Propaganda poster by Ed Reibsamen with a little help from Midjourney
Article by Aragorn Eloff
There’s been a lot written lately about the so-called TESCREAList ideology that is currently hegemonic in the Silicon Valley tech circles frequented by people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. TESCREAL stands for transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism and longtermism – terms that are probably at least intuitively familiar. Reading recent critical descriptions of this facile, elitist ideology, which is driving a lot of the hype around machine learning, I’m struck by how familiar it all seems. Listening to a podcast on 60s psychedelia on my run this morning, it suddenly all made sense.
It turns out you can trace a pretty direct line back from TESCREAL ‘philosophers’ like Kurzweil and Bostrom to Wired magazine and the extropians mailing list, and from there to the legendary Mondo2000 magazine – a 90s tech-enthusiast counterculture publication from California put together by old sixties heads enthused by nascent technologies like the web, VR and ‘nootropics’. Indeed, 1992’s Mondo 2000: A User’s Guide to the New Edge, a gorgeous typographic mess of glossy 3d graphics and paeans to the coming techno-singularity, feels almost like a secret peek into the TESCREAL gang’s wildest fantasies, although regulars like Douglas Rushkoff, Mark Dery and Bruce Sterling were admittedly far more interesting than the current dreck. Mondo 2000 was, in turn, the successor to the less glossy High Frontiers and Reality Hackers, 80s publications that mixed cyberpunk and surrealism with phone phreaking and experimental music. And then, of course, there was the psychedelic enthusiasm, particularly the strong echoes of one Timothy Leary.
As a diligent student at the Hofmann and McKenna school for young dropouts in the early 90s, I devoured all the Tim Leary books I could get my hands on. Classics like Psychedelic Prayers, High Priest and The Psychedelic Experience, but also an oddly singular text titled Neuropolitics: The Sociobiology of Human Metamorphosis, published in 1977. The book was written while Leary was languishing in jail for his psychedelics advocacy, and marks a shift in attention away from LSD and towards quintessentially TESCREAList topics like space migration, life extension and so forth. Indeed, Tim essentially argues in the book that by the year 2000 we’ll all be immortals travelling through space and indulging in increasingly exotic pleasures while expanding our intelligence using computers and smart drugs. As a useful heuristic, he coined some acronyms that are particularly revealing: SMI2LE (Space Migration, Intelligence Increase, Life Extension), HOME (High Orbit Mini-Earths) and HEAD (Hedonic Engineering And Design).
Essentially then, Tim Leary, psychologist and psychedelics guru, synthesised a fairly significant chunk of the philosophy that would become TESCREALism while sitting in his prison cell, undoubtedly fantasizing about the great outdoors and all the experiences he was missing out on. My fellow students and I also spent a fair amount of time in the early 90s learning how to SMI2LE and use our HEADs while gazing up into the stars waiting for our new HOMEs to be ready. In retrospect it was in large part a naive fantasy fueled in no insignificant part by prodigious consumption of 5-HT2A receptor agonists.
There is a grain of intuitive truth to Leary’s dreams, of course -—we could and should try to enrich life in whatever way we can – but when divorced from the messiness of real life in all its social, political and ecological complexities, SMI2LE, like TESCREALism (and, yes, like Fully Automated Luxury Communism) is the kind of indulgent hopium that’s fine, perhaps even vital, when you’re 16, but probably not when you’re a billionaire with immense economic and political power seeking to enact your juvenile fantasies at the expense of the rest of the world. More importantly though, the TESCREALists are far, far more boring than Leary and the Mondo crowd. We could do a lot better.
Aragorn Eloff is an experimental musician and long-time wanderer through the counterculture. He is based in South Africa, where he is currently working on a PhD on the philosophy of psychedelics. He writes on anarchism, embodied cognition and the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari.
If you simply want to choose the strongest class for your main in WoW: The War Within, you have 5 different classes that are generally considered the best right now.
This is all based on what we know from the beta for The War Within and previews, of course. There are a lot of massive balance changes coming, not to mention the new Hero Talent mechanic!
But, let’s cut right to the chase, shall we? Let’s now take a look at the 5 best classes you should main in WoW: The War Within.
The Dracthyr continue to dominate the meta with their exclusive Evoker class, which is easily one of the best classes in WoW: The War Within. They provide the most utility out of all classes with their Augmentation spec, while also being fantastic Healers with the Preservation spec.
Augmentation overall is possibly the single most useful Class Spec in the entire game right now. It allows the Evoker to provide insane buffs to every other role. More damage for DPS, more survivability for Tanks, and more Mana for Healers… what more could you possibly want from a single class? Besides, the Evoker is also quite capable of dishing out solid damage on its own on top of that.
Preservation, while not quite as game-changing as Augmentation, does make the Evoker into a top-tier Healer. It’s a very unique Healer spec as well, due to its slower pace: you’ll rely on charging up spells to provide massive healing in bursts. These powerful healing spells also have a large AoE, making it easy to keep your entire party topped up no matter how hectic things get.
Simply put, Evoker might be the singular best class in the game currently!
Death Knight
As you might have heard from anyone playing The War Within’s beta, Death Knight is easily one of the best classes in the game currently. Whether you go for the DPS specs (Frost, Unholy) or the Tank spec (Blood), this class has earned its spot at the top of the meta.
All their Hero Talents are pretty great as well and work extremely well with the Death Knight’s innate strengths. This is very important, considering that Hero Talents is a new mechanic in The War Within and some classes weren’t as lucky as Death Knights.
Death Knight is a class with a lot of potential builds and playstyles, as well. You can play as a vampiric Tank who relies on dealing damage to boost their health and strength or you can choose to summon demonic forces to aid you in battle, for example. No matter what, you’ll have some of the best survivability and damage output in The War Within!
Mage
If you’re all about spellcasting, Mage is your best bet for a spellcasting DPS. All 3 of its specs are DPS-focused, and all 3 of them are currently extremely strong. This ensures that the class has long-lasting power and shouldn’t have to worry about any upcoming balance changes, making it an easy pick for one of the best classes in WoW: The War Within.
Similar to the Death Knights, Mages were also blessed with 3 strong sets of Hero Talents as well. These further bolster the Mage’s innate strengths. As you might notice from this list, this is a common trend for all of the best classes in The War Within! These Hero Talents are extremely important.
The only real downside for Mages is that you really do need to master them. Their overwhelming DPS potential comes at the cost of low survivability. However, you’ll easily dominate all your foes if you can overcome these skill issues. Good Mage players are always guaranteed a spot for Raids due to their insane damage output.
Warrior
Say what you will about how straightforward the Warrior class is to play, you can’t deny that it brings results. This class is all about Melee DPS with the Arms and Fury specs, but the Protection spec can also turn them into a top-tier Tank. Just like with the other best classes in The War Within, all of the specs are viable and extremely strong.
If you go the DPS route, you’ll be dishing out millions of damage with fairly simple skill rotations that are easy to manage. If you choose to be a Tank, your ability to take damage will be second only to Paladins and you also don’t rely too much on Healers. Either way, you’ll be a key asset to any party you’re in!
There are very few downsides to the Warrior currently, and this is definitely the best class for anyone who likes straightforward Melee DPS. If we had to come up with a weakness, you could say that their simplicity means they have very low build variety and they don’t provide much utility to parties. But if that’s no issue for you, Warrior has basically no downsides.
Shaman
A bit of a surprise, the Shaman class has been climbing the ranks of best classes in WoW: The War Within as we approach the full launch. It has received a lot of fantastic buffs and reworks during the beta, making it into a meta favorite.
It has the potential to Tank no matter its spec as well as provide high DPS with the Elemental or Enchantment specs. What’s more, it can also turn into a top-tier healer with the Restoration spec. That said, the DPS specs seem to be earning the most favor right now simply due to how strong they are currently.
Another thing that makes the Shaman shine is their ability to lay out totems across the battlefield. These totems provide excellent utility to the party, be it by providing Crowd Control, healing, or even deflecting enemy attacks. The new Totemic Hero Talent tree also makes these totems stronger and easier to use, making Shaman shine brighter than ever!
But well, that was the last class on our list of the top 5 best classes to main in WoW: The War Within. If you want a more general and less meta-focused look at all the classes, check out our class picking guide for The War Within.
It’s an almost daily occurrence that gamers talk about the crushing weight of their backlog. Especially considering seasonal price cuts like the Steam Summer Sale, these ballooning libraries of games are not getting any smaller, and have caused games to miss out on some genuinely phenomenal titles.
However, the holiday season is hyped up with upcoming releases from the big three console manufacturers. As such, there are already so many titles – from indie passion projects to AAA blockbusters – that have slipped through the cracks. Through combing through the last half-year of titles, we have crafted a list of the top 15 games that you’ve already slept on in 2024.
Some game genres are so rare, it’s a miracle when a new game releases in that style. I personally call this genre: stealth tactics. The actual genre is Real-Time Tactics, but I find that name doesn’t really cover this (sub)genre. If you have ever played games like: Commando’s, Desperados, Robin Hood – The Legend of Sherwood or Shadow Tactics… You know what sort of game I’m talking about. A game features a rag tag group of heroes. Each hero has unique abilities. They must get through big groups of enemies. They do this one by one to progress the group’s goals. The game I want to talk about today is called Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. This was the last game by the studio Mimimi. Is this game the swansong to close down this studio, or is it a game that’s better left forgotten? Before that, I invite you to leave a comment in the comment section down below. A comment with your thoughts and/or opinions on the game and/or the content of the article.
Promises of amazing treasure
In this game, you play as the crew of a special pirate ship named the Red Marley. Each main member of the crew has a black pearl in their chest, granting them unique supernatural abilities. These unique abilities come at a cost of being cursed to a sort of undead status.
