garden, the quartet of teens now have to contend with a whole community park. And it's frickin' massive.

Obsidian, which has partnered with Eidos Montreal for the sequel, explained that it's a whopping three times larger than the backyard, which was already massive. Indeed, the starting area alone is the same size as the entire first game.

Now, I'm not normally one to get hyped about this kinda stuff: a bigger game space doesn't mean it's going to be a more interesting place to explore. But Obsidian did such a great job filling the garden with novelties that I've got faith it's gonna pull it off again. And from what we've seen so far, the team's off to a good start.

Before the teens were shrunk down, the park was evacuated, leaving it in disarray. This is not a tidy place. A filled-to-the-brim bin full of rubbish and rotting food is one of the locations you'll need to root around in—possibly with the assistance of a gas mask. And there's a toppled ice cream cart, which has effectively created an Arctic zone for the adventurous teens to get lost in. One that, unfortunately, appears to have enticed some scorpions.

All sorts of mundane detritus has been left behind, from food left on picnic tables, to discarded guitar amps. And naturally this stuff becomes a lot more interesting when you're the size of an ant.

Ziplines will help you get around again, but Obsidian won't be introducing them straight away. The good news is that you'll have another mode of transport available when it launches in early access: bugs! Ants and spiders can be turned into mounts. Lethal mounts.

Ants can help you transport supplies, and they'll even help you dig. What's even cooler is that you can use a red ant soldier to enlist up to two red ant workers to follow you around and help you out. A wee ant party!

Orb weaver spider mounts, meanwhile, will be particularly handy in combat. They hit like a tonne of bricks, they're terrifyingly fast, and they can belt out a shriek that can stun other critters. As someone who struggles with arachnophobia, this might be just what I need: killer spider friends.

We saw a bunch of bugs in the Grounded 2 direct, from cockroaches to scorpions to caterpillars, and even a preying mantis, but I'm hoping to see some properly weird shit at launch.

My current bug obsession are treehoppers. They come in all sorts of bizarre shapes. You've got leafy little guys, mushroom-looking-dudes, and indescribably odd fellas that look like they've got big fleshy antenna arrays sticking out of their heads. The variety is genuinely incredible.

They could maybe even replace the adorable aphid, as some treehoppers produce honeydew, just like the first Grounded's cutest little guy.

At the very least, I'm assuming the size of the park will mean a lot more variety when it comes to our buggy friends and foes. And maybe even some more non-bug critters. Look, your boy just wants to fly on a friendly bat, OK?

Grounded 2 early access will kick off on July 29, and after that I will be sending Obsidian my critter wish list.

Ah geez. Bad news, everyone. Someone went and unlocked the Heavenly Spear, unleashing a hundred years of war on the land and its people. Also there's a lady who is also a spider, and she's pretty keen on getting her hands on it and seems pretty evil? It's all just going from bad to worse.

Such is my takeaway from the Xbox Games Showcase trailer for Age of Mythology: Retold's Heavenly Spear expansion, which focuses on Japanese mythology and just announced it's coming out this autumn.

This one's bringing "an all-new Japanese pantheon to Age of Mythology: Retold, introducing 12 new gods, each with unique god powers, divine technologies, and myth units drawn from centuries of legend". Which is probably good. I bet those are all good things to have if you're locked in a war to the death with enemy divine powers.

Heavenly Spear also pledges a whole new campaign. Brace yourself for 12 missions about Yasuko, "a humble farmer’s daughter who discovers a magical spear and is swept into a mythic war". She's up against that spider lady, too, as well as the "power-hungry warlord" Kagemasa. That is before she graduates to taking on "the monstrous Yamata no Orochi, the Titan of the Japanese Pantheon".

Which is a lot to put on a farm-girl's shoulders, but I guess she does have that new spear to help her along. Also helping her: new units, like Kitsune foxes, Jorogumo spiders, and club-wielding Oni. Plus samurai and shinobi, as is presumably mandated somewhere in law for people making games about Japanese mythology.

I'm into it, and I wonder if the devs will take bigger swings with a brand-new expansion than they did with the base game. Maybe the old-school charm of the original's clunky cutscenes might give way to something slicker when Heavenly Spear hits this autumn?

Age of Mythology has had a long, strong history as the weirdest and most cult-like of the Age RTS series. Last year we got the release of Age of Mythology: Retold, which updated and revamped it for modern audiences. The community who still love and support the game have received it pretty well, with thousands online every day to play the enriched version of their favorite RTS. It recently got a big expansion, Immortal Pillars, adding a pantheon of Chinese gods and a Chinese faction alongside the Greeks, Norse, Egyptians, and Atlanteans of the base game.

In making a fresh expansion, senior director of production Earnest Yuen and the team at World's Edge realized that they'd have to abandon some elements of the Chinese faction in Age of Mythology's first remaster, the 2014 Extended Edition.

"To be open, we deliberately chose not to closely adhere to the original. We have all played the original expansion of course, so we understand what was good about it and what can be improved," Yuen said. "Even folks who did work on the original felt that we should rework the expansion with the experiences the team have gained now."

It's a little surprising for an expansion on a decades-old game, but not too much so. When I spoke with Yuen and the World's Edge developers at the start of 2024 as Age of Mythology Retold was revealed, they showed themselves to be huge fans of the game. They told me at the time they wanted to go "way beyond what we normally do for definitive editions" in order to build an epic as older players remembered it, rather than as it was in 2002. "We want to build the game in your head," he said.

The same held true for Immortal Pillars: they wanted to make the expansion you imagined for Age of Mythology, not the expansion that actually existed a decade ago. They didn't explicitly say it, but to me it was clear that Immortal Pillars either had to be up to 2025 standards or it shouldn't exist at all.

Good gods

"One of our key goals early on was to unleash our creative team to be free to 100% completely reimagine and rebuild the pantheon from the ground up, showcasing what a modern take of a Chinese pantheon would look like in 2025," said Yuen. "We wanted to reimagine the Chinese pantheon based on authentic Chinese mythology, which includes collaborating with experts and partners in China to create this expansion. Chinese mythology stories run incredibly deep, and we had a hard time picking which gods would make the final cut."

Some of those choices were informed by how players engage with Age of Mythology Retold. The team at World's Edge does their best to monitor social metrics—how people are talking about the game—and the hard data they get from people playing matches. That's part of what told them that a lot of AoM players really enjoyed skirmish and singleplayer game types against the AI, which lead to the development of the PvE Arena of the Gods mode released last year. That meant that a priority of design for the Chinese pantheon had to fit with the flashy "look at these cool battles" draw of that mode.

"It has so many incredible-looking Myth units which really makes any big battles look epic. I mean, we now have even more flying dragons and new flying tigers," said Yuen, adding that Immortal Pillars also includes a singleplayer campaign.

Not all design was informed by the need to look good, though. I asked Yuen how the team approached adding new gameplay types—there are a lot of cool ideas from the last two decades of strategy games that just aren't present in the core of AoM.

"Of course you have the completely new and awesome ideas like Taotie that eats other units to grow larger and increase attack stats. I especially like that unit design because not only does it introduce a new way to play, but the idea also aligns perfectly with the original Chinese mythology of Taotie representing 'gluttony,'" said Yuen. "I also love the hero Nezha, who leaves behind a trail of fire everywhere he goes.

"The way the Chinese gain favor is entirely different from any other pantheons, as they have to constantly expand their empire to cover more 'favored land,' and the barracks allow you to add defensive tower expansions on the buildings. These and other new features offer us new strategic options to think about building placements in the battlefield."

Yuen and the team clearly just really love this game. They're thrilled watching players come up with new and innovative ways to use the factions and powers they've implemented.

"The players have often created new ways to play the game or use various units and god powers in ways we don’t initially expect. Yes, sometimes it does keep our game balance team busy, but most often it just makes the game fun to watch and play. When the game first came out, I learned a lot from the best players out there and used those tools against other people in our team, especially with the new Norse god Freyr. I’m looking forward to doing the same with the Chinese Patheon!"

So do keep the reviews, comments, and discourse going, Age fans. It's clear they're important to the World's Edge team. "Players may not know this but on top of looking for complaints, the positive comments have routinely been a huge source of encouragement for our team to keep making the game as good as we can," Yuen said.

"Thank you, Myth fans. We love you."

You're the creative director for the next up-and-coming RPG. You step on stage in front of an audience of eager fans (pretend we still do these things live), and after the reveal trailer rolls you steeple your fingers and the grand promise you make to players is:

1. "That mountain? You can go there!"
2. "A living, breathing world"
3. "A story with choices that matter"

You say "choices that matter" and the crowd cheers, though they're quietly harboring skepticism. Would they have believed you outright if you went for the mountain? Maybe. They're all buzzword-laden lines, so perhaps it won't make any difference in the end. But whether or not the choice perceptibly changes your trajectory, it sure felt like a big deal in the moment, and that's what makes a choice matter.

Giving me choices that matter, not just to its own systems and evolving story, but to me as a player, is something Obsidian's latest RPG Avowed just nails. It's constantly giving me dialogue options that let me roleplay my Envoy in interesting ways, and choices that I can feel are going to have repercussions later on, but also choices that just feel fun and interesting to make even if I don't know whether they'll turn back up in the epilogue.

It hurts my heart a little to find yet another way to praise Avowed as a direct response to something that I felt let down by in Dragon Age: The Veilguard last year, but I haven't been able to ditch the feeling in my 80 hours and counting.

One of my major complaints in my Veilguard review was that it became obsessed with proving to me that my choices mattered. Reminders would pop up in the middle of a cutscene making sure I understood that events playing out were a result of my decisions.

But "choices that matter" isn't just about how many ways a game can demonstrate cause and effect to me. A few slightly different dialogue lines or choosing which of my party members will have a bruised up face for 10 hours of my playthrough just didn't matter to me if the choice that made it happen was uninteresting. Tangible effects are an important part of making choices matter, but without a choice that's difficult or surprising or scary I'd rather just not get to choose anything at all.

Avowed has heaped my plate full of steaming hot choices. One of the first things I did with my "Court Augur" background was decide that yes I did actually have a romantic history with this Inquisitor Lödwyn person everyone's talking about. I had no idea if it was going to come up much (it has, fun enough) or if it was just a little moment of backstory flair, but it sure felt juicy to make that choice.

Later on in Avowed's second area, the Memory of the Deep side quest asks me to find a hidden meteorite and choose whether to give it back to the person who originally gave me the quest, or someone else. I actually sat there and thought about it for a solid five minutes. Giving the meteorite back to the farmer who asked for it could have serious consequences but giving it to the very suspect "Giftbearer" didn't seem right either. I was pretty sure this choice wasn't actually going to result in any change to the game—a sequence involving an incursion of new dream thralls seemed unlikely—I just cared about the choice itself. Should I let this guy have back the thing that could put him in danger?

There are so many other choices in Avowed that have stopped me and made me think. Should I lie to a dreamscourged ranger about the fate of her patrol partner? Should I execute a traitor who's trying to avoid further bloodshed? Should I help a dreamscourged man euthanize himself even if his sole surviving family member begs me not to let him? Many of these choices didn't have any effect on other parts of the game—just a quick exchange of dialogue and a strikethrough in my quest log. But those choices mattered to me just because they were interesting problems for my emotional little human brain.

Avowed has launched a bare three and a half months after The Veilguard, meaning that nothing in it could possibly be a reaction to critiques of BioWare's storytelling, and yet I just kept finding ways to directly compare them.

I found myself uninterested in choosing to save Minrathous or Treviso in The Veilguard because choosing between two mostly identical dragon attacks meant nothing to me. But a similar situation about the fate of an entire city in Avowed really made me stop to think about what it would mean for the future of its citizens.

I was annoyed when all of my companions in The Veilguard ended their personal quests by putting major decisions about their lives in my hands. Choices that, again, seemed sort of morally equivalent and uninteresting to consider, but more maddening for the fact that they kept letting me be the one to choose.

Meanwhile, much later in Avowed, I see one of my companions making a similar choice about her future and what to pursue. My Envoy has a dialogue option saying: "wait, you want me to choose?" and my companion responds—all but looking directly into the camera—that no of course she's going to make her own choice but she'd like my opinion as a friend. Obsidian couldn't have predicted this very specific thing bugging me in The Veilguard, and yet.

"Choices that matter" is one of those marketing lines that gets tossed around as often as any other lofty promise about "immersion" in games. It was a real bummer to see a series I've loved miss what matters most about making choices matter—that the choices themselves, not just their outcomes, have to be interesting—but Avowed has lifted my spirits a little bit by just getting it.

Avowed has plenty of cause and effect type choices that change the course of the story and affect major parts of my surroundings. It has missable quests with pretty big implications. It has one of those RPG epilogue reels where you find out the fate of everyone you influenced with your decisions. It has a whole lot of choices that have observable effects, but more importantly it has choices that matter.

An RPG simply isn't an RPG without a collection quest ending in a super special weapon, which is exactly what the Forged of Star-Stuff quest in Avowed is. You'll need to track down the location of four pieces of rare starmetal across the Living Lands and bring them to the one blacksmith qualified to turn them into a superb quality weapon—or two superb quality weapons, if you actually collect all four pieces of starmetal.

Right below I'll lay out where Forged of Star-Stuff actually ends and the different possible weapons you can choose as rewards, along with the specific locations of all four pieces of starmetal. The quest won't actually be marked complete until you collect and use all four pieces, so you probably want to check this one off your list for the sake of the XP even if you only want one of the weapons.

Forged of Star-Stuff location and rewards

Where's the starmetal smithy?

Cool your jets on this quest because you won't be able to complete Forged of Star-Stuff until you reach Galawain's Tusks, the fourth explorable area in Avowed. You'll be able to ask the smithing merchants in towns you visit along the way whether they can use starmetal to make anything but they're all going to turn you down. You can win some skyets off Kai at one point though when he bets you that the smith in Thirdborn will be able to use it. Hint: she won't. Shocking no one, this one's the purview of dwarven smiths alone.

Once you talk your way into Solace Keep in Galawain's Tusks, take a visit to the smithy down below the main central area. Recently-appointed Forgemaster Dela is more than happy to help. With all four of Avowed's starmetal fragments in hand (locations below) you can have him create a unique sword and arquebus and upgrade both of them to even more special variants. If you choose to upgrade either one, they'll keep the same passive effects, just get a new name and better base stat ratings.

One starmetal:

• Meteor Blade: 1/3 Superb quality one-handed sword with 120 physical damage and 100 stun
  • Lamenting Fury: A full combo attack gives the hit enemy -20% damage for 15 seconds
  • Freezing Lash: Hits deal +10% bonus frost damage
• Moonstrike: 1/3 Superb quality arquebus with 308 physical damage and 280 stun
  • Ondra's Scorn: Power attacks deal moderate frost accumulation to nearby enemies
  • Freezine Lash: Hits deal +10% bonus frost damage

Two starmetal:

• Ondra's Offense: 2/3 Superb quality one-handed sword with 141 physical damage and 110 stun
  • Lamenting Fury: A full combo attack gives the hit enemy -20% damage for 15 seconds
  • Freezing Lash: Hits deal +10% bonus frost damage
• Heavenstrike: 2/3 Superb quality arquebus with 361 physical damage and 308 stun
  • Ondra's Scorn: Power attacks deal moderate frost accumulation to nearby enemies
  • Freezine Lash: Hits deal +10% bonus frost damage

Starmetal locations

Starmetal location in Dawnshore

The starmetal fragment in Dawnshore is at the godless altar in the Southern Embrace portion of the map, near the coast. There are some xaurips to clear out of the altar area but it's otherwise easily accessible right next to the Emerald Stair Gatehouse beacon and the Southern Embrace party camp.

Starmetal location in Emerald Stair

The starmetal fragment in Emerald Stair is at the Damp Burrow in the Rolling Crags in a small cave guarded by an "exceptional" tier troll enemy Iscern. It's easiest to access from the Damp Burrow party camp if you've got it unlocked or the Ranger Headquarters beacon if not. You can approach the cave from the front, drop in from a hole in the ground near the pond above, or sneak into the abandoned house nearby and break through the floorboards.

Starmetal location in Shatterscarp

The starmetal fragment in Shatterscarp is located in the same abandoned mine near Thirdorn where you'll find Ruanga during the One Last Drink quest. Find the mine entrance in a small opening west of the Thirdborn party camp. Instead of entering Ruanga's little hideyhole, turn to your left and keep climbing up and around the ridge counterclockwise to reach a little plateau that's directly above the party camp. No fights here, it's yours to grab without a fuss.

Starmetal location in Galawain's Tusks

The starmetal fragment in Galawain's Tusks is way out in the Ash Forest in the northwest portion of the map. The closest access is the Primordial Depths party camp and Ash Forest beacon. It's the same location as the bounty on Destul that you can pick up from the board in Solace Keep, which you should definitely pick up to make it an efficient trip out to the dead end of the map. You'll need to fight Destul the revenant first but then you can claim the piece of starmetal from the center of the crater down below.

It simply isn't an RPG if you aren't doing the good old gear shuffle every few hours, but some of the unique gear in Avowed makes the old song and dance a lot easier. Equipping unique weapons and armor and then upgrading them is pretty much always going to be a better call than blowing your cash on a higher quality non-unique piece, from what we've found while playing.

You really don't need to hang onto your loser starting gear for too long because there are quite a few unique weapons and armor that are easy to grab early on in Avowed if you know where to look. Does it sometimes involve cheesing your way into a place and running away with loot instead of staying to finish a fight? Yes. Are we too proud to do that? No we are not.

We've picked out some of the best uniques in Avowed that you can grab pretty early into your game, whether it be with cash, cowardice, or cunning. Some of them continue to be the best weapons in Avowed even into the late game.

How do unique items work in Avowed?

Unique gear, both weapons and armor, are named items usually with some special effects. Some grant bonus skills or have elemental effects like the sick fire sword Last Light of Day. One important thing to know is that uniques scale in quality to your current gear tier.

That means that unique items you pick up later will be of comparable rarity tier with your late-game gear but also means that grabbing the unique items below early on in the game will make them generate at "common" quality. That just means you'll have to commit to upgrading your gear, but that's pretty much the backbone of Avowed's progression so you're going to do a lot of that regardless.

The best uniques to grab early

Beothel's Grimoire

Find it: At the magical merchant in Paradis near the bounty board in the merchant district.

The spells in Beothel's Grimoire have a great self-sustaining loop that pairs well either with a pistol or a one-handed melee weapon. Arcane Veil grants damage reduction and uninterruptible casting while Blizzard gives you an offensive elemental spell that can double as crowd control. Corrosive Siphon lets you recoup health by poisoning an enemy and Parasitic Staff will recoup your Essence every time you whack an enemy with it—and that spectral staff does a weirdly good amount of actual damage too.

This unique grimoire is surprisingly cheap and easy to acquire really early on in Avowed. Snag it for just 450 from the magical items merchant right in the middle of Paradis. You'll earn more than that from one of the early game bounties and it's also much cheaper than the "fine" quality weapons you can (but shouldn't) shell out for in the early game—because upgrading your gear is the better strategy.

Drawn in Winter

Find it: In a block of ice at Watcher’s Mirror in the northeast of Dawnshore

Drawn in Winter is a one-handed axe that, without any tinkering, causes a massive area-of-effect ice blast whenever you use a power attack. This chilling explosion deals damage to surrounding enemies and spreads frost like a plaque. Sounds pretty strong, right? It is, and it can be yours for free with just a little exploring at Watcher's Mirror in Dawnshore.

Picking up Drawn in Winter immediately spawns a pack of very strong skeletons, which you’ll be unable to beat right off the bat. However, I just ran away–axe in hand–and got one of the best weapons in Avowed barely a few hours in.

If you pair Drawn in Winter with the various Ranger and Warrior perks focusing on melee combat and specifically one-handed axes, its damage will skyrocket. Plus, you could even wear gear like the Death Knight Gloves which increase frost damage.

Stelgaer’s Pride

Find it: The reward for completing the Intimidating Feline Codpiece treasure map in Dawnshore

Staying alive in the early hours is much easier said than done, thanks in large part to your crap armor. This is especially problematic for Rangers and Warriors, who need to get up close and personal, only to be sent running scared moments later. This is where Stelgaer’s Pride can help, a medium armor set that is versatile enough early on. In fact, I’m still wearing it (albeit heavily upgraded and using various skills to improve medium armor) over 40 hours later.

As medium armor, Stelgaer’s Pride has moderate damage reduction overall but it’s better than anything else you’ve got right now thanks to its unique perks. With this armor, you’ll get +5% stamina regeneration rate, which is useful for all builds (including gunslingers and mages) but particularly important if you’re dodging or blocking lots as this devours your stamina. Stelgaer’s Pride also has the handy perk of automatically casting Barbaric Shout when you take damage over 30% of your maximum health in a single hit. This mainly triggers during boss fights but the added stun application during Barbaric Shout comes in clutch.

Steel Garrote Gauntlets

Find it: In a small nook covered by webs in Ondra’s Reach, just southeast of Paradis

Using a shield early on is quite literally a lifesaver, as blocking without one will still chip away at your health. The only issue is that you won’t have the stamina to keep it up for long, meaning it’s hard to get more than one or two hits in after a block before having to take a breather.

The Steel Garrote Gauntlets are specially designed with shield enjoyers in mind, giving you +10% parry efficiency (so parries drain less stamina) as well as a hefty 20 additional stamina. The classic sword and board playstyle is much more sustainable and forgiving using these gloves, especially since you won’t have heaps of attribute points to dump into Resolve.

Last Light of Day

Last Light of Day location: On the Oracle during the Dawntreader quest in Dawnshore

I'm so in love with this weapon I already wrote a whole article recommending you grab the flaming sword, so I'll try and keep it brief here. There's something so classically iconic about a flaming sword, and Last Light of Day's got the raw power to back up its flashy looks too. It starts with bonus fire damage and a heal-on-kill, though I've since swapped that latter enchantment for a big bonus to stun when parrying, which makes it a blast with a good shield.

I'm well into the game's second area now—about 20 hours in—and it's still one of my main weapons. Given how often you fight plant monsters in this game, there are a lot of enemies weak to fire damage, which keeps it relevant, and for my warrior-mage build it just feels right, y'know?

Not bad for a unique you can get within the first few hours of the game.

Caeroc's Pride

Find it: Tempestuous Luandi's bounty in Dawnshore

This lightning pistol has been my faithful companion throughout my entire playthrough, 45 hours and counting. It looks cool, feels fantastic, does solid bonus lightning damage, and has enchantment effects that have been competitive with every other ranged weapon I've found.

One of them is boring but consistent: AOE lightning "accumulation" on every hit, which fills a meter before debuffing enemies with a damage over time effect. I much prefer the other option: A 25% chance to fire off a super-damaging chain lightning bolt on every kill. It always seems to proc just when I need it most, and has this incredibly satisfying feel as it pingpongs between enemies.

The Disappointer

The Disapointer location: The shady merchant in the northwest corner of the Paradis Hightown.

My offhand weapon with Caeroc, I wish I'd ignored its negging item description and just bought it the second I found it, instead of coming back later to give it a shot. The Disappointer is a reprisal of a joke weapon from the first Pillars of Eternity, but while you had to jump through some hoops to make its original incarnation worth using, Avowed's much more streamlined enchantment system means you can just immediately turn this flintlock into a contender.

The Disappointer starts with -10% damage but +10% bleed damage, making it a net neutral compared to a generic pistol. Its upgrade to AOE debuff enemy damage didn't light my fire, but its other option flips the -10% damage to +10%, making for a net +20% over a run of the mill handgun. Not so disappointing after all, eh?

Your time in Avowed's second zone Emerald Stair can end even worse than it began if you don't realize that you need to save Fior mes Ivèrno. Things start off badly enough with the failing crops, animancy zombies, and the dreamscourge, but the militant Steel Garrote has worse plans for the region if the Envoy doesn't intercede.

The thing is, it's really easy to miss your cue to come to the rescue. And if you don't take initiative, then Giatta's hometown is a goner. There's no dedicated sidequest and no quest marker telling you that you're about to make an irreversible oversight so you've got to be paying attention.

Even if you pick up on the hints that you should check up on the underground Steel Garrote presence in the area, you may be like me and just sort of forget to pursue that problem without a reminder hanging about in your quest log. So let's avert disaster on your save file where I failed.

How do you save Fior mes Ivèrno?

To save Fior, you need to attack the hidden Steel Garrote camp hidden in a waterfall cave west of Fior mes Ivèrno before completing the Ancient Soil quest. You can head to the waterfall cave just east of the Wildwoods Outskirts party camp without being prompted and solve the problem that way, but you'll also get a hint to investigate after completing the Steel Resolve quest.

At the end of that investigation into a traitor within the Emerald Stair rangers, which begins at their headquarters east of Fior, you'll score some information about a Steel Garrote plot to overtake Fior mes Ivèrno. If your ears have been perked, this won't be the first time you've heard chatter around town about suspicious Garrote activity, but it is your biggest clue on what to do about it. Kai straight up looks you in the face and says "We should look into that," when you're told about the secret cave hideout. Just don't be like me and let the lack of an actual quest marker slip your mind.

One way or another, you need to clear out this hidden camp of Garrote soldiers. The two guards you come across first will try to talk you into turning a blind eye. You can either impolitely decline, or pretend to take their advice and sneak around through a small side tunnel on your right to get a drop on their comrades. You'll have a few different groups of Garrote enemies to kill, ending with Captain Weyth. Six written notes around the cave from Inquisitor Lödwyn to Weyth reveal her plans to burn the city.

If you go on to the Ancient Soil quest without putting down this operation, that's exactly what they'll do. If you take a stand for Emerald Stair, things go (slightly) better.

What happens to Fior mes Ivèrno?

Whether you save Fior or allow it to get stomped on by the Steel Garrote, the citizens will wind up needing to flee and you'll choose to send the Fiorans to Thirdborn or Paradis—either because the city's burned down or because you uncovered the dreamscourge threat is going to imminently consume Emerald Stair.

If you save Fior:

• The city and any quests there remain accessible
• Governor Vidarro leads citizens to flee the dreamscourge to either Paradis or Thirdborn

If Fior burns:

• The city is burned and becomes inaccessible, guarded by Steel Garrote
• Governor Vidarro leads the Fiorans as refugees to either Thirdborn or Paradis
• Giatta and Yatzli mourn the loss of the city

The catfish is out of the bag: you can in fact romance Kai in Avowed. Despite leading us to believe that there's no romance in Avowed at all, it turns out Obsidian snuck a little in. Your potential romance with Kai isn't the blockbuster cutscene stuff of Baldur's Gate 3 or Cyberpunk 2077, it's true. Romancing Kai mostly involves a lot of conversations at camp and completing his personal quest. But by the end you can in no uncertain terms tell Kai your feelings and have them reciprocated—verbally, anyway—by your new aumaua amore.

How to romance Kai

• Complete Kai's companion quest Battle Scars
• Make quest choices that give Kai respect for your "clarity of purpose"
• You can romance Kai as any gender Envoy

Below I'll walk through each part of Kai's companion quest Battle Scars that you need to complete in order to romance him. Kai will give you the quest during a conversation as your party leaves Dawnshore for Emerald Stair for the first time so you shouldn't be able to miss it.

As for wooing Kai with your choices, Avowed doesn't have an overt approval system to reference, so it's difficult to judge just how much each of these decisions will affect his interest in a relationship. As we got to know each other better, Kai continually mentioned respecting my Envoy's "clarity of purpose" when handling quests. Here are a few choices he specifically mentioned agreeing with that you may want to make:

• Choose to spare Ygwulf at the end of the An Untimely End quest
• Eliminate the ranger traitor at the end of the Steel Resolve sidequest in Emerald Stair
• Save Fior mes Ivèrno before leaving Emerald Stair
• Say "I follow my principles, not my commands." when he asks your feelings about your personal mission after leaving Emerald Stair
• Don't allow Katoa and Haiako to continue their plans at the top of Old Pargrun Tower in Shatterscarp

Tama's Cabin

Kai will give you the quest Battle Scars and ask you to visit the cabin of his deceased friend Tama right as your party is headed into Emerald Stair for the first time. Tama's cabin is easy enough to reach west of Fior mes Ivèrno. When you arrive you'll find a painting of Kai and a small wooden whale he once carved for Tama, the twin to the one Kai wears.

If you're not picking up on the vibe of leaving a painting of someone prominently displayed in your home for them to find, yeah Tama felt very strongly about Kai. Loved him, no less, and this is when Kai finally realizes that the feelings he was also keeping secret had been reciprocated.

Kai takes the opportunity to beat up on himself for never realizing how Tama felt until he was gone. Although you can be supportive of him, he's not quite ready to hear it yet. Kai asks for some time to think through what he's found out and you'll pick up his quest again after reaching the next explorable zone, Shatterscarp.

Tama's badge

Kai gives you the next part of his quest during your party's conversation while travelling from Emerald Stair to Shatterscarp for the first time so again you can't really miss it. He asks you to look for Tama's badge, which is pretty deep into Shatterscarp, past the big Great Sand Sea area of dunes and plateaus. You'll find Tama's badge on the body of a skeleton (not his) tucked into a small waterway after fighting some risen skeletons and fire elementals in the area.

As soon as you pick up Tama's badge, Kai reminisces about old war stories on patrol with their squad. Tama was a good leader and a good influence that he misses, but he's still hanging onto some guilt. Kai feels responsible for the ambush that led to Tama's fatal wound. That's the way he feels that let Tama down and has been holding onto all this time.

Kai says that he hasn't told this story to anyone in a long time, but something about your leadership makes him want to open up. He mentions your "clarity" that he admires, and it almost seems like he's about to compare you to Tama. Almost.

Tama's memorial

At the end of your conversation about Tama's badge, Kai will ask his last favor: that you go visit Tama's memorial on the Shatterscarp coast and place his badge there. It's at the spot called Sailor's Rest east of Thirdborn along the water.

Kai has one last confession about Tama's death to reveal: that when seeing him on his deathbed after the attack, Kai volunteered to go find his badge and simply never came back to Thirdborn. He feels that he abandoned Tama at the very end. Kai has started to feel a part of the Envoy's group, too much like the good old days, and feels like he doesn't deserve that.

You'll get the chance to push Kai into a bit of an emotional breakthrough here. The Envoy can encourage him to move forward and make new mistakes and learn from those too, rather than dishonoring Tama's memory by associating him with this big emotional burden. You can be as gentle or tough-love on Kai as you want here; both will help him find closure.

Late in this conversation you can subtly push Kai in three different directions for his future:

• "You left more than Tama behind." — Kai considers returning to Thirdborn to help after your adventure.
• "You made Tama's memory a burden." — Kai considers travelling the world after your adventure.
• "You're choosing to give up." — Kai leaves his future open, saying he's done running away but hasn't decided what he's running towards.

This is where you've officially completed Kai's personal quest, Battle Scars.

Confessing to Kai

After completing Battle Scars, you can ask Kai how he's doing after seeing Tama's memorial. He's feeling more optimistic, and recalling all sorts of good memories about the squad.

If you tell Kai "I've got questions about you," you'll find a new conversation topic there: "I feel like we've gotten to know each other, haven't we?" Asking that leads into a conversation where you can tell Kai how you feel about him—which could be that he's a great friend, or you could invite something more. Here's what you can say to confess your feelings:

• "I feel like we've gotten to know each other, haven't we?"
• "I've come to really care about you."
• "Kai, I'm saying that I have feelings for you."

There are a couple more dialogue options after that where you can choose whatever tone you like—either way Kai will reciprocate your feelings after referencing the "clear sense of direction" you have and your internal moral compass.

At this point, it's time to put your newfound feelings on the backburner. Kai ends by saying "If you still feel that way after we've finished our journey…I want that, too."

South of Midnight, the new game coming from We Happy Few developer Compulsion Games, made an appearance at today's Xbox Direct showcase to reveal more about its "darkly magical world" set in the Deep South of the US. Also revealed is the release date: It's set to come out on April 8.