The Red Marley’s captain fell in battle, and now the Inquisition is after the biggest treasure of the ship. Now, the Red Marley’s crew doesn’t want this to happen. So they do everything in their power to avoid this from happening.
The story in this game doesn’t take itself too seriously. The story is written like it’s a Saturday morning cartoon. A story arc can be contained in one or a handful of episodes, but always has an ending. While almost everything in the story ends well for the main cast, the story and writing never looses its charm. I felt like I was transported back into the time I woke up for the weekly Pokémon episode. I knew that the main problem of that week’s episode would resolve by the end. Still, I kept rooting for the heroes.
One of the biggest reasons I kept rooting for the main characters is because of the voice actors. Their performances are extremely well done. They bring a lot of personality and life to each character. They make the characters stand out like real, actual people. This script must have been immense, since the characters sometimes react on the actions you preform with other characters. There are 8 main characters, and more if you buy the DLC packs. If you start counting how many unique voice lines that bring to the table… And that’s the tip of the iceberg. The enemies for example, when they come together also have unique dialogue between them.
It’s possible to write an article by itself about the world building, story and voice acting in this game. I can also assure you that when I write this article, I’ll keep gushing about it all. A great example is how the save & load function fits into the story. It enhances the world of this game. Yes, you read that correctly. When you save, you store a memory in the Red Marley. When you load one of your saves, the Red Marley uses its powers to restore that memory. Your characters also respond to your saving and loading action and this brings even more charm to this game.
In these types of games, the replay value is quite high. Especially since you tackle all missions in various ways and each playthrough is going to be different. In this game, it’s taken even a step further. You can choose the order to revive your crew. You can also choose the order to finish the missions of that chapter. I can assure you that your playthrough will look nothing like mine.
The main quest is quite enjoyable to play through. I actually became really immersed in the world of this game. At the moment, I’m playing through the final missions of the game and the DLC missions. I’m having a blast. Thankfully, I can easily start a new playthrough of this game. Then I can experience it all of it over again and take a totally different route. And maybe I can do the little side quests and pirate tales as well. Since, that’s content, I haven’t gone into too much yet.
Your playthrough of this game will take you somewhere between 27 to 37 hours. That is, if you want to beat the main story and DLC’s. But, if you want to fully finish this game… Oh boy, then you’ll have a game that’s close to 80 hours on your hands. I already mentioned the crew tales. But there are also mini-challenges you can go for during the missions to earn badges. Let’s not forget the achievements you can earn. Well, most of the achievements are related to the main campaign.
Now, I have one complaint about the badges in this game. Earning some of these badges is extremely tricky. Sometimes, you don’t get all the information you expect to. For example, there is a badge on each map for using all the landing spots of that map. But guess what, there is no easy way to see if you already used a landing spot or not. It’s a shame that some badges work like that. Especially since some of these badges make you go out of your way to play in an unique way. A more challenging way to spice up your normal routine.
Apart from bragging trophies, these medals don’t really add up to much. But, I honestly don’t really mind that. Since, it’s fun to gather these medals and have some bonus challanges during my playthrough. It keeps me on my toes and it’s really enjoyable.
Mindblowing abilities
I’m still quite impressed at how balanced this game is. Each character has their own unique abilities. It’s best that you always have a character with an ability that can move guards from their position. If you don’t have that, the game will actually warn you. You are going to make it extremely challenging for yourself.
Personally, I’m playing through this game on the normal difficulty setting and your decisions actually matter. Before starting each mission, study the map well. Try to remember each map as well as you can. Since you are going to revisit each map at least once or twice. It’s extremely important to choose the correct landing position.
You would think that the game will be a bit boring if you always bring the same crew into missions. But, the game rewards you using different characters for missions. You gain more vigor if you play with certain crew members during certain missions. If you earned enough vigor, you can upgrade one of the unique abilities of your characters. This upgrade will give you more and better tools in your arsenal. Now, these upgrades can make the game much easier. You can always turn off the upgrades while on the Red Marley.
In the introduction paragraph of this article, I quickly explained how this game works. So, let me tell you the gist of it. In this game, you go from mission to mission, completing various goals in each one. These goals can range for example from rescuing an informant or stealing an artifact. In each mission, there are various enemies patrolling the area. Your goal is to find the weakspots in their patrols and dispose of the enemies without getting spotted.
Now, getting spotted isn’t the end of the world in this game. Depending on where you are spotted, it’s possible to escape and hide somewhere. You just have to avoid taking damage, since your health is limited, and you can’t heal during the mission. If you aren’t careful, it’s easy to get swamped or overwhelmed with guards. Especially when a guard with a bell spots you, the traces you leave behind or sees a dead body. When this happens, you have a limited amount of time to kill that guard before the bell is rung. When the bell is rung, more guards will emerge from nearby barracks and swarm to the location.
On top of that, there are also some unique enemy types outside your regular patrol goons. The first type I want to talk are the Kindred. These annoying buggers bring something quite unique to the table in this genre. Kindred are always connected with each other. If you don’t kill these all at the same time, they will revive each other. But, this is only the start of your troubles.
You also have Prognosticar. And let me tell you, these are even more challenging. To defeat these enemies, you need to have two units ready. One unit needs to be spotted or attack the Prognosticar. Since as soon as that happens, your unit gets trapped. This trap will go on and damage your unit until the unit either dies or is rescued. When the Prognosticar is using his trap, he can be attacked and killed. But do it quick. The trap is damaging your unit. You are also stuck in place. This situation is dangerous.
It also matters if the mission is taking place during day or night. The big difference is that in the daytime, the enemies have a bigger field of view. During the nighttime, some enemies will carry a torch on their patrol. This gives more light to other units. They can spot you sneaking by if you aren’t careful. There are also various torches dotted around the map, and you can put them out. The enemies can’t stand torches that are put out and will go out of their way to light them again.
It’s also important to know if an enemy stops in their patrol to talk to another enemy. Since if you kill one of them, the other enemy will start looking for them. They will start running around and if you weren’t careful, will find your tracks and spot you.
Learning those little mechanics is essential in this game. Never forget the tools you have in this game! This ranges from the abilities of each character to how for example view cones work. There is something called view cone surfing. If you want to dash to another place past some enemies… Understand that a full color in the view cone means they will spot you right away. Stripped sections of the view cone will cause you to be unseen if you crawl by. Also, it takes a few moments of you being spotted and the alarm being raised. You can run quickly enough past an enemy. Alternatively, you can run from view cone to view cone. It’s possible to get past unseen.
If you are afraid that you will get overwhelmed by all the information of all the little mechanics, don’t worry. The difficulty curve in this game is perfect. This game also has solid character tutorials. Each character tutorial guides you through 2–3 rooms, teaching you the abilities of each ability and their unique use cases. At the end of each character tutorial, you get a puzzle room. Putting to the test if you can use that character correctly. During the game, you can always open your logbook from the pause menu, where all tutorials can be watched again.
This brings me to the abilities of your characters in this game. If you have played similar games, you’ll recognize certain abilities and others will be quite new and unique. Now, some of these abilities will have a unique spin to it. For example, your sniper only has one shot. But, when you retrieve your sniper bolt… Your sniper can shoot again.
There are also extremely unique mechanics, like your Canoness has very fun abilities. She can pick up dead bodies in her canon to launch them at enemies to knock them out. But, you can also pick up allies. You can fling them over a group of enemies. This will give them a better hiding spot. Or your Ship Doctor, she can create one hiding spot out of thin air. Or your navigator, she can stop time for one enemy, allowing you to easy sneak by. And your ship cook can throw a special doll. This doll allows him to teleport to that location. He does this as soon as you click the button. Oh, and if you place that doll on an enemy, it sticks to that enemy.
You might be annoyed that I somewhat spoiled things in the above paragraph. But I have only told the tip of the iceberg here. I have left out several characters in that little summary and they have mindblowing abilities as well. Each map is created in such a way that it doesn’t really matter which characters you take into battle. Since you can finish it using any of your characters.
The Swansong of Mimimi
When Klamath and I started streaming Commandos, I wanted to play a similar game. One I haven’t played through. Since I first started playing through Desperados III again, and that was beaten in a few days. Since, I really enjoyed Desperados III, I bought the next game from the studio.
As somebody who enjoyed Desperados III quite a lot, I was happy to see things return in this game. I can’t tell you how much I love the speed up button. While I wish you can adjust the speed of it… The slow wait can be annoying. Sometimes, you have to get an enemy right where you want them. On top of that, you also have the showdown mode. With the press of a button, you can stop time and plan out your units their next move. Once you press the enter key, either still in showdown mode or not, the actions will be executed. It still feels amazing when you execute a well timed attack to take out difficult set of enemies.
Something that’s extremely useful is how you can rotate the camera in this game. Sometimes an enemy walks behind a building or some rocks… So, if you can’t rotate the camera, you wonder from where you are taking damage. Also, the ability of outlining the enemies, ladders and hiding spots help with that as well. As you can see from my screenshots, I always play with that feature enabled.
Sadly, there are a few ladders that don’t get an outline. Most likely since the developers forgot to put a certain tag on them. I remember one in Angler’s Grave, at the top right. It’s not too far from one of the mission objectives, the informant. Thankfully, these very minor oversights rarely happen. Overall, this game is extremely solid and blast to play through.
The controls are extremely solid. I had to get used to one thing. To execute certain actions, I had to hold the left mouse button instead of just clicking. This sometimes tripped me up but a quick reload fixed that problem. I only have one minor complaint about the controls. Depending on the camera angle, there were rare moments where your character refused to go to a location. I suspect it has to do with where you click. Your unit always wants to look for the shortest way to reach where you click. Sadly, this trips something up in the pathfinding and your unti refuses to go to their destination. Thankfully, a quick camera movement can fix these moments. And also, I’m glad that these moments are quite rare.
Something that’s even more rare are some minor visual bugs that can happen sometimes. Sometimes an UI-element refuses to dissapear. I had that happen twice, when I shot an enemy holding down an exit rift with the Canoness. The stars indicated that the enemy was dizzy. They hovered above the enemy’s head after the rift opened. Even after I killed the enemy, these stars remained visible. There are sometimes minor visual bugs happening like that. Thankfully, they are extremely rare and sometimes are quite funny. One time, one of my units was standing perpendicular on a ladder when I stopped it going up the ladder. The only annoying bug was that I couldn’t retrieve two bodies. They lay in a remote part of Angler’s Grave. It was almost impossible to get rid of two bodies. Maybe, it’s possible. I don’t know, I honestly gave up and earned the badge of hiding bodies on a later revist.
In such a big game it’s to be expected that sometimes things can go wrong. But it surprises me how little goes wrong and how polished the overall game is. Scrolling through the patch notes of this game, I noticed that the developers fixed many issues. They also added a lot of new content to the game. The last update to the game was even a modding tool for this game. These mods go from chaging your character models to adding new maps. I think I’ll play around with the mods after I have fully beaten the game. I’m extremely close, since I’m in the final missions of the game.
Now, earlier I talked about the UI. The UI is quite easy and helpful. There are several unique icons to inform you where certain things are. For example, where you left the paper doll when using the ship cook. There is only one thing in the UI I dislike. And that’s the list of save games. You get a little screenshot of the location of the save and a time stamp. And that’s it. You can’t give a special name or note to them. So if you are looking for a certain save… you either need to make notes OR just go through all them until you het it.
It’s the only real complaint I can give about this game. There is just a lot that this game does right. Like how you can scroll to zoom in or out. When you scroll again at the max zoom level, you see a live map. This map shows where all the enemies are. The only minor complaint I have about the map is that ammo chests aren’t marked on there. Also, quick note on the ammo chests… Almost every character has the same visual for their gun. Now, if another visual appears above the ammo chest, it doesn’t matter. The ammo chests are never character specific.
Visually, this game looks breathtaking. The attention to detail in this world gets a big thumbs up from me. The world really feels alive and somewhat real. The little animation details for example when an enemy stops at a prison cell to talk to inmates… This is just amazing. The immersion level is even higher with that.
The soundtrack is very catchy and a joy to listen to. It made certain moments in the game even more thrilling. The music has been created by Filippo Beck Peccoz, he also created the music for Desperados III. The soundtrack really fits the game like a glove. I’m so glad I bought the soundtrack DLC,. Now I can add the music to my music library to play while I’m at my dayjob.
This brings me to the sound design of this game. The sound design of this game is amazing. I’m playing this game with a good headset and I don’t think this game is playable without sound effects. A great example is, when you get spotted. You not only get a great visual hint of a yellow line turning red of the enemy spotting you… You also get some sound effects informing you that things are about to go down. On top of that, the sound effects add so much extra impact on taking down enemies. This makes it even more rewarding when you finally take down that one pesky enemy.
One thing I haven’t talked about yet is how flexible this game is. I have touched upon that by talking about how you can only choose three out of 8 characters per mission. And you are encouraged to experiment with different combinations. Now, when you open the options menu, you’ll be blown away. You can change almost everything. The controls like the shortcuts for abilities can be tweaked to your liking. You have quite a lot of control to tweak the volumes, the controls, the visuals… Even tweak certain game mechanics to your liking. Don’t like the save reminder? You can turn that off.
There is still another thing that boggles my mind that was added in this game. You can create a custom difficulty. The only complaint I have there is that the UI fails to explain the differences. I find it challenging to understand all the settings. You get a short explaination about the setting, and then you have a slider you can set. But, what’s the difference between 1 and 2 on the slider? That’s something the UI doesn’t really tell.
When I was writing this article, I kept looking at my notes and thought: “Oh, I forgot about that.”. There are just so many things in this game. The fact that in some missions, you must kill enemies in unique ways. In one mission, you have to lure enemies to a certain location. You need to do this 4 times. You do this instead of killing them. It’s a breath of fresh air. You’d think that having only a handful of maps would make this game boring and repetitive, but no. The maps are not only large but also used in extremely interesting ways. Revisits of a map make it easier to start, but each area is used in a mission. So, there is still a lot of challenge in the revisits.
Oh, there is one more thing. The question if you should buy the DLC’s or not. Let me just tell you this, I bought the game on sale with the DLC’s included. I’m so happy I did! Since the additional content in the DLC’s adds so much more to this game. They come highly recommended.
Now, I have left out a few things for you all to find while playing this game. This article is already getting quite long. I want to leave some things as a surprise for people interested in playing this game. I think it’s high time to wrap up this review and give my conclusion and final thoughts on this game.
Conclusion of this treasure hunt
The negatives:
-Unable to add notes to quick saves. -Some minor (visual) glitches can happen. Thankfully, they are rare and rarely/never gamebreaking. -The UI of custom difficulty could have been executed better.
The positives:
+ A masterclass in it’s genre in terms of gameplay. + Extremely flexible with options. + A modding tool. + A love-able cartoony story. + Amazing voice over work. + Superb soundtrack. + …
Final thoughts:
When I started playing Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, I had extremely high expectations. Mimimi blew me away with the amazing Desperados III. With this swansong of a game, they not only met my expectations, they blew them out of the water. This game showcases the achievements of passionate people. These individuals are dedicated to creating the game they love.
It didn’t take long before I fell in love with the cast of this game. The charm drew me into the world of this game. Apart from some minor things, it’s hard to find things to critique about this game. The only thing I can critique are small bugs that barely impact the gameplay of this game. This game really feels like a finished product and it’s a thrill ride from start to finish.
If you really want to find things this game does wrong… You’ll either need to be extremely nitpicky or just have the game not clicking with you. If you find this game too easy or too difficult, just tweak the setttings to your playstyle and voila.
If you enjoy games like Commandos or Desperados… You’d do yourself a disservice to not check out this game. Give the demo of this game a try, and see what you think. I wouldn’t be surprised that this game sinks it’s hook into you like it did with me.
It’s a shame to see that this game studio closes. Thank you to everybody who worked on this amazing title and I hope to meet your work in other games. This final game you all created together is a real piece of art. It’s a masterclass in game development and shows how well you know the community for games like this. I’m so happy that this game exists. Since it wouldn’t surprise me that I’ll play through this game several times now.
Before I ramble on and on about this game, I think it’s high time I wrap up this article. Otherwise, I’ll keep praising this game to high heavens and back. So, with that said, I have said close to everything I wanted to say about this game. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then… Have a great rest of your day and take care!
I know that I’m extremely late when it comes to the Palworld hype. Palworld released in early January 2024 and currently, since there aren’t a lot of updates dropping, the hype died out. Yet, the roadmap looks extremely promising. Since this game is still in early access, I’m always hesitant in writing about the game. Since, you never know which mechanics or things will change and evolve during the early access period. Especially since we are currently only at v0.1.5.1. So, I decided to hold off on my first impression/review article for now. But, I wanted to talk about this game. So, here are some things I’d love to see in the full version of Palworld or even in one of the next updates.
First of all, what is a Palworld?
Palworld is a combination of several games, all thrown into one. It’s easy to describe Palworld with saying which games it combines.
Foremost, at its core, it’s a game you can somewhat compare to Ark Survival Evolved. When I first started playing, I noticed the similarities right away. The way how you have a crafting system to build your base, and you have monsters running around you can tame/catch is totally here as well.
I haven’t played a lot of Ark, so I can’t say if this mechanic is also present in Ark… But, the fact you can use your monsters to preform tasks in your base reminded me quite a lot of The Survivalists. A game where you are stranded on an island, and you can train monkeys to preform actions for you. The big difference is that now certain monsters can only preform certain tasks, instead of the monkeys just copying you.
Now, a lot of other articles describe this game as Pokémon with guns. After playing this game, I think that’s a somewhat unfair comparison. When I think Pokémon, I think a journey with gyms and an evil team. I think turn based battles and a big ending tournament as its conclusion. While some Pals share a very similar design language to some Pokémon, most of the mechanics of what makes a Pokémon game aren’t in this game. The other big mechanic is the capture mechanic, but by now this isn’t exclusive to Pokémon games anymore. Especially since we have games like Coromon.
There are also influences of the latest Zelda games. Especially Tears of the Kingdom. There are these huge, strong bosses roaming around on the huge open world map, you can beat at any time. Also, the korok seeds to upgrade your character are also here in the form of effigies and Pal souls to upgrade your monsters.
This game really feels like the developers looked at all the games they liked playing, looked at what worked and threw it all together into one pot and shook it until it all clicked together. The mechanics of this game really click extremely well together. If I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t be surprised if I said that this was a finished game.
There are some silly bugs here and there and in some spots, this game feels unfinished. But, overall the game we have currently is amazing and if you would enjoy a game like this after reading what I wrote here… Give this game a try. I only told you the most basic things in this game. This game is a survival game with elements from a lot of other games like those I have already mentioned but also Minecraft, Dragon Quest Builders and various others.
Let’s talk improvements
While the game is a lot of fun to play at the moment, there are some things I wish that were improved or updated. While you get a lot of warnings that there are: save corruption bugs, crashes and bugs… Besides sometimes the lighting engine giving up for a moment or the AI of the pals or enemies doing some funky stuff, I haven’t seen too many worrying things.