Hazel is a Weaver, whose newly discovered powers enable her to see the supernatural world that exists just beyond ours, populated by creatures of folklore who, it turns out, actually exist. Some are friendly and some are not, and that's a problem for Hazel, who's searching for her mother in the wake of a catastrophic hurricane: Wielding her magical powers, she must do battle with the powerful Haints, and ultimately set them free from the traumas that haunt them. Along the way, she'll also discover more about herself, her family, and her legacy.

South of Midnight's game world looks great, and while the dodge-roll-strike rhythm of the soulslike-style combat is a central part of the experience, it's the potential of the story that I find more interesting. It gives me a bit of a Pathless vibe—which, for the record, I loved. Boss battles really aren't my thing, but I got over it for The Pathless and I'm willing to give it a shot for South of Midnight, too.

South of Midnight on PC is available for wishlisting now on Steam.

Obsidian is sending us all on another RPG adventure in Eora, and just like in Pillars of Eternity, this time your Avowed companions are going to play a pretty big role. Avowed will let you collect a crew of adventurers to help you save the Living Lands from the Dreamscourge plague.

Here's the quick details on your Avowed companions:

• You'll eventually recruit four total companions but only bring two with you while exploring
• You won't miss recruiting any companions because they're all part of main story quests
• You can chat with your companions when you stop at camp spots to get their thoughts on recent events and on each other
• You can control a small set of active abilities for your companions through a radial menu in combat

Can you romance your companions in Avowed?

Romance in Avowed is very minimalist. Despite Obsidian warning us ahead of launch not to expect romance because that hasn't historically been its thing, it turns out that you can have a small romantic story with at least one of your companions. There aren't cutscenes and flirty dialogue like you're used to in games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Baldur's Gate 3 though.

However, we have confirmed that you can express interest in Kai and have that interest reciprocated.

Recruiting Kai

Kai

Race: Aumaua
Class: Fighter
Voice actor: Brandon Keener
Recruit in: Dawnshore

Kai is the first companion you'll meet, just after Avowed's tutorial when you arrive at the docks outside Paradis. Kai is one of the Aumaua, the Pillars setting's very distinct oceanic people who you may remember from Pillars of Eternity 2. He was formerly a member of the Rauatai navy who's been a mercenary for years now, favoring a swashbuckling setup of pistol and saber.

Kai is compassionate and idealistic, often interested in helping people that your party meets in the Living Lands. He's worked with Marius before, and the two often banter back and forth at camp. Kai has a lot of regrets from his past and frequently mentions his belief that people deserve second chances. He's made mistakes and failed people he cares about in ways he'll eventually open up to the player character about.

Also, he's voiced by the same actor as Mass Effect's Garrus Vakarian, instantly certifying Kai as a Good Hang. He can be a little more than that though, as mentioned above. Pursuing his side quest opens the possibility for a romance with Kai, though not the kind of big cutscene driven romance of bigger RPGs.

Recruting Marius

Marius

Race: Dwarf
Class: Ranger
Voice actor: Scott Whyte
Recruit in: Paradis

You'll meet Marius just a couple hours into Avowed when Kai mentions a tracker that may be able to help you during the quest An Untimely End. You'll meet up with Marius at a bar in the Grinning Balarok bar in the lower districts of Paradis.

Marius is a hunter from the remote area Solace, a harsh portion of the Living Lands. His background means that he's way more at home out in the wild than with the comforts of civilization so he's not one for small talk. He often banters back and forth with Kai at the party camp, unwilling to get pulled into chummy antics.

Marius is a clammed up kind of companion, never wanting to share details about his past or his feelings about the present. He's pragmatic about the job and is usually weirded out by too much magic of any kind and Animancy in particular.

Recruiting Giatta

Giatta

Race: Human
Class: Wizard
Voice actor: Mara Junot
Recruit in: Fior mes Ivèrno

You'll meet Giatta in the city Fior mes Ivèrno after you reach the second area Emerald Stair. She's having it out with a government official about what to do about the Dreamscourge and the failing crops in the area. She sends you off on a pretty lengthy quest to assist her but won't actually join your party until you've fully completed The Animancy Method.

Giatta is a human Animancer who lost her parents in a laboratory accident and now carries the Phantasmal Focus, the invention that led to their downfall. As an Animancer, Giatta is a polar opposite to Marius, totally invested in magical solutions to problems. She's knowledgeable and inquisitive about the possibilities of animancy and fiercely protective of her hometown and its people.

Despite her extreme magical interests, Giatta gets along with everyone in camp quite well. She loves swapping ghost stories with the crew and has a way of disarming both Kai and Marius until they open up more to her than to anyone else.

Recruiting Yatzli

Yatzli

Race: Orlan
Class: Wizard
Voice actor: Anjali Bhimani
Recruit in: Shatterscarp

You'll encounter Yatzli right as you step into Emerald Stair for the first time. She's battling some sporelings nearby and requests your help retrieving an ancient vase from a ruin. You won't officially recruit her until quite a while after that during the quest A Path to the Garden as you're leaving Emerald Stair to head to Shatterscarp, so hang tight.

Yatzli is a scholar of the Godless, the ancient people who formerly inhabited the Living Lands. She's irreverent and charming with a fun shade of sarcasm that's meant to bring you in rather than push you away. Don't get too attached to her flirtatious nature though. One of the first things you'll learn when you meet Yatzli is that she's already got a lover. Yatzli and Giatta have known each other a long time—Giatta affectionately refers to her as a sort of dirty-minded aunt and bad influence.

Yatzli may be even more of a magical fanatic than Giatta and the other animancers of Emerald Stair. She values learning and history over pragmatism and sentimentality, at times, putting her on opposite sides of some of the Envoy's choices from Kai or Marius.

In amidst all the mechs, anime, Phil Spencer speaking Japanese, and whatever the hell Slitterhead was, Xbox's Tokyo Game Show presentation also showed off a few tantalising seconds of a new expansion for Age of Mythology: Retold—its Age of Empires: Definitive Edition-ification of the god-battling RTS from 2002.

It's called Immortal Pillars, and from the brief glimpse we got, this is the one that brings the Chinese civilisation back to the game. When Age of Mythology: Retold was announced, some players were curious why it wasn't coming with the Chinese civ that joined the original game in its 2016 Tale of the Dragon expansion. The reason, more likely than not, was that no one liked that expansion very much, and the devs on Retold wanted to rework it before bundling it into their re-do.

Well, I guess that reworking has already come some way. In the trailer, we get snippets of Chinese soldiers stomping about, junks floating in the water, and various creatures from Chinese mythology that I—as some guy from the UK's East Midlands—do not quite feel confident identifying.

It looks cool, though of course the proof will be in the pudding. When will that pudding arrive? Xbox doesn't want you to know just yet, inviting you to wishlist the pudding over on its Steam page, where it has a release date of "Coming soon". The pudding is the expansion, by the way. Sorry if I got you excited about actual pudding. None is forthcoming.

I've got a good feeling about this one, despite the brief look. Our Age of Mythology: Retold review was pretty positive on the game, scoring it 75% and praising the visual overhaul for the difference it makes even with the old game's now-creaky mechanics. The fact that the devs have seen fit to rework the original, unloved expansion into something that hopefully succeeds a bit better suggests to me their hearts are in the right place. But we'll have to wait for that pudding before I can make a declarative statement either way.

George Washington and I go way back—around three millennia, give or take a hundred years. He may have been Buddhist while my Korean people were devoted to the pantheon of Hellenic gods, but we traded goods and propelled each other's research, arriving in Ara: History Untold's Era of Antiquity with the world at our feet.

One of our projects was to build a great road between our capitals, but the Ethiopians—whose territory this road was to pass through—refused us access. So George and I flattened Addis Ababa to make way for our old-world trade highway. All was wonderful, but over the centuries our two territories came to fill the void left behind by Ethiopia. We eventually came to share a border and, in a tale as old as Sid Meier, were doomed to become rivals; it was just a question of who would make the land grab first. What George didn't know is that I've been playing 4X games since the original Civilization, and by the time he declared war, my mangonels were at the ready to begin bombarding Jacksonville.

At the macro level, Microsoft and Oxide Games' stab at the Civy-likey turn-based strategy genre is a fine vehicle for the bonkers stories that arise from a randomised alternative history mish-mashing the key people, technological advancements, and nations of our own. For Civ players, the key elements are all there—government types, religion, war, technological progress, diplomacy, and a bunch of familiar features given new names, from wonders (now triumphs) to great works (masterpieces). But at a time when the history-themed 4X genre is looking rather populous, does Ara do enough to stand the test of time?

It certainly makes a jaunt through history visually appealing. Ara is a sight to behold and Oxide Games knows it, which is why it's given us the ability to zoom all the way in to see the life of our great nation up close—hundreds of little folk wandering around towns, tilling the fields, worshipping at temples, dancing jigs in the streets, and going about their daily lives (oh, and there's an inexplicable abundance of raccoons walking among them, for some reason). 

In the wilderness, wolves chase deer through the forests and bird flocks fly in formation; in a besieged city, people mindlessly run around in sheer panic while archers or artillery rain hell down on them. Likewise, during battles you can watch fully 3D-rendered simulations each turn. None of these are make-or-break features, but they do give a wonderful sense of scale and liveliness to the world in a genre that can sometimes feel a bit abstracted. Now I've seen this, the thought of going back to the deserted cities of other 4X games seems a tad bleak.

The city-building mechanics are great too. As your city grows, you pick a region to claim, with each region being made up of 2-5 zones that you can place buildings in. You're encouraged to create dedicated districts, as various production buildings—farms, apothecaries, weavers—grant bonuses for having buildings of the same type in the same region. You really have to think about what goes where, and what type of production to focus on given the surrounding resources for your city to thrive. With the help of tiles that follow the contours of the land (as opposed to traditional hexes), cities end up looking organic, with swathes of farmland, busy docklands, bustling traders' districts, and mining regions, not to mention triumphs like the Pyramids, the Great Lighthouse, and (that true marvel of modern engineering), The London Eye, all of which look fantastic.

Ara starts you off at the beginning of human history with a single city. From here you build more cities, gather resources, and meet (and inevitably war with) other civilisations, all while making sure that your key currencies of gold, food, timber, and materials stay in the green. Your goal is to make your civilisation the greatest in human history, taking it on a millennia-long journey from the spearmen of the Ancient Era to—in Ara's case—the mech warriors in the Singularity Era.

Ara applies a couple of deviations to this template. First of all, the game is governed by Prestige, a score that tracks your achievements in areas like military prowess, scientific discovery, religion, culture, and science. The nation with the most Prestige at the end wins, which means Ara isn't just about optimising your strategy towards some singular victory condition. I like this in principle. Having to defend yourself in a war, for example, can be a frustrating waste of time and resources in Civilization, but here if you find yourself beset by conflict, then putting up a resolute defence and preventing the enemy claiming the goals declared in their casus belli will gain you military prestige, adding to your overall Prestige. You can still orient yourself in a certain direction—be it religious superpower or haven for commerce—but it's now viable to switch your focus as the game progresses, while detours into secondary areas of development aren't wasted time.

Divide and conquer

Your journey through history is split into three acts, each made up of four eras which you advance through by researching technologies. The big twist here is that at the end of each act, the civs in the bottom 25% of the Prestige rankings get outright culled from the game—reduced to ruins for the explorers of more successful nations to sift through. If that concept gives you the willies, you can turn it off, but ridiculous though the idea of entire civilisations just vanishing might be for anyone not called Graham Hancock, it gives a good shake-up to your campaign just as it might start stagnating. 

Beyond being able to plunder the ruins of lost civs, you suddenly have all this new resource-rich land to expand into, which revives some of the dynamism from the very start of the game when everyone's rushing to establish their early borders. It also offers flagging civs a chance to claw their way back into the game by expanding into swathes of new territory, which addresses the genre bugbear of a game becoming tedious and unwinnable far too early for those who didn't get off to the best start.

Inevitably though, this new land too gets filled, and that frisson of excitement dissipates to reveal to you what Ara is most of the time, which isn't bad exactly, but certainly a bit thin. Diplomacy is threadbare for a start. The fully animated avatars for the game's substantial roster of 36 leaders look great, but lacking in dialogue, they're void of personality. They may as well be mannequins with an unusual hankering for war, even when it's clearly not in their best interest (like trying to capture a city that they have to cross your entire territory to get to). There's no flexibility to negotiations, no way of setting extortionate truce terms, and relationship bars deplete so fast—due largely to a wonky warmonger penalty system—that everyone seems like an enemy to everyone else at all times.

Combat, meanwhile, recalls the 'stacks of doom' of Civilization 4. There's some interesting stuff in terms of arranging stacks into specific formations for combat bonuses, and ranged combat from adjacent tiles allows for a degree of sneaky guerrilla tactics, but for the most part it's 'army with bigger number wins,' with the smaller number getting wiped out. I wish that Ara's irregular-shaped tiles served a more tactical purpose so that crossing a river or attacking units in forested areas would factor into battle calculations, or that you could try to pull back from battles then use terrain, movement, and positioning to overcome numerical disadvantages.

Units level up, but you can't customise or upgrade them to their more modern equivalents, so here too things are a bit too automated. It's lovely watching battles play out in 3D view, but it seems like a bit of a luxury when resources could've been better put to refining the core combat instead; you shouldn't build a palace while the people are starving (I mean, I would and I did in Ara, but that's necessary so I can sit around drinking wine and coming up with pithy proverbs).

Religion is another system that doesn't quite impose itself enough. The bonuses you get for spreading your faith are welcome, but when you send missionaries or oracles to preach in other cities, you don't get to see what turn-by-turn impact they're having on converting other cities, nor does religion feed into diplomatic relations (at least not visibly). While Civ 6 may have been a bit overkill with its priests blasting each other with divine lightning, it at least made the tug-of-war for religious supremacy feel tangible and involved, while here it feels a bit flat.

Things get a lot more hands-on with the crafting system. Buildings like bakeries, blacksmiths, and workshops are used to craft items that you then deploy to temporarily boost key city attributes like happiness, health, and city security, or swap in and out of buildings for smaller but long-term city bonuses.

The crafting system is great for drafting things to where they're most needed. The growth of new cities can be vastly accelerated by sending crafted feasts, for instance. If a city is threatened by invasion, meanwhile, send it some of those strategic codices you have stockpiled and you'll boost the strength of forces fighting in its zone of control for 15 turns. But this is one of the only areas where Ara adds complexity rather than stripping it back, and unfortunately the UI isn't well set up to deal with the huge number of interdependent crafting queues you end up with, so it can become a bit of a micromanagement mire in the late game. It's a good idea, with plenty of satisfying use cases, but could do with being less fiddly. In defence of the UI though, it's excellent apart from this blip, with nested menus and popup bubbles linked to highlighted text helping you immediately understand every key term in the game.

In its current form, Ara is 4X Lite, a pretty princeling next to the great emperors of the genre. But being lightweight has its plus side. It has very little bloat, so the different systems of the game never clash or confuse (a problem for its peers Millennia and Humankind). Combine that with a lovely aesthetic and well integrated info boxes and tooltips, and Ara is a very accessible jaunt for 4X newcomers, if not quite beefy enough to go toe-to-toe with the genre's heavy hitters. 

But Rome wasn't built in a day; 4X games tend to be vastly different beasts between initial launch and their final expansion. By playing things safe, Oxide Games has a lot of room through expansions to layer on systems (or expand existing underserved ones, like religion or diplomacy) in a sensible way. This is a fine foray for Microsoft, and even if the history here doesn't exactly feel 'untold', it's told in an eye-catching, engaging way that will keep me clicking the eras for some time yet.

As much as it resembles Civilization, soon-to-release grand strategy game Ara: History Untold is different in some big ways. The biggest might be its simultaneous turn resolution, which is detailed in one of developer Oxide's dev diaries. That one I clocked a while back, but I somehow missed another major difference even though it shows up in almost every screenshot: Ara's map isn't divided into a regular grid or hexagon pattern.