Take for example this floating rock screenshot here. I have explored roughly half of the map after 35 hours of play, and this was the only floating rock I could find. That’s extremely impressive, especially since if you look at the size of the map… It isn’t small at all. In the future, new islands and area’s will be added so if they deliver them with this kind of quality, I have no complaints.
Well, I do have one recommendation. I’d love to see more landmarks in the map. Currently, almost all the landmarks in the game are based upon the terrain. I’d love to see more villages or ruins of them. I loved finding these things in the Zelda games and letting my mind wonder what happened there. It’s a very difficult balance act, since too many landmarks would make the map feel crowded and limit the amount of possible base locations.
Basically, I’d love more reasons for me to go exploring these regions and get unique rewards. Besides completing the Paldex, there isn’t a lot of reason to go exploring in certain area’s. And when you have set up the right kind of farms and work stations for your pals in your bases, the chance you run out of resources is rather small.
Speaking about bases, currently you can only have three bases. Most likely, this is done to improve the multiplayer performance. Since, the game emulates the three bases in the background, so you can easily have a base close to big ore clusters to farm those while you are working in your other base. If you don’t place a cap on those, it’ll tank the performance of any computer or server. Yet, I’d give the tools to the player to increase the cap. Personally, I think Minecraft has one of the best systems with the game rules. You can almost change anything to your playstyle and even disable or remove caps that are there for performance reasons. You already have quite a lot of toggles and sliders in Palworld, but I’d also expand on that.
Currently, the building system is decent, but it needs a lot of polishing up. The biggest problem I have with the building system are the stairs. It’s a nightmare sometimes to place stairs to go from one to another floor. Also, why can’t we place a full wall next to stairs? Most likely because some pals their hitbox would do some crazy stuff? Also, placing certain items or crafting stations on elevated floors doesn’t always work the best.
On top of that, besides the visual look of the floors, walls and ceilings, what’s the point of being able to unlock stone foundations? As a test, I tried to build a high tower with wood and one with stone. I didn’t find a difference. I’d love to see more meaning to what I unlock. Granted, stone can’t burn down. So, if you have any raids with flamethrower or fire enemies, your base isn’t in danger. But what’s the difference between stone and metal, then?
I honestly think that it’d be a bad idea if PocketPair only created more content and not make the mechanics have more depth. For example, something I’d love to see them implementing in the pal task system is a mechanic I love in Cult of the Lamb. When you welcome a new member in your cult, you can set the main focus of a member there. I’d love to see that you are able to set the main focus per pal. For example, when things are damaged in the base after a raid, you select one pal to go and get the repair kits and repair all damages first before going to do their usual tasks. Or when you have a pal that can do multiple things, and you mostly need that pal to pick up items, you could disable their other abilities. Maybe we need some items for that and those items can be only found in the wild, and we need to hunt for them. That’s an interesting idea to lure players out of their bases.
Dreaming like a madman
There are some UI elements I’d love to see change as well. First, I’d love to have a mini-map. The compass at the top of the screen only shows things in roughly 300m range, and that’s too short. Especially since in some areas the warp spots are spread quite far apart. A mini-map where you can pin certain things like the nearest warp spot would be amazing.
Secondly, in terms of the weapons. I’d love to see their stats before I craft them. Now it’s a guessing game that if I craft a certain weapon, if it’s going to be stronger or better than the one I currently have. It’d also be amazing if the durability is shown outside the inventory as well. There is some space in the UI element at the bottom right, so why not show it?
Now, in terms of the inventory. Sometimes I have issues with combining stacks of items. Sometimes I have to do it twice or thrice before they are combined. This is a rather small things, but outside of those… I don’t have a lot of small quality of life things that I could recommend. Maybe that if you sleep during the day in your bed, you can skip to night if you are hunting the nightlife pals?
Maybe there is one quality of life feature I think would be amazing. Quite often, when I’m hunting the stronger pals, I have my pal instructions set on “Focus on the same enemy”. I think it would have an amazing option if you have a feature where you are able to say to your pal if they are allowed to kill the wild pal or not. Since, if they are dead, you can’t capture them.
There is one attack that is a double-edged sword. In the Pokémon games, you have the self-destruct attack. You also have this one in Palworld, yet, some wild pals with this attack always take it over their other attacks. These bee pals always swarm me and instead of being able to weaken them, so I can catch them, I just get blown up. You barely have a chance to do any damage to weaken them to make capturing possible.
I just remembered one other quality of life feature. You can create saddles, gloves and other things to do special things with your pals. But, why I am allowed to create more than one? I mean, I can only use one of them at a time and they can be interchanged. So, if you make a saddle for a certain bird pal e.g. Helzephyr, that means you can use it on all Helzephyrs you catch.
But the biggest quality of life feature PocketPair could add is a mini-map inside caves/dungeons. The times I almost got lost in these caves is insane. Especially since there are only a handful of rooms in these and it’s easy to get turned around and confused.
Now, to completely change the subject… I wish there was more music in the game. The soundtrack in this game is amazing. Sadly, there isn’t enough in the game at the moment, so there are some silent moments. A little bit more ambient tracks would go a really long way in this game.
But, I saved one of my biggest things for last. That is inventory management. This is a total pain in bases. Since pals can put things inside chests, you can forget organisation. Thankfully, while crafting, the game pulls from all resources in your base, but if you need a certain item to use at another base, have fun to go searching through all your chests. What I usually do, if I can, is start crafting an item with the one I want to move and then cancel it. Since it drops the resources then and there. Now, how to solve this without breaking the game and the idea that pals can put things in chests? What if you have a new skill that pals can have? An organisation skill and depending on the level, they either put red things with red things or make a weapons chest and come to complain to you when there aren’t enough chests for their organisation?
If your base is fully set up, the proper of a lack of depth starts to show as well. When you build your base, why should you return to it besides needing to craft or repair your weapons? Give us some activities we can do in our base when we build them. I mean come on, we even have the amusement furniture set. If only we could play some mini-games with our pals to increase their sanity for example? Since currently, there is not a lot you can do when a pal is stressed.
Of course, a certain balance needs to be maintained. The more things a pal can interact with, the more chance you have to create lag or overwhelm the player. Also, the more depth you create, the more things you have to maintain and maybe that’s not the type of game that PocketPair wants to create. How I currently see Palworld is a playground sandbox in the schoolyard. It’s an amazing playground where you can make your own fun but it’s only part of the schoolyard and only has a swing, some monkey bars, a climb rack, a small castle and a slide. It’s all solid built and amazing to spend your time in… But, then you notice the potential this sandbox has to grow. What if we enlarged that sandbox with another castle, so the multiplayer can be player vs player as well? Or wait, why don’t we add an underground to that sandbox?
All I’m saying is that currently Palworld has an amazing foundation. The biggest issue at the moment is that the game lacks depth. While the current roadmap has a lot of expansions and more content, I hope PocketPair doesn’t forget to also make it more than just surface level. For example, imagne that the raid bosses can be captured and barely have an unique skills. Why should the player do the raids then? What reward do you get out of it? Not all mechanics can be fun because they are enjoyable to do. Players will get bored and they will look for a way to spice things up or to challenge themselves.
Now what that said, I’m going to close off this article. I’m quite excited for the future of Palworld and I’m going to wait a few more updates before I decide to write a review on the game. But overall, I’m really liking what I see. The basis of an amazing title is here already and I think we are going to get an even better game when this comes out of early access. Let’s wait and see what happens when the first big updates drop. Especially the raid bosses that got teased a few weeks ago.
Thank you so much for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. What do you think of PalWorld and what should be added or changed? Let me know in the comment section down below. Also, what do you think of my idea’s? I’m curious, feel free to leave a comment about that one to. But, I also hope to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.
Technology has made it easy for people to focus on preventive healthcare by offering them a vast range of options in the market. This is critical for dentists to market and manage their operations to attract new customers and retain the existing ones.
However, they can use high-end tools and technology to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. If you are a modern dentist, you have got to be ahead of your competitors to set a benchmark that embodies the credibility of your services.
Well, obviously, you are already looking for digital applications to manage your tasks, and that is the reason why you have landed on this page, right? So, in this article, you will learn about the most effective applications every dentist can use.
Before we jump to the list, here is a quick reminder to ensure you have an uber-fast internet connection that enables you to use the application and benefit from it most aptly.
If you prefer WiFi, then make sure you invest in a credible and trustworthy internet connection, such as Cox. With around 4 million WiFi hotspots, it has to be your go-to choice for your internet needs. And if you are Spanish, you may navigate Cox en español to get more information. Anyway, let’s discuss the apps for dentists in detail.
Solutionreach
For dentists, like every service provider, there is a lasting need for engaging customers and effectively catering to their needs. In that regard, they must have their customer’s information on their tips.
This information allows dentists to understand how to go about a patient, when it is needed to take a follow-up, and how to make it convenient for the patients to find the information they are searching for on a dentist’s website.
Gone are the days when dentists would make manual repositories of customer information in their journals. Applications like Solutionreach nowadays have become a hand tool to keep a check on customers’ information.
Solutionreach is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that keeps information about the customers and provides insights into the patient’s data. For example, it comprises features, like automated call reminders, appointment reminders, online scheduling, two-way texting, and more.
TrayMinder
TrayMinder is an app most useful for patients but it helps dentists in ensuring their treatment is effective. Developed by a seasoned orthodontist, TrayMinder is an app that reminds users to wear their aligners. It automatically circulates the average wear time and enables the users to take pictures to document their progress.
So, dentists must ensure they make their patients download TrayMinder if they take aligner therapy. Moreover, by ensuring the patients wear aligners for the required time, you can make sure they get better results with little to no need for refinements.
iDental Soft
iDental Soft, which came out in 2010, is one of the best cloud-best dental practice management software which features both clinical and business parts. For example, it offers online registrations and appointments whereby the patients fill out a form on Kiosk, on a tablet at the facility, or online through patient portals.