Instead, Ara's worlds are divided into irregularly-shaped regions. This was pointed out to me in a recent interview with Gabriela Leskur, Ara's narrative and experience lead, and Matt Turnbull, executive producer in publishing at Xbox Game Studios.

"I'm a big fan of Risk, but we're not playing a board game, we're actually trying to simulate some of what we see in real life," said Leskur. "One thing that's unique is that we have these dynamically generated regions. So, they're not hexes, they are irregularly-shaped based on things that you see in nature. They're along rivers, along coastlines. They're these unusual shapes that reflect how we see cartographers have done things in our history, and also the actual natural world itself."

These regions are the units of land that cities claim as they grow, and military forces occupy them one after another as they move across the map. So in those contexts, regions work similarly to a regular grid, except that the size and shape and number of sides varies. Things get more complicated when you get down to sub-regions called zones. 

Leskur says she thinks of regions as pizzas. If you're moving troops, they move around at the full pizza scale—from one region to the next—but land improvements are built on the slice scale, and like pizzas, regions aren't all divided into the same number of slices (aka zones).

"I'm thinking strategically as I'm expanding my city," said Leskur. "I do so by claiming nearby regions. And I look at, 'OK, how many zones are in this region?' If I want to build a very impressive Triumph, which is something like the Pyramids of Giza, I probably want to do so in a region that has only two zones—only two slices of the pizza cut straight and half—because I'm sacrificing the whole region to build that very impressive triumph. Whereas, if I want to claim a region to use for farming, for as many improvements as possible, I probably want a five or six slice pizza region, because each one of those zones is a place where you can build an improvement."

Another strategic consideration is the number of edges a region has, which dictates how units can move. "Every hex is bordered by six tiles," said Turnbull. "And our regions in Ara are bordered by four or two or seven—it depends on the size, the shape, the natural features, whether there's coast, whether there's rivers, whether there's a sea, and so all of those components also kind of add to the intuitiveness of it, of building out a world, and of conquering territory, and of defending territory with armies."

At the highest level, the decision to go with regions instead of hexes comes back to Leskur's comment about aiming to simulate a world rather than a tabletop board game. Zoom in on a region and you can see "individual people waving at you" and animals appropriate to the region's biome, which run away from your cursor—a bit of interactive flavor. (You can see some of that in the video above.)

And when you zoom out, "does this look like a world, or does this look like a board game I won?" asked Turnbull. "The answer we're trying to get to is, this looks like my world. I built this world. This is mine now, and it reflects the story that I've told and the choices that I've made."

Oxide has gone into more detail on this subject and numerous others—there's a crafting system, too, for example—on the official Ara: History Untold website. 

Despite all that work to educate grand strategy fans about the game, Ara feels like a wild card to me. I'm not sure how it's going to be received. Civilization 7 is around the corner, and that's been the focus of much more attention recently than Ara, which is out this month. Taking big, obvious departures from the Sid Meier games does feel like the right gambit, though. If it seemed too much like Civ, the audience might just decide to wait and see how Civ 7 turns out, but these peculiarities get me curious to find out if Oxide has discovered anything exciting that Firaxis hasn't.

Ara: History Untold will be out on Steam, the Microsoft Store, and PC Game Pass on September 24. Despite being published by Microsoft, it's only coming to Windows. (Civilization 7, on the other hand, will release simultaneously on PC and consoles.)

Age of Mythology: Retold, in case you're unfamiliar, is a sort-of remake of the classic 2002 strategy game that—as per our Age of Mythology: Retold review, which gave it a solid 75, "walks the tightrope of updating the bits that feel clunky by today’s standards without killing the sense of nostalgia."

But there's a fly stuck to those rose-tinted glasses. As players have observed, the game has exactly one DLC to its name (bar a soundtrack) the Legacy Deity Portrait Pack. It's currently on sale for $6 (£5) and, as the name suggests, lets players use the portraits from the 2002 original release.

It's also bundled in with the premium edition—along with advanced access, which is why both the base game and the DLC are available for reviews right now. What we have here is a unique situation where, perhaps for the first time, a DLC has received a "Very Negative" Steam reviews before the game it's attached to has even arrived.

It's not exactly undeserved, either. I'm not strictly against cosmetic DLCs (though I do think they still subtract something from a game), but your buck's just not banging, here. $6 for some old jpegs that were made in 2002 is objectively nonsense for something a modder could achieve in an afternoon. As a side-bonus for the premium version? Sure, harmless. Worth it on its own? Not on your immortal life.

The reviews themselves sum things up pretty well: "WORSE THAN HORSE ARMOUR DLC" writes one incensed player, presumably in the throes of vivid flashbacks to Bethesda's progenial graft. Another player, who bought the advanced access version of the game, adds: "I got it for free, but so should everyone else. They are 20 year old images, and the players that would be interested in the old images are the same players that have supported the series for the past 20 years."

I'm not coming to the defence of the DLC in isolation here, but in the interest of fairness I feel obligated to point out that the premium version (which includes these things) seems objectively fine. For $20 extra you got seven days of advanced access as an early buyer, a new god to play with, and two upcoming expansions that are fresh to the game—which is a reasonable price point on the face of it.

As far as its base game reviews go, Age of Mythology: Retold also seems to be pleasing long-term fans. At the time of writing, it's sat at a 92% positive user review score, with roughly 3,670 advanced access players giving it the thumbs up. Not too shabby. I'm reminded of a larger-scale fiasco that happened with Dragon's Dogma 2—where the game was actually a riot, but some poorly managed DLC packaging gave it a battering on Steam. Optics are, as always, vital.

Developers at Bethesda Game Studios have elected to unionize with the Communications Workers of America, a national labor organization that has also worked with Activision Blizzard employees on collective bargaining efforts.

Unlike some games industry unions whose membership is isolated to QA departments—ZeniMax QA workers unionized last year, for instance—this is a "wall-to-wall union," says the CWA, and was formed by votes from 241 "artists, engineers, programmers, and designers" across three offices. It's the first of its kind at a Microsoft-owned studio.

Bethesda Game Studios, which was spun off from publisher Bethesda Softworks, is the company most people are referring to when they say "Bethesda": The Todd Howard-led developer of the modern Fallout and Elder Scrolls games, as well as last year's Starfield.

Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media in 2021, a purchase which included not just the two Bethesdas, but also a number of other subsidiary studios, such as id Software. Earlier this year, Microsoft shuttered four of those studios, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks.

In the run-up to Microsoft's other huge recent acquisition—its purchase of Activision Blizzard—the tech giant strategically positioned itself as union-friendly. In this instance, it doesn't appear to have put up a fight: The CWA says that Microsoft has already recognized the union. The next step will be for Microsoft and the union members to agree on a contract, which may or may not go as smoothly.

"As a democratic organization, we seek to empower the collective wishes of our studios' workers; having a safe, sustainable, and equitable work environment for all," announced the newly formed union, which is calling itself OneBGS. "Having a proper seat at the discussion table allows us to turn those wishes into reality."

The new union includes developers at three Bethesda Game Studios locations in the US. A fourth BGS studio in Montreal voted to unionize with CWA's Canadian branch in June.

I've been carefully tempering my expectations of Avowed—an upcoming RPG made by Obsidian, the creators of Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, and The Outer Worlds.

I'm a fan of all of those games, though The Outer Worlds felt like it fell a smidge short of the studio's usual CRPG pedigree—failing to get its hooks in me with its worldbuilding, characters, or RPG mechanics in the same way that Pillars did. I remember Aloth and Durance pretty vividly, but I couldn't tell you a single thing about The Outer Worlds' cast and crew from memory.

From what we've seen about Avowed, I was worried it might stumble into the same forgettable pitfalls. However, after seeing what Obsidian's been working on during a 25-minute deep-dive that took place after the Xbox Games Showcase, I'm a hair more optimistic than I was before. Compared to the January direct, the game's combat has far more heft overall—and we get to set eyes on a much prettier environment than a bland desert with some kobold-looking mooks mucking about in it.

In the preview, the game's director Carrie Patel walks us through a couple of quests in the Emerald Stair, which is the home of a group of Animancers researching the local Dreamscourge phenomenon. Yatzli, a saucy Orlan (who is moments away from, as your companion Kai puts it, climbing you) needs you to get a vase for her, but it's protected by mushroom people at the top of a cliff—and wouldn't you know it, she forgot to bring a ladder. Happens to the best of us.

It does seem like there's a marked improvement in the game's combat feel when compared to what we saw in January, at least once your gear's up to snuff. While the sword-swings Patel shows off seem to be thudding dully into the dense, mushroomy hide of her enemies at first, that's actually the game telling you that you need sturdier weapons.

After dipping back to the Party Camp—a Baldur's Gate 3-style hub where you can upgrade your gear, chat to party members, and "huddle together to share a moment of respite," Patel casually reveals that yes, the game will have a third person mode. The deep dive doesn't show off its presumably work-in-progress combat animations, but I'm personally pretty happy to hear it. If I'm playing an RPG, I like to get a look at my character.

We also got a first look at the game's RPG mechanics. Avowed will have six main stats that underpin your character:

• Might, which increases your damage and carry weight.
• Constitution, which increases your health, poison and bleed resistance.
• Dexterity, which increases your attack and action speed.
• Perception, which boosts your crit chance and max range.
• Intellect, which increases your essence (the equivalent of mana) and elemental resistances.
• Resolve, which boosts your stamina and the recharge rate of your Second Wind—a mechanic which stands as a buffer between you and a grisly death, restoring some health when you'd take otherwise lethal damage.

There are also four skill trees available—Fighter, Ranger, Wizard, Godlike, and a tree for your companion's abilities. The Godlike tree wasn't shown off here, but it's likely to centre around your innate abilities as, well, a Godlike—an individual touched by the gods of the setting, which you'll be no matter what.

It's hard to judge before we get more information, but I'm interested in the potential build variety at play, since you'll be able to mix and match your way through these trees. Compared to, say, Bethesda's RPG mechanics, which seem to get thinner and thinner with every game it releases, I'm excited for something that hews a little closer to Oblivion than Skyrim (or Starfield, which had thrilling abilities such as 'you can use your jump pack, now').

Patel shows us a second quest tool, where you can either choose to storm through a grove of Delemgan (primordial forest spirits) or sneak your way inside. Butchering your way through causes their leader to immediately distrust you—fair, you killed all their friends. Meanwhile, sneaking your way in can lead to a more diplomatic route, where you can swipe your sidequest MacGuffin without a fight. It's pretty simple, but it's a nice reassurance that your choices will at least, superficially, matter.

While the pacing of the game looks a little slow, that's partially down to what I'm going to call "showcase movement", wherein the developer wants the viewer to soak in the atmosphere. This results in footage of an RPG being played in a way that no-one actually plays them—walking everywhere, only gently kissing the analogue stick to move the camera so you get some nice sweeping landscape shots, and so on.

My curiosity is, however, otherwise piqued. I don't think Avowed looks like anything groundbreaking—but it's very pretty and its combat is shaping up nicely. Avowed is, most likely, arriving this Fall—so we'll soon see if the proof is in the Godlike pudding.

Avowed is Obsidian's next big effort, a first-person RPG spinoff in the Pillars of Eternity setting's Living Lands. We also happen to know it's coming in the fall of this year, and for a moment we thought we knew when, until the information was scrubbed clean from the Obsidian website.

As spotted by Wario64 on Twitter, a post on the Obsidian website about the Avowed story trailer that dropped during the Xbox Games Showcase yesterday mentioned that the game was slated to arrive November 12. That detail was swiftly removed, though IGN managed to capture and share a screenshot of it, as seen below.

In an interview with PC Gamer amid the LA gaming showcase bustle this week (from before we spotted the redacted release date), Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart said that he's confident the studio will get the RPG out in 2024 as planned.

"It's that feeling of, yeah, we can get this done," said Urquhart. "It may take some work, but it's just work. That's probably the best way to say it at this point in time. We're not figuring anything out, we've now worked with Unreal Engine 5 enough, we've made these types of games before. We're basically building on top of a lot of the Outer Worlds stuff that already existed.

"When you look into my eyes, [you can see] I know that there's a lot of work ahead in the next while, but it's not, like, 'Oh crap.'"

Whether or not the plan is to get Avowed out specifically on November 12, 2024 is unknown. In the original post, game director Carrie Patel said: "The last few months at Obsidian Entertainment have been fast-paced and exciting. Since we saw you at the Xbox Developer Direct this past January, we've been busy with Avowed getting it ready for release on November 12, 2024."

This has since been amended to simply read: "We've been busy with Avowed."

("We will have a date soon," Urquhart told us in our interview.)

It's a slip, to be sure, but by no means a concrete date. Release windows for games shift all the time even when they have been announced to the public, let alone while they're still internal—and while November puts Avowed squarely in "fall" territory, it also brings it directly into conflict with Assassins Creed Shadows which releases November 15. I can imagine Obsidian will want to dodge that particular mammoth.

Another point in favour of this release date not being final is the fact that, well, it probably would've been a part of that big shiny story trailer that debuted during the showcase yesterday. My money's on this simply being an old date overlooked in a press release before someone hit publish, but nonetheless, Urquhart has confirmed that 2024 is still the plan.

This article was updated after publishing to include Urquhart's comments.

The Xbox Games showcase has, altogether, been a pretty good showing from Microsoft—Game Pass is going to be getting a new Doom, Gears of War is making a comeback, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard got a trailer. I mean, the tone's sort of off, and the characters are introduced like bootleg Borderlands bad guys, but I've still got my fingers crossed tight. A wonky trailer isn't an indication of much other than a slightly-scuffed marketing effort.

Despite all that, however, a spectre's lingering over the entire event: the closure of a number of studios including Arkane Austin (Dishonored, Prey) and Tango Gameworks earlier in the year. While Arkane Austin's fall might seem to logically—if cruelly—follow on from the flop that was Redfall, Tango Gameworks' shutdown seemed to catch many off-guard.

Hi-Fi Rush was a success by almost every metric, something heads at Microsoft itself have even stated themselves. The hard and altogether baffling pill that individual devs have had to swallow is that, somehow, making a good game that sells well "will no longer keep you safe in this industry".

It doesn't help that said closures followed a massive $68.7 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard (which itself oversaw sweeping layoffs at the company). It's easy to put red strings on a corkboard and believe that studios like Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks are simply footing the bill for bigger, juicer brand names.

Fortunately, Xbox has had plenty of interviews to explain its rationale, including maybe some insight into the departure of Shinji Mikami before Hi-Fi Rush's release. Insight that could, potentially, explain that there were reasons to close the studio unrelated to profit. Unfortunately, absolutely no-one high up seems to be prepared to give an actual answer.

Last month, president of Xbox Sarah Bond rambled on about the issue for a bit, and now it's CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer's turn to say basically nothing. During a talk with IGN, interviewer Ryan McCaffrey provides Spencer an opportunity to lay the conversation to rest.

"The closure of any team is hard on, obviously, the individuals there … As you said I haven't been talking publicly about this, because right now it's a time for us to focus on the team and the individuals," Spencer says, I can only assume, about the individuals he had recently put out of a job. "It's obviously a decision that's very hard on them, and I wanna make sure (through severance and other things) that we're doing the right thing for the individuals on the team."

Alright, fair enough. These layoffs are frustrating, but Microsoft wants to make sure it's providing severance packages and that they're not just sent off with all their dreams in a cardboard box—great! Also: a legal requirement. As to the actual why, however, Spencer doesn't really have an answer.

"It's not about my PR, it's not about Xbox PR, it's about those teams," Spencer says, vaguely gesturing in the direction of meaning. "In the end, I've said over and over I have to run a sustainable business", which is a justification he's rolled out before, "inside the company and grow, and that means sometimes I have to make hard decisions that frankly are not decisions I love, but decisions that somebody needs to go make."

You might have noticed that we're no closer to actually understanding why Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin had to go—obviously the business can't divulge company secrets, but there's not even a morsel of context provided beyond: Hey, we love the teams, we love the games, we love the individuals. That's why we had to shut them down.