Then, the managers are alerted to review the form. An email is sent from the program of the patient’s profile which is ultimately tracked.
The application also sends automated reminders on appointments once the emails are sent. Overall, its features include smart scheduling, patient communication, an online intake portal, reputation management, credit card processing, electronic dental forms, and more.
DDS GP
DDS GP has 200+ demonstrations of diseases and treatments, which dentists can use to communicate with patients the dental issues and treatment plans. Moreover, they can also use the images of conditions to show what will happen if they avoid periodontal at the early stages.
Dental Expert
For dentists, it is a difficult task to explain jargon and complex terms in simple words for laymen. But don’t need to worry anymore, as Dental Expert is here for the rescue. This application explains dental problems and treatments in plain words, enabling patients to understand before they go under an expensive or complicated treatment.
Bottom Line
Whether you want to streamline your tasks or engage patients, you need applications to achieve your goals. Check out some of the applications mentioned above to complete your tasks smoothly and effectively.
Propaganda poster by Ed Reibsamen with a little help from Midjourney
Article by Aragorn Eloff
There’s been a lot written lately about the so-called TESCREAList ideology that is currently hegemonic in the Silicon Valley tech circles frequented by people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. TESCREAL stands for transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism and longtermism – terms that are probably at least intuitively familiar. Reading recent critical descriptions of this facile, elitist ideology, which is driving a lot of the hype around machine learning, I’m struck by how familiar it all seems. Listening to a podcast on 60s psychedelia on my run this morning, it suddenly all made sense.
It turns out you can trace a pretty direct line back from TESCREAL ‘philosophers’ like Kurzweil and Bostrom to Wired magazine and the extropians mailing list, and from there to the legendary Mondo2000 magazine – a 90s tech-enthusiast counterculture publication from California put together by old sixties heads enthused by nascent technologies like the web, VR and ‘nootropics’. Indeed, 1992’s Mondo 2000: A User’s Guide to the New Edge, a gorgeous typographic mess of glossy 3d graphics and paeans to the coming techno-singularity, feels almost like a secret peek into the TESCREAL gang’s wildest fantasies, although regulars like Douglas Rushkoff, Mark Dery and Bruce Sterling were admittedly far more interesting than the current dreck. Mondo 2000 was, in turn, the successor to the less glossy High Frontiers and Reality Hackers, 80s publications that mixed cyberpunk and surrealism with phone phreaking and experimental music. And then, of course, there was the psychedelic enthusiasm, particularly the strong echoes of one Timothy Leary.
As a diligent student at the Hofmann and McKenna school for young dropouts in the early 90s, I devoured all the Tim Leary books I could get my hands on. Classics like Psychedelic Prayers, High Priest and The Psychedelic Experience, but also an oddly singular text titled Neuropolitics: The Sociobiology of Human Metamorphosis, published in 1977. The book was written while Leary was languishing in jail for his psychedelics advocacy, and marks a shift in attention away from LSD and towards quintessentially TESCREAList topics like space migration, life extension and so forth. Indeed, Tim essentially argues in the book that by the year 2000 we’ll all be immortals travelling through space and indulging in increasingly exotic pleasures while expanding our intelligence using computers and smart drugs. As a useful heuristic, he coined some acronyms that are particularly revealing: SMI2LE (Space Migration, Intelligence Increase, Life Extension), HOME (High Orbit Mini-Earths) and HEAD (Hedonic Engineering And Design).
Essentially then, Tim Leary, psychologist and psychedelics guru, synthesised a fairly significant chunk of the philosophy that would become TESCREALism while sitting in his prison cell, undoubtedly fantasizing about the great outdoors and all the experiences he was missing out on. My fellow students and I also spent a fair amount of time in the early 90s learning how to SMI2LE and use our HEADs while gazing up into the stars waiting for our new HOMEs to be ready. In retrospect it was in large part a naive fantasy fueled in no insignificant part by prodigious consumption of 5-HT2A receptor agonists.
There is a grain of intuitive truth to Leary’s dreams, of course -—we could and should try to enrich life in whatever way we can – but when divorced from the messiness of real life in all its social, political and ecological complexities, SMI2LE, like TESCREALism (and, yes, like Fully Automated Luxury Communism) is the kind of indulgent hopium that’s fine, perhaps even vital, when you’re 16, but probably not when you’re a billionaire with immense economic and political power seeking to enact your juvenile fantasies at the expense of the rest of the world. More importantly though, the TESCREALists are far, far more boring than Leary and the Mondo crowd. We could do a lot better.
Aragorn Eloff is an experimental musician and long-time wanderer through the counterculture. He is based in South Africa, where he is currently working on a PhD on the philosophy of psychedelics. He writes on anarchism, embodied cognition and the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari.
EA Play: EA Sports FC 24 Joins the Play List This June, As Well as New Rewards
Charlie Fortescue, Director, Global Corporate Communications, EA
This month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Game Pass PC members get to experience life on the pitch and the fast line with two amazing offers as part of EA Play! Bring the world’s game and the thrilling UEFA Euro 2024 tournament home with EA Sports FC 24, and then strap in and try to take down Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, and other Formula 1 drivers with an early access trial to EA Sports F1 24. Learn more about both titles below.
EA Sports FC 24
Get ready to explore a new era of The World’s Game with EA Sports FC 24! The next chapter in the most innovative future of football is coming to the Play List on June 25 for all EA Play+ members.
In EA Sports FC 24, players can experience the ground-breaking realism delivered by HyperMotion V (on Xbox Series X|S), resulting in true-to-football movement and animations. The enhanced Frostbite Engine introduces lifelike detail, reinventing how 19,000+ fully licensed players move, play and look in every match. In addition, EA Sports FCfeatures over 700 teams and 30 leagues, including the UEFA Men’s and Women’s Champions League, CONMEBOL Libertadores, Premier League, Barclays Women’s Super League, LaLiga EA Sports, Bundesliga, D1 Arkema, NWSL, and many more.
To celebrate the game’s addition to the Play List, EA Play members will be able to build out their dream squad with the EA Sports FC 24Supercharge Pack (see terms), offering players Football Ultimate Team content.
EA Sports F1 24
Be one of the 20 in EA Sports F1 24. Join the grid and drive like the greatest for five full hours with EA Play’s early access trial starting now.
The official video game of the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship, EA Sports F1 24 features an overhauled Career mode, the all-new EA Sports Dynamic Handling, a new broadcast presentation package and cutscenes that add to the race day immersion, actual driver audio samples taken from F1 broadcasts and much more. Play as your hero and build on their existing stats and reputation, bring back legendary icons from the past to continue their F1 legacy, or play as yourself and climb the ranks as an F1 or F2 rookie.
June Rewards
Apex Legends Golden Blade Weapon Charm – Now to July 1
Battlefield 2042MCS-880 skin “Thermal Coal” – Now to June 25
EA Sports FC 24Clubs Trophy Right Arm Tattoo – Now to July 18
EA Sports FC 24Volta Germany Wig and Coins – Now to July 18
EA Sports FC 24 24 Ultimate Team Draft Token – Now to July 14
Madden NFL 24 MUT June Pack – Now to June 30
EA Sports WRCSeason 5 Rewards – Now to July 30
NHL 24 Chelwave Set – Now to July 17
NHL 24 WOC Coins – Now to July 17
NHL 24 WOC Battle Pass XP Modifier – Now to July 17
EA Sports F1 23 5000 XP Boost – Now to June 30
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Game Pass PC members receive EA Play with their Game Pass subscription. Members enjoy great player benefits, including in-game challenges and rewards, special member-only content, trials of select new games such as EA Sports UFC 5 and EA Sports WRC, and access to a collection of EA’s best-loved series and top titles, including the recently added Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and EA Sports PGA Tour.
Fortnite has grown its fanbase to millions over the years with heaps of merch to choose from! One of the best ways to show your dedication to the game is to adorn your walls with posters and wall hangings. There are so many to choose from, but luckily for you we have collated the best 13 Fortnite posters in 2024. Check them out in our ranked list below!
This high-quality print shows the Fortnite Battle Bus against a serene sunset. The red, pink, and yellow hues certainly make that classic blue Fortnite bus pop! You can choose from a framed or unframed style, and in multiple sizes between 8″x10″ to 24″x36″. Every poster is printed in high resolution using waterproof ink onto poster canvas to ensure durability. This means you can have this poster on your wall for years to come! Now, don’t forget to thank the bus driver before you leave.
With a huge fanbase and years of games behind it, the Call of Duty franchise has some of the best merch available. If you are looking for a gift for a COD fan or just to treat yourself then look no further. We have 13 of the best Call of Duty shirts available to buy right now. Check out our ranked list below!
We are starting off with a standard fit, classic green camo shirt with a Call of Duty logo. If you know someone who can’t get enough of the exciting shooter and also looks great in green, then this could be the perfect gift. The crew-necked, short-sleeved t-shirt comes in sizes small to XXL to suit most body types. It is produced in quality 100% cotton so it is fully machine washable.
You can’t jump into a Battle Royale without the right kit so we have a selection of the best shirts you can wear while playing Fortnite. From the cool to the absurd, these are the top 13 funniest Fortnite shirts to check out this year!
A super a-PEEL-ing shirt featuring the iconic banana himself. This short-sleeved Peely t-shirt is 100% cotton and fully machine washable! It comes in a range of sizes suitable for any adult Fortnite fan from small to 5XL. The soft, comfortable shirt is styled in this smart light gray color with a large graphic print of the Fortnite logo with our little yellow guy sitting atop the F. Perfect for lounging around as you play or wearing to a family brunch.