Listen, being the CEO of a major gaming company sounds like a stressful job—as does being in the public eye when you have to be the bad guy—but also, Phil Spencer makes millions of dollars a year. You'd think he, or anyone else senior at the company, could come to one of these interviews prepped with an actual answer to one of their biggest recent controversies.

Still, Spencer says: "We will continue to go forward, we will continue to invest in what we're trying to go do in Xbox, and build the best business that we can, which ensures that we can continue to do shows like the ones we just did." So, to summarise, Tango Gameworks had to go because of "business"—and that's all you'll get. Cue some very confusing applause from the audience. Please clap and look towards the future until the next time this happens.

Avowed is Obsidian's next RPG—and the cause of a lot of recent 'please be good' whispers from yours truly. My fingers are crossed hard that a team responsible for genuine bangers like Pillars of Eternity pull it off, but the whole thing's a big hard veer into first-person action RPG territory, and I'm not entirely sold on just yet.

Granted, Obsidian's also responsible for Fallout: New Vegas, but the nuts and bolts had already been put in place by Bethesda. This is only their second homegrown effort that's not an isometric CRPG, and there's still a lot that could go very, very wrong.

Avowed's latest trailer (as showed off at this year's Xbox Showcase today) hasn't dispelled my fears—it's ostensibly a bunch of glamour shots with some dramatic voice overs underpinning it—but it hasn't exactly deepened said fears, either.

In lieu of a release date, we instead get some more information implied about the world's factions. The Living Lands, named so because they're, unsettlingly, alive—has apparently been plagued by The Dream Scourge. Not sure what that is, but it sounds potentially bad, or at the very least chaotic.

It appears that you'll be able to join with three (or more) factions. One who seeks to purge the scourge inquisition-style, a (totally-not-dictatorial) group who wants to control its powers, and a secret third thing. I say 'secret third thing' because the voiceover's deliberately vague about what the plan actually is, though said faction seems to be invested in protecting the Dream Scourge and simply letting it do what it may. Conservationists for chaos.

At the very least, I'm cautiously optimistic about being able to side with just about anybody. Fallout: New Vegas was exceptional not just because it gave its universe proper texture and complexity, but because you could just straight-up join Caesar if you wanted, not just blow up a nuke in a town at the behest of some weird billionaire.

I'm hoping that Obsidian's pulled the same gambit here, because with Starfield's complete moral rigidity and with The Elder Scrolls 6 still far on the horizon, I'm hankering for a bit of choose-your-own-adventure with teeth. Let's just hope the fully-polished version of the combat holds together when it releases sometime this fall.

We've known that The War Within, World of Warcraft's next expansion, has been slated for later in the year for quite a while now. Moreover, thanks to recent alpha and beta tests, we happen to know quite a bit about it—we know that we're going into the heart of Azeroth, we know that there's a big mysterious light crystal, and now, thanks to the Xbox Games Showcase, we know exactly when it's going to release.

World of Warcraft: The War Within will be available August 26 of this year, which puts it well out of earshot of the other big MMO expansion arriving this year, Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail. Thank the light, because I'm honestly really excited to play both, and Elden Ring's already going to sap enough of my time away as it is.

World of Warcraft's had something of a resurgence thanks to the grunt work done during Dragonflight, which has added a lot of new evergreen systems to the game and solidified Blizzard's fresh and generous design philosophies. Torghast and borrowed power are out, persistent quality-of-life buffs are in.

Having played a bit of it myself at a preview event, I'm pretty dang excited for The War Within's additions to the game. We're gonna be getting a version of dynamic flight moved to all mounts, a new type of combat content called eelves, and, of course, the alt-friendly Warbands system.

We don't get that much out of the trailer that we didn't already know, except some shiny new CG renders of Faerin Lothar—a member of the Arathi and ancestor of Anduin Lothar—as well as a fun scene of one of the new (probable) allied races, the Harronir, just tearing it up on the dance floor while casting some magic spells.

Likewise, we get a full admission of the big baddie Xal'atath's goal—namely, she's coming for that Worldsoul (the very important thing the entire planet is built around), baby. This is something we've known through context clues for a while, but it's neat to see her outright state it. Cool as she is, we probably ought to schedule a raid night about it and nip that one in the bud.

I can't stop raving about Spider-Verse to anyone who'll listen—so I'm already glad to see game studios toying with lower framerates (in cutscenes, naturally). We got to see a little more of South of Midnight today, and I'm happy to report that it's not just a game with a cinematic stride completely catered to my tastes, its gameplay is full of stuff I like, too.

First announced last year, we got to see a little more of what Compulsion Games has been cooking up during Xbox's 2024 showcase today. Namely, a drop-dead gorgeous adventure-platformer packing some soulsy combat under the hood. Protagonist Hazel, a "Weaver" imbued with magical energies, goes toe-to-toe with a nasty bayou monster that looks like it's crawled straight out of FromSoftware's catalogue.

Though, looking at the footage—and the traversal abilities that Hazel uses—I'm getting more Star Wars Jedi: Survivor vibes, insofar as you're playing a predetermined character with a specific set of moves, quicksteps, and weighty attacks. It's the timing and general flow that's lifted more from the soulslike genre, rather than its RPG mechanics.

Unlike other games of its ilk, though, the level of polish here is what's hooking me—the folktale-driven deep south of South of Midnight looks like a post-apocalypse still teeming with life, and you know I'm a big fan of climbing towers to ring a bell which, let's be honest, is probably going to be a part of some gameplay loop or another.

The only thing that might take a minute to get used to is the swap from the Spider-Verse framerates of the cutscenes, and the fluid 60 fps gameplay of the real world. Part of me wonders if they should've pulled off the same trick that the Spider-Verse suits from Insomniac's Spider-Man games did—limiting combat animations to the same gimmick—but it's something I could acclimate to in time.

Mind, there may even be options settings to toggle the limited framerate on and off, though like the stylistic choices of Spider-Verse it's something I can definitely see myself getting used to. South of Midnight will be coming to PC (including Game Pass) sometime next year.

Even after the loss of E3, the console manufacturers are soldiering on with traditional summer showcases direct to our home screens. With PlayStation wrapped and Nintendo yet to come, it's time to tune in for the Xbox Games Showcase to cap off the Summer Game Fest weekend.

When to watch the Xbox Games Showcase

The Xbox Games Showcase will premiere at 10 am Pacific / 1 pm Eastern on Sunday, June 9 on YouTube and Twitch. Check your local equivalent here or see how that breaks down in other timezones:

• 10 am PDT (Los Angeles)
• 1 pm EDT (New York)
• 6 pm BST (London)
• 7 pm CEST (Berlin)
• 3 am Monday, June 10 AEST (Sydney)
• 5 am Monday, June 10 NZST (Auckland)

As for what to expect during the showcase, "This will also be our first Showcase featuring games from our portfolio of studios across Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda, and Xbox Game Studios, in addition to titles from our third-party partners," Xbox says.

Your guess is as good as ours. Will we see more of Fable or Avowed? What about Starfield's first Shattered Space DLC? Personally, I'd love to see something from that lovely creature befriending game Everwild that Rare has been working on. Okay yes, it is technically possible that we hear about The Elder Scrolls 6 finally. I wouldn't hold your breath though.

Xbox has also confirmed that it will be hosting a Black Ops 6 direct immediately after the main show, the way it did with Starfield previously. It's calling that "a special deep-dive into the next installment in the beloved Call of Duty franchise."

More seriously, I wonder if Microsoft will make any mention during the presentation of the numerous studio closures it has made this year. Layoffs and closures around the industry have been incessant since the beginning of 2023 and the sizable contribution that Micorosft has made to that total has been on our own minds, as well as those of other developers. Some of them went so far as to eulogize shuttered studios ⁠—including former Microsoft stalwarts Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks⁠—with a billboard near the Summer Game Fest.

Minecraft is turning 15 years old in a couple of days, and apart from making me reckon with the relentless passage of time, it seems like there are a lot of fun celebrations to be packed into the next two weeks.

The announcement was made in a short YouTube video on the official Minecraft channel, and basically serves as a small teaser of what is to come. There's dancing skeletons, angry pillagers, and Jens Bergensten on a boat (I'm not really sure what that's about). 

"15 days of exclusive items and daily specials, each one attributed to 15 years of building, exploring, crafting, mining, and adventuring," declares the video's narrator. "It's going to be a block-tacular celebration. Every day has something to see, download, or play, so buckle up for 15 days of Minecraft-mania." The celebrations will likely begin on May 17 (Minecraft's anniversary), so it's best to just keep an eye out for announcements on Minecraft's news blog. 

As part of the celebrations, it would be nice to see some appreciation for the most intricate and impressive worlds created by block aficionados, whether that be a Minecraft remake of Fallout: New Vegas' world map or a recreation of Middle-earth. The mind-blowing models that some players create are honestly one of my favourite parts of the game. And while I've not been able to do anything nearly as impressive as building Lord of the Rings locations with just blocks, it's still incredible to watch. 

We've also recently got a ton of cool stuff in the latest major Minecraft update, 1.21, which added a new hostile mob called The Breeze (as well as a friendly mob, an armadillo) among other things. The new snapshot 24w10a also added eight new wolf variants as well as some armour to put them in, which was a much-needed change. But here's hoping we get a few extra add-ons to celebrate the anniversary. 

Minecraft has a sizable mob graveyard that it could call on during this celebration. Most of these forgotten creations are ideas that didn't make the cut in the annual mob vote. The most famous of these is the glorious yellow Moobloom, a distant cousin of the cow and the Mooshroom, which doesn't do much other than look adorable. Then there's also the barnacle, which looks like something straight out of a deep-sea horror movie, as this mob could latch onto boats and drag players down into the depths. We've already got a monster terrorising the deep mines now, so why not bring one back for the ocean? 

Minecraft launched some new creatures this week in the form of armadillos and eight new types of wolf. If you thought: "Hold on, aren't armadillos the new mob coming in the Minecraft 1.21 update later this year?" Yup, that's what I'd assumed too. They'd been in snapshots already, but now they've actually rolled out not as an experimental feature, but as part of a regular old game update this week (version 1.20.8 for Bedrock and 1.20.5 for Java edition). Surprise!

The new armadillos will spawn in the savannah and badlands biomes as we'd been told to expect. The 1.20.8 patch notes also reveal that they can be lured towards players with spider eyes—that seems like a niche snack choice—can be put on leashes, and will roll up into a protective ball when they sense danger like players sprinting nearby, undead enemies, or players riding by on mounts. Importantly, you also don't need to kill them to get their scaley "scute" skins. They'll drop those periodically on their own or you can brush them to get one.

It's no surprise that armadillos are bringing those new wolf variants with them too, since their scute (that's the bony outer hide) is used to craft into wolf armor. Your canine pals no longer need to dive into the mines beside you unprotected. Those new wolf variants (pale, woods, ashen, black, chestnut, rusty, spotted, striped, and snowy) will all spawn in different biomes but appear to be mostly cosmetic variations other than that. 

Mojang does note that different types of wolf tend to spawn in different size packs though, which is neat. All tamed wolves now have 20 hearts, which is double their prior health points, and feeding them will renew twice as many hearts as it used to. So they're definitely getting buffed for battle.

And as if that weren't enough, several other features that are planned for update 1.21 have been added as experimental features that you can toggle on when creating a new world. The new mace weapon, breeze rod item, and trial chambers are among the additions. Those beta features are also available in Minecraft Java edition snapshot 24w13a.

Armadillos have been added because they won the annual Minecraft player mob vote last year, which decides one of the new creatures coming to the game. But typically those player-voted mobs arrive in the next major game update, which should be 1.21 this year. Mojang has definitely released upcoming mobs as experimental features before, but this mid-update drop is unusual.

There was a bit of unrest last year around the mob vote, during which some players went full propaganda mode trying to end the traditional mob vote. They felt that the votes are divisive—which is true, they can be—and that it feels like you're being cheated out of the other two mob concepts by only getting to pick one. Is there any chance that the armadillos came early because Mojang is planning to add the other two mobs in 1.21? I wouldn't count on it. Mojang developers have pushed back on that question in the past.

In either case, another official Minecraft post today suggests that it's likely close to revealing the official name for update 1.21. So hang tight for that after you jump in to try recruiting some new scute-producing pals.

There are plenty of mods on CurseForge that will change the way you look at Minecraft. I've spent many years picking and choosing which ones I want to keep so that my world can look as beautiful as possible, and I think I've just found my next download. 

Distant Horizons is one of those mods that will change the way you look at Minecraft. On paper, it may not seem like much, but by adding simple terrain past the default view distance in Minecraft, Distant Horizons will improve your performance and allow for longer draw distances. 

The demo video for Distant Horizons shows off these stunning views, as well as biome blending and faster geometry rebuilding so your world doesn't look as blocky as it once did. World generator threads can now even be reduced to a number lower than one, which will slow world generation down, making the render distance easier to handle—I know so many people who play Minecraft on old gaming laptops or PCs, so having a mod that is accessible to those who don't have the latest hardware is fantastic. 

However, it's important to note that the demo video is slightly out-of-date as it shows the Alpha for 1.6.3, but this mod is now available for recent versions of Minecraft up to 1.20.2, so you won't have to sacrifice too much new content to enjoy what's on offer. 

For a more recent look at Distant Horizons, a video from YouTuber AsianHalfSquat shows off what this mod is capable of (thanks, TheGamer). Optifine previously allowed you to run 64-chunk render distances with shaders, but Distant Horizons clearly takes it to the next level with a 512-chunk render distance. However, if the stunning snowy mountain ranges in the distance aren't enough to convince you, then I'd highly recommend checking out some terrain generation mods like Terralith or Tectonic, which make the most of the grand open spaces that you can now enjoy, thanks to Distant Horizons. 

I have a decade-long habit of building sprawling cities or blackstone castles on flat-top mountains, so this mod may actually allow me to finally enjoy the beautiful views from my spot in the clouds without having to worry about stuttering framerates. It's also just really cool to see the dramatic landscapes that now run through Minecraft post caves and cliffs update. Plus, if this mod makes finding Woodland Mansions less of a pain, then I will owe Distant Horizons a debt of gratitude. 

If you've ever been too terrified to take your Minecraft wolf out on an expedition for fear of creeper explosions and pillager raids, then boy, do I have news for you. 

Today, Mojang announced on Twitter that wolves will receive a significant update in Minecraft, including new variants and wolf armour. While these changes are still in the works, you can try them out for yourself by enabling snapshots for Minecraft: Java Edition or in the previews/beta for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition. 

I'm overjoyed. Not only will I finally be able to tell my army of wolves apart without needing dozens of nametags and a magnifying glass, I'll also be able to finally give my pets the protection they deserve. 

It's an update that's well overdue, considering cats had the privilege of 11 variants on release back in 2012, and there are 2,700 different tropical fish. You'll still be able to find and tame the original (now called the pale wolf) in the taiga biome, but there's also the rusty, spotted, black, striped, snowy, ashen, woods, and chestnut wolves to find and add to your pack. Some wolves will be rarer to find than others, but if you keep your eyes peeled you'll be able to collect them in no time. 

The new wolf armour will absorb all enemy damage until it breaks, "protecting your wolf's hearts from those pesky creeper blasts" according to a Minecraft blog post. You can even repair the armour on the go using armadillo scutes. Once fully grown, wolves will also now have 40 hearts—they used to only have 20 (that's health, not organs, for the uninitiated). This means your beloved pets will be safer than ever. 

My wolves have been the victim of random creeper explosions and stray skeleton arrows too many times. It got so bad that I gradually stopped taking them on adventures in fear of losing more, but they weren't even safe at home. One fateful day, I came home to see my pet sitting at the bottom of a sky-high wooden tower. Before I knew it, one of my friends had dropped an anvil right on my wolf's head from their makeshift tower of death, instantly killing him. I can't say for sure whether dog armour or more health would've helped the situation, but at least my pets will be slightly safer now. 

It's no secret that Minecraft's enduring success has been in part thanks to the dedication of its modding community. All this time though, mods have largely been the territory of Minecraft Java, the version of the game available only on PC. As of today, the cross-platform version Minecraft Bedrock has launched "add-ons" through its in-game marketplace which, yes, are essentially also mods, free and paid.