JEDEC and the Open Compute Project rolled out a new set of guidelines for standardizing chiplet characterization details, such as thermal properties, physical and mechanical requirements, and behavior specs. Those details have been a sticking point for commercial chiplets, because without them it’s not possible to choose the best chiplet for a particular application or workload. The guidelines are a prerequisite for a multi-vendor chiplet marketplace.
AMD, Broadcom, Cisco, Google, HPE, Intel, Meta, and Microsoft proposed a new high-speed, low-latency interconnect specification, Ultra Accelerator Link (UALink), between accelerators and switches in AI computing pods. The 1.0 specification will enable the connection of up to 1,024 accelerators within a pod and allow for direct loads and stores between the memory attached to accelerators.
Armdebuted a range of new CPUs, including the Cortex-X925 for on-device generative AI, and the Cortex-A725 with improved efficiency for AI and mobile gaming. It also announced the Immortalis-G925 GPU for flagship smartphones, and the Mali-G725/625 GPUs for consumer devices. Additionally, Arm announced Compute Subsystems (CSS) for Client to provide foundational computing elements for AI smartphone and PC SoCs, and it introduced KleidiAI, a set of compute kernels for developers of AI frameworks. The Armv9-A architecture also added support for the Scalable Matrix Extension to accelerate AI workloads.
TSMC said its 2nm process is on target to begin mass production in 2025. Meanwhile, Samsung is expected to release its 1nm plan next month, targeting mass production for 2026 — a year ahead of schedule, reports Business Korea.
CHIPs for America and NATCAST released a 2024 roadmap for the U.S. National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), identifying priorities for facilities, research, workforce development, and membership.
China is investing CNY 344 billion (~$47.5 billion) into the third phase of its National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known as the Big Fund, to support its semiconductor sector and supply chain, according to numerous reports.
Malaysiaplans to invest $5.3 billion in seed capital and support for semiconductor manufacturing in an effort to attract more than $100 billion in foreign investments, reports Reuters. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced the effort to create at least 10 companies focused on IC design, advanced packaging, and equipment manufacturing.
imec demonstrated a die-to-wafer hybrid bonding flow for Cu-Cu and SiCN-SiCN at pitches down to 2µm at the IEEE’s ECTC conference. This breakthrough could enable die and wafer-level optical interconnects.
The chip industry is racing to develop glass for advanced packaging, setting the stage for one of the biggest shifts in chip materials in decades — and one that will introduce a broad new set of challenges that will take years to fully resolve.
STMicroelectronics is building a fully integrated SiC facility in Catania, Italy. The high-volume 200mm facility is projected to cost over $5 billion.
Siliconware Precision Industries Co. Ltd.(SPIL) broke ground on an RM 6 billion (~$1.3 billion) advanced packaging and testing facility in Malaysia. Also, Google will invest $2 billion in Malaysia for its first data center, and a Google Cloud hub to meet growing demand for cloud services and AI literacy programs, reports AP.
In an SEC filing, Applied Materials received additional subpoenas from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (DoC) Bureau of Industry and Security related to shipments of advanced semiconductor equipment to China. This comes on the heels of similar subpoenas issued last year.
A Chinese contractor working for SK hynix was arrested in SouthKorea and is being charged with funneling more than 3,000 copies of a paper on solving process failure issues to Huawei, reports South Korea’s Union News.
VSORA, CEA-Grenoble, and Valeo were awarded $7 million from the French government to build low-latency, low-power AI inference co-processors for autonomous driving and other applications.
In the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating unexpected driving behaviors of vehicles equipped with Waymo‘s 5th Generation automated driving system (ADS), with details of nine new incidents on top of the first 22.
Product News
ASE introduced powerSIP, a power delivery platform designed to reduce signal and transmission loss while addressing current density challenges.
Infineon announced a roadmap for energy-efficient power supply units based on Si, SiC, and GaN to address the energy needs of AI data centers, featuring new 8 kW and 12 kW PSUs, in addition to the 3 kW and 3.3 kW units available today. The company also released its CoolSiC MOSFET 400 V family, specially developed for use in the AC/DC stage of AI servers, complementing the PSU roadmap.
Fig. 1: Infineon’s 8kW PSU. Source: Infineon
Infineon also introduced two new generations of high voltage (HV) and medium voltage (MV) CoolGaN TM devices, enabling customers to use GaN in voltage classes from 40 V to 700 V. The devices are built using Infineon’s 8-inch foundry processes.
Ansyslaunched Ansys Access on Microsoft Azure to provide pre-configured simulation products optimized for HPC on Azure infrastructure.
Foxconn Industrial Internetused Keysight Technology’s Open RAN Studio solution to certify an outdoor Open Radio Unit (O-RU).
Andes Technologyannounced an SoC and development board for the development and porting of large RISC-V applications.
MediaTekuncorked a pair of mobile chipsets built on a 4nm process that use an octa-core CPU consisting of 4X Arm Cortex-A78 cores operating at up to 2.5GHz paired with 4X Arm Cortex-A55 cores.
The NVIDIA H200 Blackwell platform is expected to begin shipping in Q3 of 2024 and will be available to data centers by Q4, according to TrendForce.
A room-temperature direct fusion hybrid bonding system from Be Semiconductor has shipped to the NHanced advanced packaging facility in North Carolina. The new system offers faster throughput for copper interconnects with submicron pad sizes, greater accuracy and reduced warpage.
Markets and Money
Frore Systemsraised $80 million for its solid-state active cooling module, which removes heat from the top of a chip without fans. The device in systems ranging from notebooks and network edge gateways to data centers.
Axus Technologyreceived $12.5 million in capital equity funding to make its chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) equipment for semiconductor wafer polishing, thinning, and cleaning, including of silicon carbide (SiC) wafers.
Elon Musk’s xAI announced a series B funding round of $6 billion.
Micron was ordered to pay $445 million in damages to Netlist for patent infringement of the company’s DDR4 memory module technology between 2021 and 2024.
Global revenue from AI semiconductors is predicted to total $71 billion in 2024, up 33% from 2023, according to Gartner. In 2025, it is expected to jump to $91.9 billion. The value of AI accelerators used in servers is expected to total $21 billion in 2024 and reach $33 billion by 2028.
NAND flash revenue was $14.71 billion in Q1 2024, an increase of 28.1%, according to TrendForce.
The optical transceiver market dipped from $11 billion in 2022 to $10.9 billion in 2023, but it is predicted to reach $22.4 billion by 2029, driven by AI, 800G applications, and the transition to 200G/lane ecosystem technologies, reports Yole.
Yole also found that ultra-wideband technical choices and packaging types used by NXP, Apple, and Qorvo vary considerably, ranging from 7nm to 90nm, with both CMOS and finFET transistors.
The global market share of GenAI-capable smartphones increased to 6% in Q1 2024 from 1.3% in the previous quarter, reports Counterpoint. The premium segment accounted for over 70% of sales with Samsung on top and contributing 58%. Meanwhile, global foldable smartphone shipments were up 49% YoY in Q1 2024, led by Huawei, HONOR, and Motorola.
Security
The National Science Foundation awarded Worcester Polytechnic Institute researcher Shahin Tajik almost $0.6 million to develop new technologies to address hardware security vulnerabilities.
The Hyperform consortium was formed to develop European sovereignty in post-quantum cryptography, funded by the French government and EU credits. Members include IDEMIA Secure Transactions, CEA Leti, and the French cybersecurity agency (ANSSI).
In security research:
University of California Davis and University of Arizona researchers proposed a framework leveraging generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) models to automate the obfuscation process.
Columbia University and Intel researchers presented a secure digital low dropout regulator that integrates an attack detector and a detection-driven protection scheme to mitigate correlation power analysis.
Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) researchers analyzed threshold switch devices and their performance in hardware security.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) seeks proposals for its AI Quantified program to develop technology to help deploy generative AI safely and effectively across the Department of Defense (DoD) and society.
Vanderbilt University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) partnered to develop dependable AI for national security applications.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a number of alerts/advisories.
Research and Training
New York continues to amp up their semiconductor offerings. NY CREATES and Raytheon unveiled a semiconductor workforce training program. And Syracuse University is hosting a free virtual course focused on the semiconductor industry this summer.
In research news:
A team of researchers at MIT and other universities found that extreme temperatures up to 500°C did not significantly degrade GaN materials or contacts.
University of Cambridge researchers developed adaptive and eco-friendly sensors that can be directly and imperceptibly printed onto biological surfaces, such as a finger or flower petal.
Researchers at Rice University and Hanyang University developed an elastic material that moves like skin and can adjust its dielectric frequency to stabilize RF communications and counter disruptive frequency shifts that interfere with electronics when a substrate is twisted or stretched, with potential for stretchable wearable electronic devices.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded $36 million to three projects chosen for their potential to revolutionize computing. The University of Texas at Austin-led project aims to create a next-gen open-source intelligent and adaptive OS. The Harvard University-led project targets sustainable computing. The University of Massachusetts Amherst-led project will develop computational decarbonization.
Quantum
Singapore will invest close to S$300 million (~$222 million) into its National Quantum Strategy to support the development and deployment of quantum technologies, including an initiative to design and build a quantum processor within the country.
Several quantum partnerships were announced:
Riverlane and Alice & Bob will integrate Riverlane’s quantum error correction stack within Alice & Bob’s larger quantum computing system based on cat qubit technology.
New York University and the University of Copenhagen will collaborate to explore the viability of hybrid superconductor-semiconductor quantum materials for the production of quantum chips and integration with CMOS processes.
NXP, eleQtron, and ParityQCshowed off a full-stack, ion-trap based quantum computer demonstrator for Germany’s DLR Quantum Computing Initiative.