If you're doing a double-take because you thought Minecraft already had "add-ons," you're not wrong. That's how it had been referring to community-made additions for Bedrock already. It seems the term is now being reserved for add-ons which can be added to existing worlds, and which can be combined or removed at will, rather than being tied to a world pre-made for the mod in the way of past Bedrock add-ons. This isn't the first time that Minecraft nomenclature has been confusing—looking at you, Minecraft for Windows (Bedrock).

"Add-ons let you add new blocks, mobs, items, recipes, and other content to both your existing worlds and new ones," Mojang says in today's announcement, so they're pretty similar to some of the things Minecraft Java mods have been doing for years. They can also be used in multiplayer Minecraft Realms.

The launch catalog of add-ons includes things like craft-able furniture, pets, and computers, all popular concepts for Minecraft mods over the years. There's a Gravestone add-on too, a long-popular mod that retains all your inventory in a loot-able grave when you die instead of dumping it on the ground. For the occasion, Mojang is giving away a handful of add-ons for free: Spark Pets, Another Furniture Add-On, All The Wool, Hiker's Friend, Gravestone, and More TNT.

Other add-ons are paid for with Minecoins, the premium currency on the Minecraft Marketplace. In case you'd missed it, there's long been a sort of cottage industry on the Minecraft Marketplace where creators can sell (or give away) Bedrock versions of their popular Minecraft texture packs, character skins, and minigames like parkour maps—you know, the ones you see taking up half the screen on random AITA TikTok videos like some kind of internet hypnotism.

"You don't have to be tech savvy to install them—you just download the content from Minecraft Marketplace," Mojang says. Installing modpacks for Minecraft Java has certainly gotten easier since the early years with launchers like CurseForge to help, but it's true that Minecraft Bedrock is still definitely the "it just works" version of the game that doesn't need an understanding of patches and compatibility in order to play.

"In addition, we want to emphasize that players can continue installing non-Marketplace mods—We have no plans to remove the ability to sideload mods from popular third-party websites or mobile apps that are compliant with the Minecraft End-User License Agreement (EULA)," Mojang also adds, and that today's launch is sort of a "snapshot" to preview the add-on system and gather more feedback.

As 2024 begins, it's time to find out what Xbox has in store for us this year. Now with even more studio acquisitions than before, the Xbox Developer Direct is getting pretty packed. Xbox has confirmed that we'll be hearing from Obsidian, Machine Games, Oxide Studios, and Ninja Theory. Blizzard isn't getting into the mix during this show, but there will be a Diablo 4 developer update happening a few hours beforehand.

Here's exactly where and when to watch the January 2024 Xbox Direct and what we're expecting to see from its studios.

How to watch the Xbox Direct 

The Xbox Direct for January 2024 premieres at noon Pacific on Thursday, January 18 on Twitch and YouTube. Here's when that is in other time zones:

• 12 pm PST (Los Angeles)
• 3 pm EST (New York)
• 8 pm GMT (London)
• 7 am AEST (Sydney)

From what Xbox has told us already, we'll be getting "extended gameplay" from the as yet untitled Indiana Jones game that Machine Games is working on, Obsidian's next big RPG Avowed, the 4X strategy game Ara: History Untold, and Ninja Theory's new sequel Hellblade 2. 

That's plenty of big name games for a first quarter showcase. In particular, we know essentially nothing about that Indiana Jones game. Since we'll be seeing some first gameplay, presumably we'll also get an official title and maybe even a release window announcement. 

As for Avowed, it's one of the biggest RPGs in development right now, and looks like an Elder Scrolls-style first-person fantasy adventure—something Obsidian has experience with in sci-fi settings as the creator of Fallout: New Vegas and The Outer Worlds. Though it had a gameplay trailer last summer, it was staged and cinematic-looking. A more genuine look at gameplay is what I'm hoping to see here.

Since those are going to be four pretty big games to show off, I'm not expecting any surprise announcements waiting in the wings.  The old "one more thing" is usually a June showcase maneuver, not January. 

The Minecraft 1.21 update is set to roll out this week, and big things are coming. Titled as "Tricky Trials" we've already received a few details on what this pretty significant update has in store. But, that doesn't mean Mojang doesn't have a few tricks hidden up its sleeve for the official release. Not every detail is shared ahead of an update of this scale's launch, so we're bound to find some new things to explore once we jump in. 

Vanilla Minecraft game director Agnes Larsson described Tricky Trials as "a precious mix of exciting adventures, combat trials and tinkering - we believe it adds something delightful for lots of different kinds of play styles!" which suggests we've got heaps of features tucked away to look forward to. The official blog post naming the update refers to the update as being filled with "daring adventures and surprising rewards" but even with a few days before the update rolls out we still don't know exactly what this means. 

We are expecting everything from new blocks like the Redstone-based crafter to a new copper bulb block, an entirely new weapon, and even new mobs to face. In addition to this, we know that a new structure called a Trial Chamber is being added. We've seen snippets of these features throughout the development of the update, but there's still a lot to learn about what's coming this week. 

Is there a Minecraft 1.21 release date? 

Tricky Trials, the Minecraft 1.21 update will launch on June 13. This mirrors the pattern of version 1.19 and 1.20 launching in June of their respective years too.  

What new blocks are coming in Minecraft 1.21? 

What we know about Minecraft 1.21 so far seems pretty combat and structure focused, but there are some new bits of crafting kit too. Here are the new blocks we know about:

• Crafter - An automated, redstone-powered crafting station
• Copper bulb - A light source block with copper trim
• Trial spawner - A new enemy spawner type that rewards loot after killing certain enemies

Mojang says that the Trial Chambers are built with new copper and tuff block sets as well. If you look closely at the video Mojang shared along with the 1.21 announcement, you can spot what appear to be copper trap doors and window-like patterned copper panes. The blocks that look like a new variant of chiseled stone bricks are likely a chiseled Tuff block.

Which new mobs are coming in Minecraft 1.21?

We know of two new hostile mobs coming in Minecraft 1.21 so far, plus new variants of existing mobs. There's a new hostile baddies in the form of the breeze and the skeleton variant Bogged. If you're excited and expecting the winner of the community mob vote, we have good news for you: it's already available! Mojang surprise dropped it in update 1.20.5 (1.20.8 for bedrock), so you can get your hands on the armadillo—and the new wolf armor courtesy of their scutes—right away.

The Breeze is a new hostile mob that sounds like the cold side of the coin to the Blaze's fire attacks. It's a blue and purple creature with arms and a head all wrapped in a funnel of swirling wind. When it attacks, the Breeze shoots out a projectile of wind energy that explodes if it hits a player or entity, which deals a small amount of damage and knocks back all entities. Unlike its fiery opposite, the Breeze gets around by jumping instead of floating, so they may be a bit less annoying to chase down. You’ll still have some exploring to do to find the Breeze, since it’s going to be showing up in the new trial chambers.

And the other winner of the community mob vote is the utilitarian armadillo, though it's already available. These small pals live in warm climates like the savannah and badlands. They drop Scute, their armored skin, when brushed or just while wandering around, and can be bred with spider eyes. Scutes are useful, since you can craft them into armor for your tamed wolves, and you don't have to hurt any armadillos to do it. They're adorable to look at, but that's no surprise as you can see from the concept in the armadillo reveal video.

Brand new in snapshot 24w10a are eight new variants of the wolf, keying off the biome the wolf spawns in. Ranging from light colored snowy wolves to striped and spotted variants, wolves will also be spawning in a bunch of new biomes like wooded badlands, sparse jungle, and savannah plateau. A perfect opportunity to take advantage of the new wolf armor for your best pal.

Decidedly less friendly is the new Bogged skeleton variant coming with 1.21, who will be launching poisoned arrows at you from the new trial chambers, as well as swamps and mangrove swamps. Thankfully, they're just as flammable as the rest of the undead enemies, just watch out for the clever ones that hide under trees.

How do trials work in Minecraft 1.21? 

New to Minecraft 1.21 is a new type of structure: the Trial Chamber is a procedurally generated underground structure designed to present new challenges to explorers. Using the new copper and tuff block sets plus the new copper bulb, Trial Chambers will also include the new Trial Spawner block, which is a variant on the usual mob spawner blocks found in other explorable structures like mineshafts or woodland mansions. 

Trial Spawner blocks differ from normal spawners in that they spawn a specific number of enemies and then pause spawning for a time after. They'll dispense loot after you've successfully completed the challenge and emit smoke from their tops to let you know they're currently on cooldown. Trial Chambers are also the home to the newest enemies in the Minecraft 1.21 menagerie: the Breeze, who will be on hand to throw you around with their wind projectiles, and the Bogged, a skeleton variant that slings poisoned arrows your way.

The Mace is the latest weapon on the blocks

Out of the blue, Mojang has dropped a brand new weapon that's coming to Minecraft 1.21: the mace. You'll be able to craft your own from a breeze rod and the heavy core, which is a new item found in the trial chamber vaults.

The mace is bringing some unique new features, letting you do a smash attack on enemies while falling for an added knockback effect. Plus, the longer your fall, the harder the hit will be, so you'll get bonus damage from being a daredevil. To cap off this high risk move, hitting an enemy will negate your fall damage—just make sure you don't miss.

The Crafter is Minecraft's new automated block 

Past Minecraft updates have dabbled in helping us automate all sorts of processes with blocks like hoppers, droppers, dispensers, and the lot. One thing that couldn't be automated was crafting itself. Enter the new Crafter block, which does just that. 

The Crafter block is powered by redstone and has its own inventory that other automated blocks can access. You'll use its crafting grid interface to denote a recipe and watch as it automatically builds items you've specified.

Is there a new biome in Minecraft 1.21?

While we don’t have any details about a biome being included with Minecraft 1.21, recent updates have made introducing new biomes a staple—with cherry blossom forests, the deep dark, mangrove swamps, and the massive overhauls of the Caves & Cliffs update all coming from the previous three major updates. It’s easy to speculate that at least one new biome or rework of an older biome will be part of the Minecraft 1.21 update, but this hasn't been confirmed ahead of its launch, and the main focus seems to be on its new structure. 

Let's cut right to the chase: you want to win in Forza Motorsport, because crossing the line in anything other than P1 feels like a vial of acid being poured over your ego. Online racing is particularly competitive in this game, and any possible advantage you can glean from the best car choice in each performance category is worth taking. 

With that said though, some caveats: a car is only as good as the best tune that exists for it. Mediocre cars can become race winners with the right settings, so assume for each of the below picks that you've applied a five-star-rated tuning to it and brought its performance rating up to the max for that category with upgrades. 

Secondly, there are over 500 cars in FM at launch and no, I haven't forensically tested each one against the others. It's going to be an ongoing process, seeing how the meta evolves, and which cars come to the fore. Obviously, there's no outright "best" vehicle—if there was, everyone would pick it, the game would be incredibly dull, and everyone would lose interest in two days. So it's in Turn 10's interests to balance the vehicle list. 

With those legalities out of the way, what I've identified here are the best cars in Forza Motorsport that balance speed with grip and predictability, which tend to perform favorably against other cars in their class, and which additionally look absolutely sick. What? Like that doesn't matter. 

E Class

1973 BMW 2002 Turbo 

The problem with class E cars, of course, is that they're extremely slow. Revs are low, top speeds take years to achieve, and you're punished all the more for small mistakes because they take longer to correct and longer to accelerate back up to speed. 

Why is the 2002 Turbo the answer to that problem? It delivers a bit more power than most, particularly when tuned up to 300 PP, and it delivers that power in a way that doesn't feel like magnets have been activated that pull you into every gravel trap. It's a bit quicker, a bit stiffer, and a bit easier to manage drifts. It's got the edge. 

D Class

2003 Renault Sport Clio V6 

This is a bit of a heart-over-head pick, but only a bit. The Nissan Fairlady and For Sierra RS500 are also really strong contenders in D class, but Renault's ultimate hot hatch just wins out. It's the mid-engine, RWD drivetrain combo that makes it work so well—the chassis is nice and compact, which means the short wheelbase complies with your inputs in corners, but you can get a bit of extra rear rotation by managing the revs on corner exit when you need to. 

Nimbler than most longer wheelbase cars in the category and rapid at max tune thanks to its light overall weight, it's got many a D class win in it. 

C Class

1956 Jaguar D-Type 

This isn't your dad's Jaguar. Unless your dad's an incredibly discerning car collector, in which case, can I come over for tea? And then borrow his D-Type for some online events? 

C Class cars, like E and D, are all about keeping rolling momentum wherever possible to minimise rear slip and lose revs, because there's still not much engine power to accelerate away from mistakes. And while the 2009 Ford Focus RS and 2019 Hyundai Veloster N Forza Edition are both very fast, very safe options, I'm highlighting the Jag because it's different, and gorgeous. 

There's inherently more slip to the steering than you find in those hot hatches, but since the centre of gravity is so low it's easier to countersteer and keep momentum going. Also, you'll look cool doing it, and at stock settings, it's at 493 PP which is pretty close to the max for C class cars anyway, so you've got a really strong foundation to apply tunes to. 

B Class

2023 Lotus Emira 

Here are some guiding principles in Forza Motorsport's smorgasbord of vehicles: track cars will always handle better than road cars, higher stock PP usually means better performance at max PP tuning settings, and newer cars will nearly always feel easier to drive than old cars.

With those points fresh in your mind: the Emira was made in the year 2023, and its stock PP is maxed at 600. It's not a stock car though—that particular point will become more salient as we get to the faster categories. 

A Class

2018 Audi Sport RS3 LMS 

A class has an interesting mix of road and track cars, and while some of the road models feature phenomenal power, you just can't beat a machine that's been designed and manufactured for racing extremely quickly around tracks. That's exactly what we have here with this nice grippy RS3. It's just that bit easier to keep the rear tidy through corners than other A class vehicles, and balances that stability with a strong top speed.

For circuits where top speed is less of an issue, KTM's X-Bow has unbeatable grip and acceleration levels, so consider that. Mercedes' C63 AMG Forza Edition is also beautifully planted and if you bought the premium edition of FM it's already in your library.

S Class

1997 Mclaren F1 GT 

Cards on the table, there's an element of heart-over-head in this pick too. Ferraris' 812 Superfast and Lamborghini's Huracan Performante both offer more modern, precise supercars that are marginally easier to keep neat and tidy through corners, but all the way back in 1997 Mclaren's GT variant of the legendary F1 had speed and responsiveness to rival even these modern machines. 

In reality it's an incredibly rare vehicle—only 10 were ever made to this 1997 spec, so it's simply a thrill to see and drive. But it's here on merit in the S class as it's got one of the highest top speeds across the whole category, and that low-slung chassis makes weight transfer feel fast and stable. 

R Class

2012 Ferrari 599X Evolution 

This big red machine is a Forza Horizon legend. Often considered the outright best car throughout FH4's meta, it's so incredibly planted that it feels like it's being sucked onto the track. That feeling persists here, even in FM's radically different physics model, and it's married to preposterous speed and acceleration attributes.

Radical's RXC Turbo—another Horizon legend—is worth exploring in the R class too for its lightweight zippiness, as is Aston Martin's track-minded Vulkan AMR. But to a true icon of Forza games, we have to give a reverent bow and the overall R class recommendation.

P Class

2014 Audi Team Joest R18 e-tron quattro 

If you can look past the fact that it has far too many meaningless words in its title, Audi's fearsomely dominant prototype will reward you with one of the most stable, predictable drives in the P class category, where engine power is so high that it's often a real mission just to keep the platform pointed in the right direction. 

For a more road-going option, Raesr's Tachyon Speed is a sheer pleasure to hurl around a circuit, and Mercedes' genuinely iconic Sauber C9 prototype is nearly as quick as this Audi. But if you're trying to win races at all costs, the latter is your safest bet in this category because not only is it rapid, it's easier to keep on track and intact than its contemporaries. 

X Class

1990 Ferrari 641 

Before you apply tunings to vehicles that take them beyond their stock PP category, there are only three X-class cars in the game: vintage F1 cars and a Porsche prototype. And in fact, there's little between them, though don't say that with Prost or Senna fans in earshot. Our provisional pick goes to the Ferrari 641, but only because it looks so red.

Realistically, it's going to take some time to see how the community tinkers with tunes before we see the best X class cars emerge. Probably the Ultima Evolution Coupe 1020 will feature, as it always does in Forza games, as an X class destroyer. For now, just enjoy the amazing engine sounds of this classic F1 machinery. 

Tradition holds once again and the yearly Minecraft mob vote returns so that we can have an all out social media brawl over which creature gets added to Minecraft next. Despite this year's twist—a contigent of players intending to boycott the mob vote—Mojang is likely going ahead as planned. 

Three of our mob choices for this year have now been revealed: the crab, penguin, and armadillo, and the voting time frame. We'll go over all the details below on when and where to cast your choice for the year.

As in past years, the mob vote will culminate at the Minecraft Live show on October 15 where Mojang will announce the winning critter. Typically, Mojang also announces information about the next major game update during the show. We likely won't find out all the details, or even the name, about update 1.21 during the show, but based on history we should be able to expect it mid-2024 and that our mob choice will be added during that update.

When is the mob vote 2023? 

The Minecraft mob vote begins at 1 pm EDT on Friday, October 13 and ends at 1:15 pm EDT on Sunday, October 15. That's just over 48 hours, which is double the voting time we had last year—and way longer than the live show votes of years prior. Voting closes at the beginning of the Minecraft Live show, which will go live at 1 pm EDT on Sunday, October 15.

Here's when the mob vote is open across time zones:

• 10 am October 13 - 10:15 am October 15 PDT (Los Angeles)
• 1 pm October 13 - 1:15 pm October 15 EDT (New York)
• 6 pm October 13 - 6:15 pm October 15 BST (London)
• 7 pm October 13 - 7:15 pm October 15 CEST (Berlin)
• 3 am October 14 - 3:15 am October 16 AEST (Sydney)

Like last year, there are several different places you can vote. You can go to Minecraft.net and sign in to vote. You can open up the Minecraft launcher and vote before turning on the game. You can also vote in the game itself by joining a specially designed server that will be available in the menu. 

Which mobs are in the mob vote this year? 

As has been the case for several years, Mojang has introduced three new concepts for mobs that may get added to Minecraft. This year they all happen to be real-world animals, unlike last year which was a competition between three fictional creatures. All three mobs have just a little detail about where they spawn and what they might be used for, though we can expect that the winner will wind up having additional features after Mojang continues developing it. 

In yearly tradition, Minecraft is letting us choose what kind of creature will be included in its next major update. The mob vote is back for 2023: Ahead of the yearly Minecraft Live show on October 15, we'll be able to cast our votes on three different mob hopefuls, which Mojang has begun introducing today.

Our first potential new mob is the crab, which lives in the mangrove swamp biome. Mojang says that the crab claw (presumably possible loot from killing crabs) will help players place blocks further away from themselves. So it's like one of those long pole grabby hooks, then. I imagine that will help build-focused players like me complete projects without running about to different sides of our scaffolding while working on roofs and other details.

Mojang will be announcing the other two candidates in their own animated shorts this week but both are still under wraps as of this writing. This year's videos are boat themed, so it seems likely we may see some kind of ocean-dwelling creature as well.

As it goes every year, the race will likely be a contentious one as players all attempt to suss out which proposed creature will add the most interesting new features to the game. My personal favorite from last year, the Minecraft sniffer, was picked by the community, so I'm hoping to keep my popular pick streak.

Whatever the choices end up being, we'll have 48 hours to vote at Minecraft.net, in the game launcher, or a special public Minecraft: Bedrock server built for the occasion like last year. Voting opens on October 13 and runs into the beginning of Minecraft Live where the winner will be announced. 

The event will cover news from all corners of the Minecraft realm including the spinoff games, and the expected announcement of Minecraft update 1.21.

After it launched, Baldur's Gate 3 hit a phenomenal 800,000 concurrent Steam players and received PC Gamer's highest review score in 16 years, but during its years in early access, it wasn't widely expected to be the next big thing. Take as an example this May 2022 document accidentally leaked by Microsoft as part of its lawsuit with the FTC which dismissed Baldur's Gate 3 as a "second-run Stadia PC RPG" that Microsoft figured it could get onto PC Game Pass for about $5 million. 

You'd think Larian might be insulted by the lack of faith, but the truth is that the Baldur's Gate 3 developer didn't think its RPG would be this big of a deal either. Larian boss Swen Vincke is on record as worrying that Baldur's Gate 3 might have peaked in Early Access.

Larian's director of publishing, Michael Douse, said today in response to a Polygon article about the leaked comment that he wasn't surprised by Microsoft's expectations. "There just isn't any existing data that could have told anyone how BG3 was going to perform," he said.

Still, I'd argue that "second-run Stadia PC RPG" was never a very sensible prediction for a D&D sequel in the most storied series of D&D games, and one of the most beloved PC game series ever, released during the most famous and popular period in D&D's history. (Stadia, for the record, didn't even survive until Baldur's Gate 3's release.)

The assessment from inside Microsoft was part of a list of ideas for games to include  in Xbox's Game Pass subscription. The high end of considerations on the same list had "low" chance to get games like EA's Jedi Survivor, which Microsoft figured it'd have to pay upwards of $300M for on the off chance EA said yes.

The impetus for the whole exchange was that Starfield had been pushed back, leaving a 16-month gap between marquee games on Xbox's services that boss Phil Spencer called a "disaster situation" at the time. Baldur's Gate 3 would later be scheduled to release at about the same time as Starfield before getting moved forward a month—ostensibly to avoid the bigger RPG release.

Which is pretty wild, with Baldur's Gate 3 getting far more universal acclaim from critics and players than Starfield ended up getting. Perhaps the only person in the world who was seeing things clearly was PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon, who wrote earlier this summer: "What if Baldur's Gate 3 isn't just getting out of Starfield's way by launching a month early—what if it's better?"

Vincke, who was unsure how well BG3 would do himself, joked that he would like to talk to that Microsoft analyst. I'm sure they could swap stories of how badly both of them underestimated the RPG's success.

Lots of other internal Microsoft documents were revealed with these leaks, including a 2020 email from Xbox boss Phil Spencer in which he enthusiastically writes about the possibility of acquiring Nintendo—or maybe Valve—and plans for a new Xbox controller and Xbox Series X refresh. 

Spencer addressed the leaks on X today: "We've seen the conversation around old emails and documents," he wrote. "It is hard to see our team's work shared in this way because so much has changed and there's so much to be excited about right now, and in the future. We will share the real plans when we are ready."

The community of happy creators who love Bethesda's recent games for the settlement-building is off to the races in Starfield, thrilled to create a vast variety of ships of their own design—and their favorites of others' designs. Let's get in there and see some of the best I've seen, shall we? We'll see stuff from Firefly, Star Wars, Mass Effect, Aliens, Prometheus, and the ever-beloved Expanse.

"She's torn up plenty, but she'll fly true." from r/Starfield

My attempt at making Serenity from Firefly from r/Starfield

There are also, of course, plenty of people building perhaps one of the most iconic single spaceships in sci-fi history: The Millenium Falcon. They're seeing various levels of success, but the Falcon's a good target because it's actually about the size of ships in Starfield. Livable and comfortable, but neither a single-seat fighter nor a huge warship of some kind.

Update to the Millennium Falcon build from r/Starfield

Fully functional Millenium Falcon from r/Starfield

You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon? It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs from r/Starfield

The Falcon is of course not the only Star Wars ship that's made so far. Attempts at credible Y-Wings are pretty good, though obviously not to scale. Others are more inspired-by ships from Star Wars, adapting their silhouettes and the like to the larger overall chassis Starfield favors.

My Star Wars X-Wing from r/Starfield

Y-Wing Attempt (Cosmetic) from r/Starfield

Tried making an Imperial Star Destroyer from r/Starfield

The clear silhouettes that people are getting from just the basic ship parts available are pretty impressive, but I truly think the show's going to start when folks get started on big mod projects with custom parts for shipbuilding. Mix and matching those different packs of parts will be totally wild.

Speaking of mods, I'm sure someone will make a full-on Normandy from Mass Effect, but people have already got some good ones going on their own.

Someone made the Normandy from Mass Effect using only Starfield’s ship builder from r/Starfield

There's also a ship nobody should forget: The Canterbury from The Expanse. Remember the Cant. (And a bonus Rocinante just after.)

Icecargo Sandwich from r/Starfield

starfield from r/Starfield

Finally, a ship that belongs in the pipe, five by five—and a really rather doomed ship—from the minds of Aliens and Prometheus designers. 

First attempt at the UD-4 CHEYENNE from Aliens from r/Starfield

Prometheus....work in progress. from r/Starfield

I could go on, but I won't. There's a lot out there already and we're going to see some amazing builds as time goes by.

Back in January, Turn 10 presented us with the traditional listing of the Granular Technical Advancements™ coming in Forza Motorsport. It was an impressive rundown of things like "a fully procedural cloud system," car paint "sourced using a spectrophotometer" which frankly sounds like a gizmo that gets wheeled out during one of those silly ghost-hunting shows, and the pièce de résistance, "hardware accelerated convolution reverb [that] accurately reproduces how sounds in Forza interact within an acoustic space."

(All kidding aside, "convolution reverb" is actually a real thing, which I know because Tyler looked it up.)

What Turn 10 did not say at that time was what sort of hardware you'd need to actually take advantage of all these modern new wonders, but today that oversight has been rectified. The studio has revealed the full PC system requirements for Forza Motorsport, along with various other bits and bobs that players have to look forward to.

It's probably not surprising that the hardware requirements for the new Forza are pretty steep. The minimum specification is relatively midrange, although the storage requirement—130GB of SSD space—is an eye-popper. But assuming you don't want to play a Forza game at the minimum settings (and I'm pretty sure you don't), you're going to need some heavier hardware, because the specs ramp up pretty quickly.

Here's the full breakdown:

Minimum (low settings):

• CPU: Intel i5-8400 2.8GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2Ghz
• GPU: Nvidia GTX 1060 (6GB) or AMD RX 5500 XT (4GB)
• RAM: 8GB
• Storage: 130GB SSD

Recommended (high settings):

• CPU: Intel i5-11600k or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
• GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti (8GB) or AMD RX 6800 XT (8GB)
• RAM: 16GB
• Storage: 130GB SSD

Ideal (ultra settings):

• CPU: Intel i7-11700k or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• GPU: Nvidia RTX 4080 (16GB) or AMD RX 7900XT (16GB)
• RAM: 16GB
• Storage: 130GB NvME SSD

Forza Motorsport is set to go live on Steam on October 10, but in what's become something of a new tradition, anyone who springs for the Forza Motorsport premium edition—which includes the base game, the Race Day Car Pack, the Car Pass, VIP Membership (a separate package of rewards and boosts including a permanent 2x credits boost), and the Welcome Pack—or the Premium Add-Ons Bundle can start playing five days early, on October 5.

The biggest software company on the planet has, for most of its history, treated games as something of an afterthought. But then Microsoft's business in its first couple of decades was, well, mostly business. Not just B2B sales and office productivity software but the kind of pack-in deals that saw most every PC after a certain point bought alongside a copy of Windows, a focused drive on getting its software running everywhere on everything. Bill Gates may have gotten addicted to Minesweeper, but games were a secondary consideration for Microsoft for a long time.

Tonight's Xbox Game Showcase felt like the culmination of years of work changing that. It made Microsoft feel like a publishing monster, arguably bigger than ever before, and had within it the fruits of decisions made years before.

The history in brief is that there were various '90s initiatives before this, but Xbox marked a huge change in Microsoft's strategy, though one that oddly enough took it outside of the existing PC market. Xbox's story is one of ups and downs, while along the way there were some PC disasters like Games for Windows Live. But as it built a successful console business, and expanded its own game development strength, mainly through high-profile acquisitions, Microsoft eventually ran into a wall. Off the back of Xbox 360 Microsoft launched the Xbox One, perhaps the most infamously tone-deaf and derided E3 moment of all time, and went into crisis mode.

Such was the blowback that Don Mattrick was out, and soon Phil Spencer was in. Spencer had been with Xbox since 2001 and under Satya Nadella oversaw a total change in course for Xbox's strategy, with less focus on the box itself. Under Spencer Xbox slo-o-owly pivoted from from being a traditional console manufacturer with a razor-and-blades model into a more all-encompassing ecosystem of PC, cloud, the console as an entry point, and an overwhelming focus on the future importance of subscriptions.

Microsoft builds strength through acquisitions. Xbox has done this from day one. And at tonight's Xbox Game Showcase, we saw the spectacular results of Microsoft's huge acquisition spree of the mid-to-late 2010s. That spree began with Mojang and Minecraft in late 2014, but went to the next level in 2018 with the acquisition of Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Undead Labs, Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment, as well as establishing the Initiative in Santa Monica. 2019 saw Double Fine but the voracious appetite returned with 2020's still-stunning acquisition of Zenimax for over $7.5 billion in cash.

I want it all

Over nearly two hours, this show delivered it all. Big games, small games, and then the sheer confidence (or perhaps foolhardiness) of ending with a deep-dive on the hugely anticipated Starfield. 

The show began with a charming showing for Fable by Playground Games (acquired in 2018). Then an atmospheric change of direction into South of Midnight with impeccable vibes, from Compulsion Games (acquired 2018). Then a third-party one for a change, but a biggie: Ubisoft's Star Wars Outlaws.

We're three games in and so far have had two big first-party exclusives, and the exclusive on a new Star Wars game. 

Then in quickfire succession came 33 Immortals, from Thunder Lotus, then the first gameplay trailer for Payday 3, with a release date of September 21, 2023. Persona 3 Reload, from third-party Atlus, the excellent-looking Avowed from Obsidian Entertainment (acquired in 2018). Sea of Thieves from Rare (acquired 2002, an old-timer) over-delivered with a free Legend of Monkey Island tie-in.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 next, again from Asobo (still a private company), alongside the announcement of a Dune tie-in of all things for the existing game. Then it was time for a look at Seuna's Sacrifice: Hellblade 2 from Ninja Theory (acquired in 2018).

Sega's Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, before a trailer and a song for Fallout 76's Atlantic City update, the exclusive on Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, a new Capcom game. Forza Motorsport from Turn 10 (established by Microsoft in 2001), a trailer for The Elder Scrolls Online's next update, then right back into it with Overwatch 2: Invasion from Blizzard (which has not yet been acquired by Xbox Game Studios), then Persona 5 Tactica from the third-party Atlus.

A Starfield tease, Jusant from Don't Nod (independent), Still Wakes the Deep from Sumo (a public company), and Dungeon of Hinterberg from Microbird (independent). The Summer Games Fest had Nic Cage, so Xbox then whipped out Keanu Reeves and our first proper look at Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion, alongside a release date (September 16 2023).

Cities: Skylines 2 next from Paradox, which looked amazing and came with a date (24th October 2023), before the premiere of Metaphor: ReFantazio from former Persona creators. Then there was Towerborne from Stoic Studio, before one of my highlights with Clockwork Revolution from inXile (acquired in 2018). All on Game Pass.

The Xbox part of the show ended with the reveal of a new Xbox Series S with a 1TB SSD, before it was into the deep-dive on Starfield from Bethesda (acquired 2018), which of course is on Game Pass from release.

Who could pass

I may have killed you with repetition. My point is that this running order consists of 19 games, plus five big expansion announcements, almost all of which outside of the likes of Phantom Liberty is on Game Pass day one. Of those 19 game announcements nine came from first-party studios, five of whom have been acquired since 2018. The rest were a mix of third parties and indies, including some really big-hitters like Cyberpunk and Overwatch 2, and everything was topped-off with the biggest game and the most in-depth look.

Your mileage may differ but, for me, that is what a showcase is all about. Xbox Game Studios showed off incredible strength-in-depth as well as range here, and the overwhelming focus was on not just its firstparty efforts but at those as the core of Game Pass, with all these fan favourites like Persona and Yakuza coming in around the edges. It was such a strong showing that the reveal of a brand-new third-person Star Wars game, which looks promising albeit just in cinematic form, was put third in the running order.