Photonic says it demonstrated distributed entanglement between quantum modules using optically-linked silicon spin qubits with a native telecom networking interface as part of a quantum internet effort with Microsoft.
Classiq and HPE say they developed a rapid method for solving large-scale combinatorial optimization problems by combining quantum and classical HPC approaches.
Events and Further Reading
Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:
Event
Date
Location
Hardwear.io Security Trainings and Conference USA 2024
Upcoming webinars are here, including integrated SLM analytics solution, prototyping and validation of perception sensor systems, and improving PCB designs for performance and reliability.
One thing that XDefiant doesn’t lack in is weapons. From small and compact SMGs to devastating sniper rifles, there are tons of different weapons to choose from. With so many weapons in the game, finding the best ones can be a bit difficult.
Luckily, we have created a tier list that ranks the weapons in this game based on how good they are. With the game having just been released, people are still trying out all the weapons in the game and figuring out what’s best. Knowing which weapons are the best will help you take over any lobby you play in.
Gun Tier List
There are a total of 17 unlockable weapons from all the different weapon classes on our tier list. Most of the weapons on the list will have to be unlocked before you can use them. If you haven’t unlocked all the weapons in XDefiant, make sure you check out our article on how to unlock every weapon in XDefiant. With all that being said, here is our tier list for all the weapons in the game.
Starting our list we have the MP7 SMG, which for a lot of people is the best weapon in the game. In terms of overall stats, the MP7 isn’t the best at anything in particular. Instead, it is pretty much good at everything it does. On top of that, it is also pretty easy to get used to, making it an amazing weapon for players of all skill levels.
M870
The M870 in XDefiant fits the most classic definition of a shotgun. It is a pump-action shotgun that pretty much decimates anyone close to you. What separates the M870 from the other shotguns in this game is its consistency. Make sure you avoid long range engagements, as that is pretty much the only weakness of the weapon.
ACR
To finish off the S-tier weapons we have the ACR assault rifle. Unlike the other 2 weapons in the S-tier, the ACR isn’t the best when it comes to short-range combat. It makes up for it though with to its long-range proficiency. It is also the only assault rifle in the game that is very good at all ranges.
A-tier
AK-47
In terms of pure stats, the AK-47 is as good as any assault rifle in the game. The main downside of the gun is its high recoil, which will require you to fire in bursts when fighting from range. Despite that, the AK-47 earns its place in the A-tier due to its high DPS.
P90
The best way to describe the P90 is an SMG with the magazine size of an LMG. Outside LMGs, the P90 has the largest magazine size in the game. Alongside that, the P90 also has decent fire rate and damage. The main thing putting the P90 in the A-tier instead of the S-tier is its slightly lower overall damage than the MP7.
Vector
Another SMG, the Vector is one of the hardest weapons in the game to rank. It has the highest fire rate in the game and more than decent damage to go along with it. The weapon pretty much melts anyone instantly. The Vector falls slightly short of the S-tier mainly due to its low magazine size and slightly hard-to-control recoil.
Double Pump
Like the Vector, the Double Pump shotgun is another weapon that is extremely difficult to rank. While it has the best damage in its class, the Double Pump sometimes feels too inconsistent. This is mainly due to its low ammo capacity and having to reload after firing 2 shells.
B-tier
M249
The M249 overall has pretty average stats, as the damage and fire rate are both OK. LMGs in XDefiant are generally a bit weaker than SMGs and assault rifles. So despite being the highest ranked LMG in this list, the M249 still finds itself in the B-tier. If you do happen to be an LMG enjoyer though, the M249 might be the weapon for you.
MK20SSR
The MK20SSR has everything you would expect from a marksman rifle. For mid to long range engagements, there aren’t many guns better than the MK20SSR. Similar to LMGs though, marksman rifles in XDefiant are overall a weaker class when compared to SMGs or assault rifles. The gun has clear strengths, but it also has glaring weaknesses.
TAC-50
If you are looking for pure damage, then look no further than the TAC-50. This sniper rifle can make quick work of anyone at any range in this game. Just one shot to the chest or head will take down any opponent. This is again a weapon that takes some time getting used to. It rewards good accuracy, but is very punishing if you miss. In the right hands, the TAC-50 is as good as any weapon in the game.
SVD
The SVD is the perfect bridge weapon from the marksman rifle class to the sniper class. In a way, it mixes both and creates a very fun weapon to use. The SVD has lower damage than the snipers in this game, but makes up for it by having a higher rate of fire.
M44
The M44 has the second highest damage in the game for any weapon, right below TAC-50. Like the TAC-50, the M44 is also a bolt-action sniper rifle. If you are looking for a faster firing and less punishing sniper than the TAC-50, then the M44 is the perfect weapon for you.
C-tier
M16
The M16 is the most unique assault rifle in XDefiant. While all the assault rifles in this game are fully automatic, the M16 is instead 3-round burst. For players who want an assault rifle purely for precision, the M16 is a great choice to go for.
M4
The M4 in XDefiant is the perfect definition of “jack of all trades, master of none”. The main strength of the weapon is how easy it is to control. There is minimal recoil and landing multiple shots on one person is very straightforward. It is important to note that the M4 is the starting assault rifle. So even if it is worse than the other rifles, its still usable and everyone has access to it.
MP5
In many ways, the MP5 is just the SMG version of the M4. A perfect starting weapon, but when compared to other weapons in the class, The MP5 falls just a little bit short. It is probably the most flexible weapon in the SMG class, but that doesn’t make up for its much worse performance in short ranged engagements.
D-tier
M60
Finally for the D-tier, we start off with the M60 LMG. The M60 has the highest damage in the class, but at the same time, the lowest fire rate. One positive about the weapon is its huge magazine size. Unfortunately that still doesn’t stop the weapon from landing in the D-tier as its overall damage potential is just too low when compared to other weapons.
RPK
Unsurprisingly, the other D-tier weapon is also an LMG. The RPK in this game has very similar damage to the M249, but with a much lower fire rate. Unlike the other 2 LMGs on this list, the RPK has a faster default reload than the other LMGs as it uses a magazine similar to assault rifles. In most cases this will be a clear advantage, but the game allows you to use a similar magazine when you are using the M249. So there are pretty much no advantages of using the RPK over the M249.
So there you have it, a weapon tier list for XDefiant showcasing the best weapons and the worst weapons. In a competitive shooter like XDefiant, any advantage that you can get is valuable. Knowing which weapons are best will give you a significant advantage over your opponents, helping you win more gun fights.
Mojang has just given players their first official look at Minecraft’s next update – Tricky Trials. Along with the rundown on what to expect, they also gave us a release date of June 13th. With such a short window between now and when we can play it, here are the five changes we anticipate the most for Minecraft’s Tricky Trials update.
Tricky Trial Chambers
Image Source: Mojang Studios
The Trial Chambers are brand-new structures that can be found throughout the world. Not only will they be visually striking being built out of copper blocks, but there will be plenty to do. They’re home to two new mobs and some other challenges, although they didn’t explain what these are. The Trial Chambers will also be filled with traps designed to get in your head and lead you astray.
Tomb Raider has a chartered history, with Lara Croft delving into ruins and tombs all over the world. Overcoming any and all obstacles set in her path, Lara has elevated herself into an exclusive and lauded pantheon of iconic video game protagonists.
It's easy to think of the entire fantasy book genre being aimed at children, but that's just not the case. There are hundreds of fantasy books and series aimed at adults and young adults that will free you from the shackles of grounded reads and help you dream beyond the rules of reality.
I always loved reading fantasy books growing up because they take you away from the mundanity of everyday life. I can't say if the best ones blend real life with their fantasy concepts or not because I genuinely love them all and devoured any sci-fi and fantasy I could get my hands on as a kid. However, there are still plenty of fantasy books to dig into as an adult that you probably didn't come across as a child and make for accessible reads to help you get into the genre.
The best fantasy books for adults
Below, I've listed what I think are the best fantasy books for adults who want to get into the genre or return to it after a long hiatus of living a busy day-to-day work life. I've tried to veer away from anything too niche but also include a few books that are the beginnings of a really engrossing series, just in case you're hooked after the first page and know you need the next dozen novels.
10. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
Image via Amazon
To me, if you're looking to read the best fantasy books for adults, then you can't go wrong with anything from J.R.R. Tolkien. Author of the incredible The Lord of the Rings series, he's got a huge backlog of titles for you to delve into if you adore this universe. However, I'd recommend you begin with The Hobbit.
Unlike the movies, this story is fairly short and to the point but extremely gripping. Where the films drew out everything they could, the book is well-paced and follows the original Hobbit on his unexpected journey across Middle-Earth. During this journey, he encounters all manner of fantasy creatures, establishing the very foundations of everything we know about fantasy today.
Regardless of whether you've seen the movies or not, this is a fantastic starting point for a journey into fantasy. If you love it, you can continue on into The Lord of the Rings and far beyond. You could try the LEGO game if you want to experience the book through a new medium.
9. A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) - George R.R. Martin
Image via Amazon
If The Hobbit didn't exist, A Game of Thrones may be the most well-known fantasy book and TV series of all time. It all begins with this first book, where absolutely everything that could go wrong goes wrong. It's the start of an epic saga that sees one family torn apart by greed, and a world that doesn't know it's about to fall to darkness come closer than is comfortable to complete annihilation.
The story follows the Stark family as they enter into the highest level of society and the fight for the Iron Throne that plays out behind the scenes. No one is safe, not even the king, and there's a threat looming over the world that no one is prepared to even admit exists. Winter.