This felt like the showing of a publishing monster, and Microsoft beginning to flex the incredible amount of development muscle it's piled-on over the last five years. The Game Pass offering looks more and more like incredible value, and what should scare the competition most (particularly Sony but also those third parties vulnerable to takeover) is the breadth Microsoft's going for in what it highlights. There are some pretty old-school games mixed-in among the slick big-budget loveliness, and for every Star Wars that'll have mega mainstream appeal there was something like Towerborne, which may not set the world alight but looks like it might deserve to.

Ask yourself this: is anyone talking about Gears or Halo not being there? Nary a peep. Even five years ago, that would have been dominating the chatter. Those series remain a big part of Xbox but are far from the totems of old.

This showcase was fresh, this showcase was brash, and it almost feels like we ain't seen nothing yet. Microsoft's strategy over the last decade and particularly since 2018 is now beginning to show the first fruits, but this is just the beginning of Microsoft staking out a huge long-term position at the heart of videogaming. Xbox Game Studios is already one of the most important publishers on the planet and, if the Activision Blizzard deal does go through, it's going to have an awe-inspiring arsenal of top-tier development studios all tied-into that same goal of putting Microsoft front-and-centre of gaming across all platforms.

This was an amazing showcase, and one that made you wonder just how much of gaming's future Microsoft is going to own. With showcases like this, it's hard to see a bigger beast out there.

As is RPG tradition, my time with Starfield is destined to start with no fewer than 60 minutes of character creation time as I carefully consider cheekbones and RPG traits. I've got no doubt that Starfield's character creator will let me toil away perfecting those details. During its Starfield Direct presentation, Bethesda explained how it overhauled character creation by 3D scanning "a wide range of faces from different age groups and ethnicities" as data for a highly customizable system. 

We got a look at how character creation actually starts, with a very classically Bethesda setup of some other character helpfully explaining who you are and offering you a conveniently in-world item (your Argos Extractors employee data) to determine your face and stats.

You'll pick from a lineup of 40 presets, Bethesda says, which are indeed a variety of skin colors, ages, and builds. There's the usual basics of hair, skin, scars, facial hair, some more detail like walk cycle, and so on. Oh, and you can have a septum piercing—nice. In just a very quick shot though you can spot greater detail in scaling features, overbite/underbite, and whatever "shape blends" are. So yes, you'll be able to really sink your teeth into the exact shape of your jaw in Starfield.

No matter how deep and detailed a character creator is though, there's still totally a chance that I'll get jumpscared by my own face once I step out into the world. Because even Bethesda's best character creator so far is definitely going to be capable of spitting out unattractive faces. Although some of the initial hairstyles in the presets look nice and soft head-on, but the ones that get cycled through after still have that eternal Bethesda quality of weird sharpness when vewied against a background. Be careful which you choose or that may be the feature that sends you packing right back to the start screen. I do wonder why they chose a character with facial hair to spotlight character creation with, given how notoriously uncanny it always looks.

Maybe the best news about character creation from today's presentation was that Bethesda used the same generation tools to create all its NPCs. "Any character you see almost always is a character you could make yourself," Bethesda says. So I won't be subjected to the injustice of meeting someone with a much cooler hairstyle than those that were available to me, presumably. Even that one guy.

Bethesda shared a lot more about every part of Starfield during its presentation today. You can watch the full Starfield Direct on YouTube.

inXile is a venerable studio with a long list of great games to its name, as well as series like The Bard's Tale and Wasteland. Its latest title, the first since 2020's Wasteland 3, is a whole new look for inXile, and a giant leap forwards for the studio in terms of the action focus and visuals. Wasteland is an isometric RPG. Clockwork Revolution, meanwhile, is a full, first-person immersive sim.

My instant reaction to the trailer was to think about Bioshock but, the more I've watched it, the more this suggests different directions from where that series went. An undoubted influence is Bioshock Infinite, many themes from which are present: rich vs. poor and a clear antagonist in control of the city, giant airships, clanking mechanoids, and time travel. But where Bioshock Infinite never did much gameplay-wise with the time travel, leaving it entirely for narrative set-pieces, Clockwork Revolution is built around the idea that you can travel back-and-forth and change the setting through your actions in different eras.

Just how in-depth this is, and how non-linear, remains to be seen. It's clear that certain actions in the past will drastically alter the city in the future, though just as interestingly it seems neither yourself or the protagonist will fully understand the consequences of such changes until you've gone back. Time manipulation is also shown being used in combat and in certain sections of the city, with a beautiful clip showing a collapsed bridge being un-collapsed.

The trailer certainly further suggests that as you change things in the past that affect the city's wealth and stability (albeit dictatorial stability), the city you're returning to is much more overtly brutal and authoritarian, with the same people largely in charge but now having invented many delightful new ways to oppress the populace.

There are reasons to be optimistic beyond the trailer. inXile refers to the setting as steampunk, and says the project is led by director Chad Moore and designer Jason Anderson, who certainly have form in this setting having worked on the beloved 2001 RPG Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. 

The game features "dynamic time-bending combat, deep interconnected roleplaying systems, and the ability to create your own unique character from the ground up", per inXile studio head Brian Fargo. The setting is called Avalon, and has been constructed into its present form by a time-traveller called Lady Ironwood, who rules over a place where wealthy industrialists and mechanical slaves live in opulence, while the poor are kept in slums and factories. Which is just how Lady Ironwood likes it.

Your character comes across their own time travel gizmo called the Chronometer, and then it's off to the races. "Through unprecedented and complex visual and narrative depth, the choices you make on your trips into the past will change the people, the stories, and the city of Avalon itself in extraordinary and (very often) unexpected ways," said Fargo. "In Clockwork Revolution we’re pushing roleplaying reactivity to new heights, infused with the unique texture and personality that you’ve come to expect from our games".

Clockwork Revolution is inXile's first game as part of Xbox Game Studios, and Fargo describes this as "our studio’s first AAA first-person action RPG". The bad news? It's still early in development and this trailer is described as pre-alpha footage. It ends by saying we'll see more from inXile… in due time.

The big feature list for Minecraft 1.20 has been known for a while, and test builds have been available for a few months, with the only remaining mystery being its release date. The next Minecraft update is happening sooner than I'd expected: Trails & Tales is coming on June 7.

The big ticket bits of Minecraft 1.20 are the archeology feature which is bringing suspicious sand and suspicious gravel which players can sweep away to uncover tools, bones, and the eggs to hatch the new giant Sniffer creatures which in turn will dig up ancient plants in the overworld. They're not the only new mobs either, being joined by the giant Minecraft camel mob, a new type of mount that can dash across large gaps and seat two players together on its back.

There's also the new cherry grove biome, which players trying out the beta builds and snapshots have already been hunting down in some great new Minecraft seeds. If you want to start out a fresh save when 1.20 launches, be sure to check that list for a world that spawns you near that lovely new locale.

Cherry blossom trees have their own wood, meaning we're getting a new full set of pink colored wood blocks complete with doors, signs, and so on. But there's a second set of wood coming too: bamboo wood and all its own blocks and variants. There are plenty of other changes in the update, especially for the builders among us, with chiseled bookshelves for puzzle-designers, armor trims for the fashion-forward, and new hanging signs for the environmental storytellers.

Both the Java and Bedrock edition will get the Trails & Tales update on June 7. You'll be able to find the full changelog over on Minecraft's site. 

It's become so common to see online games switched off entirely that we actually compiled a list of all the big games that shut down last year. It sometimes feels risky to get too attached to any kind of online multiplayer game these days; as soon as a line on an earnings graph dips too low, the servers get unplugged.

But Killer Instinct is bucking that trend (via Time Extension). The fighting game reboot that originally hit PC seven years ago has responded to issues with its legacy server infrastructure by, get this, migrating to new ones! A quality of life update for the game released last week that begins the process of moving Killer Instinct over to a new server backend.

"Over the last five years," read the update, "it has become more challenging to deal with issues that crop up due to KI’s reliance on legacy services". So the game's makers have "started migrating KI’s legacy services to PlayFab services, a process which will happen over the next several months".

If you're still a Killer Instinct stalwart, you might run into load times lasting "40-60 seconds, but potentially minutes depending on your connection speed," and a warning that the game is "Refreshing DLC Timeout" next time you play, but otherwise the game should be the same as it ever was. The quality of life update has also added a couple of PC-specific fixes: both players will no longer lose points after one of them leaves Ranked mode on Steam, and all characters should now be unlocked for players on Game Pass.

When you consider that this version of Killer Instinct actually released a full 10 years ago—only the PC version came out in 2016—and this server shift applies to all platforms, it's honestly quite heartening (okay, they have Microsoft money, but still). I mean, maybe it shouldn't be impressive that a game isn't simply shutting its doors forever as soon as it reaches a certain age, but these are the times we live in. Now if only everyone else could do the same.

Update: This piece has been updated to clarify that AOE 1's civs will remain separate from AOE 2's roster.

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is set to go back in time with its next DLC, but, like, in a different way than usual. Return of Rome is a "completely new type of expansion pack" that will bring AOE 1 into AOE 2 when it releases on May 16, adding all 16 civilisations from the first game and its Rise of Rome expansion pack to the second game (but in their own separate section, so you can't mix AOE 2's factions with AOE 1's).

That means you'll soon be able to play the (take a deep breath, get a glass of water) Assyrians, Babylonians, Carthaginians, Choson, Egyptians, Greeks, Hittites, Macedonians, Minoans, Palmyrans, Persians, Phoenicians, Romans, Shang, Sumerians, and Yamato on the plains, steppes and tundra of AOE 2. And if that's simply not enough human history to choose from, Return of Rome is also adding one brand new civ—the Lac Viet—to its faction list.

It's not just a factional affair, though. The expansion will also introduce three new campaigns to show off a few of its new (old) civilisations. There are campaigns for Sargon of Akkad (the Sumerians), Pyrrhus of Epirus (the Macedonians), and Trajan (the Romans). If I remember correctly, 'pyrrhic victory' is another way of saying 'really good victory,' so that second campaign will probably be chill as hell.

Return of Rome will also bring in the D3 game mode, "inspired by a ruleset made popular in Vietnam". I confess, I'm not familiar with this one, but the AOE wiki tells me that D3 is a mode that cuts down on rush tactics and drags games out a bit: You're only allowed to fight with a single unit until the Bronze Age, and walls and towers are banned.

Aside from all that, the expansion will contain a bunch of annoyingly undetailed "visual improvements," "UI improvements", and enhanced CPU-opponent AI.

If that piques your interest, you can find Age of Empires 2's Return of Rome DLC over on Steam and the Microsoft Store, where it's currently 15% off to lure you into preordering it.

Minecraft Legends captures the flavor of standard Minecraft well: the action strategy spinoff has a new but familiar art style, a colorful world full of creatures, and a procedural map to explore. It doesn't bring along Minecraft's substance, though, and the result is a genre mashup that's disappointing as an action game and as a strategy game.

I start out in Minecraft Legends as I would in normal Minecraft: exploring different biomes—forests, badlands, swamps, and tundras, but no caves, sorry—and collecting resources for things I want to build. I direct my Allay friends to mine coal or iron or redstone, which automatically fills my resource meters. One Allay chips away at the edge of a nearby forest to collect 500 wood logs that I'll use to build a perimeter wall around a village while another gathers a surface iron vein so I can erect a masonry building to upgrade those walls to stone.

My main goal is to defeat three factions of piglins who have escaped from the Nether to dominate the Overworld by crafting my own army of Minecraft mobs. Each night we defend the world's villages from piglin attacks. By day I rebuild the defenses and then set out to make my own assault on piglin bases.

Building forts and village defenses is more utilitarian than aesthetic—sorry Minecraft build artists, this isn't the game for us. I distribute arrow towers unevenly to meet attacking forces, squeeze carpenter huts for repairing other structures in between the pre-built homes of each village, and toss down my air missile redstone launcher wherever it can get the most reach. I abandon any remaining loyalty to symmetry by stringing together defensive walls at ugly angles, knowing full well that they'll be battered down by piglin hordes at nightfall. I welcome that, even: the only way to remove misplaced walls is agonizingly post by single post so I'd rather leave the demolition work to my enemies.

The day ticks steadily away, faster than I realize at times because even while playing solo I'm not allowed to pause while in my menu, and each night the piglins may choose to attack one or more of the villages on my map. I prepare by building spawners for golems and skeletons which I can build new units from as needed. Waves of enemies arrive at night to overwhelm my village's defenses and it's at this point I realize how tragically bad the combat in Minecraft Legends is.

Strategic retreat

Legends has avoided calling itself a real-time strategy game, opting instead for "action strategy" because I have control of my own hero character and command my units from the ground rather than a godlike RTS perspective. Ultimately, Legends has wound up with a style of combat that serves both action and strategy poorly; it requires intense micromanagement without actual strategic depth.

The only "action" in this combat is using a single button to swing my sword back and forth, tickling piglins away from my defensive structures. The strategy bit is worse: an unending escort mission that forces me to play helicopter parent to my own armies. To begin controlling the units I've built, I need to stand near them and press Q, waving my command flag to call creatures within a small radius around me to follow. With an initial cap of 15 mobs "lured," I can direct them to attack a single target or gather at a location. 

I can create slightly more specific orders by asking only ranged mobs to target a lava launcher enemy while asking my cobblestone golems to defend a hole in my outer wall—though both orders only apply to the handful of units I've currently lured to me. If I want to redirect them, I have to physically ride over, wave my flag to lure as many as I can reach, and ride away to point them in a new direction. There is no overhead strategy view for short-handing this process. Many small piglin outposts require me to build ramps so my mobs can reach enemy structures and I often find them standing mindlessly beneath a ramp after being knocked off a platform, forcing me to shepherd them back to their target.

Every battle makes me less a commander of armies and more a minder of preschoolers, zigzagging through my own base or an enemy fortress to hold my toddler warriors by the hand. I'm constantly losing track of where I've put them because my own defensive walls block my view of the battlefield and the HUD compass is a poor substitute for a proper minimap. 

Coming up with interesting strategies feels pointless because Minecraft Legends lacks the tools I'd need to enact all but the simplest plans. I'd hoped that assaulting the largest fortresses for each faction would present an interesting challenge, and they do require that I use my Allays to turn netherrack into normal blocks I can build my own structures on, but otherwise they're just a drawn out version of every other battle: standing directly behind my units watching them plink away at an enemy spawner until I need to give them a new order.

Unsound foundations 

I'm reminded of Kingdom Under Fire 2, a particularly bad MMORTS I played several years ago. Despite its many sins, the one thing I found admirable in KOF2 was how it blended Dynasty Warriors style mob-mowing with a pared down strategy system. I could zoom in for action hotbar combat or zoom out to quickly issue orders to my units across the battlefield. I really wish Minecraft Legends had attempted a strategy command view. Even if the tactical choices remained limited, I might've had more fun if giving orders didn't feel so exhausting.

I haven't even bothered mentioning the structure upgrading system because there's not much to it. At the center of the map I can spend resources to build structures that increase my storage capacity for different materials, marginally increase the number of mobs I can build and lure, and unlock a few area of effect towers that will freeze or knock back enemies, none of which make the action any more fun or the strategy any cleverer.

Minecraft Legends also includes co-op and PvP, so I dutifully dragged fellow PC Gamer writer Mollie Taylor in for a spot of wrecking Horde of the Bastion fortresses together. Unfortunately, co-op Minecraft Legends only alleviates the game's issues in the way most co-op does: providing someone else's company in the midst of monotony. Together we had a slightly tighter leash on our mobs but we were still stuck roleplaying beleaguered preschool teachers, and being a team didn't alleviate the grievances we both had with the simplistic combat.

The worst part is that Minecraft Legends didn't have the decency to be an obvious dumpster fire. As a piece of software, I've got no complaints; I've had no issues with framerate, multiplayer connectivity, bugs, crashes, or control layouts. But it's a disappointing game. Minecraft's values of creativity, intrinsic motivation, and player choice didn't make it into this shallow spinoff.