What I love about this first book in an entire series that could all be the best fantasy books for adults is how well it introduces every character, setting the tone for what's to come. You get to know a colorful cast of genuinely interesting people who have all found themselves somewhere in the royal court that extends around the entire region where it's set. There's political drama on a global and local level and some of the best lines you'll ever read.
Don't go into this if you can't take losing your favorite characters, though. This series as a whole is pretty brutal and will absolutely not hold your hand while you grieve. It delves into the darkest parts of the human heart in a world where power is everything, and you must do whatever you can to seek it.
8. The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) - Stephen King
Image via Amazon
The Gunslinger is the first book in The Dark Tower series, all of which are great fantasy books for adults, but it can be read in isolation and enjoyed without needing to continue through the full set. It follows a lonely character who equates to a fantasy cowboy on a journey of vengeance to find one man. This man has been evading him for a long time and has the ability to twist the minds of those around him, but this cowboy is more than capable of looking after himself.
This book does a fantastic job of setting up the series and makes you fall in love with some really well-realized characters. Everyone the protagonist has a meaningful relationship with becomes a friend to you as the reader, and you end up missing them when the story moves on.
If you like a bit of dark fantasy but not too dark, this is the perfect book for you. It doesn't require you to read all about tentacled monsters and flying whales, but it does invite you into a desolate world that's intrinsically linked to ours and tells a tale of reluctant fatherhood that will have you rooting for everyone involved as they trudge ever onward.
7. Neverwhere (London Below #1) - Neil Gaiman
Image via Amazon
Neil Gaiman is a master storyteller, and Neverwhere is one of his most underappreciated books. I first discovered it as an audio drama created by the BBC, which is a great way to consume this fantasy book for adults, and was hooked on London Below from that point. the universe feels similar to Fallen London but takes a much more literal approach to its translation of the surface world.
The story follows a young man who innocently helps a young girl one night, only to be transported from Earth into London Below. This underground version of the city twists it in whimsically dark ways that make it feel oppressive at first but also somehow welcoming and charming after a while.
It's a fantastic read and a great way to get into the universe. I'd say it's probably better if you have at least some level of knowledge of the city of London because some of the characters and locations and their twists might be lost on you without any.
6. Outlander (Outlander #1) - Dianna Gabaldon
Image via Amazon
You might know Outlander from the impeccable Amazon Prime show. If not, you're in for a treat once you've read this amazing fantasy book for adults. While the series is close to historical fiction, it's all framed through a fantasy tale of a woman falling through time without any real knowledge of how she did it. She must find a way to exist in a time when women hold no power and any woman with an ounce of intelligence is treated as a witch.
I adore the setting for this book and the rest of the series: Scotland in the 1700s. It takes a beautiful country and transports you to a time when it was as lush and green with a reasonable amount of civilization as it has ever been—before the English came in and ruined it all.
Through this book and the series at large, you'll learn so much about the history of England and Scotland, but it's the love story between Jamie and Claire that will stick with you. Fair warning: pretty much every book has a few adult scenes, so if that's not the kind of thing you're after, maybe skip this one.
5. Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovich
Image via Amazon
Rivers of London is the first book in a fabulous fantasy series that's intrinsically English and explores folklore in a way I guarantee you've not experienced before. The first book here follows a police officer who, standing guard at a crime scene all night, notices what appears to be a ghost dog. This leads him into a world filled with mystical wonder and starts him on a path you don't expect when you join the force.
What I really enjoy about this book and the series at large is how it blends folklore into modern life without it ever feeling jarring. If you enjoy this entry, there's so much more for you to dig your teeth into. It's also quite a fresh series in terms of when it was published, so it's got loads of modern tropes that will help you really get lost in it.
This series can really bridge the gap between standard fiction and the best fantasy books for adults out there. Author Ben Aaronovich has worked on a number of popular TV shows and is brilliant at bringing stories to the table that are self-contained but add to a wider story arc without making you feel like you've missed something.
4. The Drowning City (The Necromancer Chronicles #1) - Amanda Downum
Image via Amazon
The Drowning City is a fantasy book I picked up in a second-hand bookshop because I liked the blurb and cover. It's hard to tell what the story is from either, and that's partly because it's completely bonkers. It's set in a rich fantasy world that's thick with lore from centuries of history. Every event is fueled by something that happened in the past, and it makes the whole thing feel like you're exploring a culture more than reading a book.
What makes The Drowning City one of the best fantasy books for adults is how dark some of its subject matter is. Each location is so vivid that I felt like I was walking down their streets or getting pulled into the canals by their ghosts. the
I really can't tell you much about this story without needing to add context that will spoil the plot. What I can say is that you enter the titular location as a newcomer alongside the protagonist and learn all about the magic and politics of the local region as she does. It's so much fun to explore and is part of a trilogy that you could go on to read if you like a bit of dirty fantasy.
3. The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) - Philip Pullman
Image via Amazon
Before the TV adaptation was created, I wouldn't have included The Golden Compass in this list of the best fantasy books for adults. However, I believe that the show opened a lot of people's eyes to how dark the world that Philip Pullman created really is.
In this book, you enter into a world where human souls stand by their side as creatures that can change shape until they hit puberty when they settle into one form. What starts out as a tale of children disappearing quickly morphs into one that spans entire dimensions, leading to a war between worlds that's worthy of Magic: The Gathering.
The best part of this book, in particular, is its characters. Each one is beautifully flawed and feels like a firm friend you'll never forget. The book brings them all to life from mere words on a page, and I think any book that can do that is worth your time, regardless of your age.
2. Carve the Mark - Veronica Roth
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You might know Veronica Roth's much more popular work, the Divergent trilogy. This follow-up is smaller in size but much broader in scope. It's set in a star system where the people of each planet have different roles within the stellar society and explores what happens when one society seeks to overthrow and take control of another.
This series only consists of two entries, but they're gripping and explore the fantastical side of sci-fi that sees humanity intertwined with elements of the universe in a way I've never seen explored before or since. That's why they're some of the best fantasy books for adults you could hope to read.
At the heart of the plot is a love story that's probably one of the easiest to understand and identify with, how your weaknesses and strengths can complement someone else's. It's beautiful in its own way, a small time investment, and a couple of books you won't regret picking up.
1. 14 (Threshold #1) - Peter Clines
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I went into 14 expecting to be reading something along the lines of Silent Hill 4: The Room, but I was so, so wrong. While it treads the line between sci-fi and fantasy, I think it fits more into the fantasy genre because it's more of a mystery book about an apartment building and a group of people who all take the oddities they notice about it as a given, and don't ask questions. That is until one of them starts poking around and makes a startling discovery.
This book is part of a series that's connected, but you don't need to read in order. That's why I love it. If you enjoy a good mystery thriller with twists that are so out of this world you'll never see them coming, this is a fantastic book to pick up first.
The fantasy elements lean quite heavily on the work of H.P. Lovecraft. So, if you'd rather avoid the tentacled region of fantasy, give this a miss. I will say that it does a great job of not being anywhere near as vague as some of those old horror novels and won't scare you so much as it will get your adrenaline going. Especially in the final chapters.
Hopefully we get more news during the anniversary stream next week.
Behaviour Interactive is teasing its next chapter for the Dead by Daylight universe, implying a Dungeons & Dragons crossover is coming to its widely popular asymmetrical horror game.
The Dead by Daylight X/Twitter account posted a brief teaser trailer that suggests its next licensed chapter is based on the popular tabletop …
I really wanted the Oat Cleansing Balm makeup remover by the Inkey List to smell like a freshly baked oatmeal cookie. Alas, it’s more like uncooked oatmeal when you first open the packaging. Kinda earthy. I don’t mind it! This balm is a first cleanse which removes all your makeup, even waterproof. I’ve heard good[Continue reading...]
In the United States, we’ve seen several arrests and prosecutions of journalists and citizens for daring to record public officials performing their public duties. The case law isn’t completely settled in the United States, but in most parts of the country, it’s understood the First Amendment covers these activities.
That fact hasn’t stopped cops and prosecutors from pursuing everything from obstruction charges to alleged violations of state wiretapping laws against people who hold cops accountable simply by documenting the things they do.
There’s no First Amendment in the UK. But that doesn’t mean UK law enforcement officers are free to arrest people who do nothing more than document their actions. Given this lack of built-in protection, it’s extremely surprising to see UK prosecutors admit they’re in the wrong when it comes to shielding cops from accountability efforts that don’t involve government employees.
A journalist who did nothing more than try to document a criminal investigation taking place in full view of the public has received an apology of sorts from the UK government, as Steven Morris reports for The Guardian.
The Crown Prosecution Service has admitted it was wrong to press on with a case against a news photographer arrested as he tried to lawfully take pictures at a crime scene.
Judge Walters at Swansea crown court described the case against Dimitris Legakis, which was dropped on the eve of his trial, as “disturbing” and said it seemed “the high point” of the prosecution was that a police officer “took offence” against someone whose job was to take photographs.
The journalist did nothing more than show up at the scene of a car fire last year. He attempted to document the police response, only to get arrested by UK police officers, apparently because he was the only one in the crowd operating a camera. That this later turned out to be a murder investigation (allegedly a man beat his wife to death with a hammer before setting fire to the car with her in it) doesn’t really matter. At that point, it was just a normal police response to a potentially dangerous situation.
At some point during the police response, an “altercation” between some members of the crowd began. For whatever reason, officers decided to single out the journalist as the problem. He was arrested “with considerable force” and detained for 15 hours, supposedly for assaulting a first responder and “obstructing” a police officer, despite the fact no obstruction or assault was captured by any cameras operated by responding officers. The lack of evidence was admitted by the prosecution prior to its dropping of the charges.
The trial was due to start on Tuesday but at a hearing on Monday prosecution barrister Alycia Carpanini said no evidence would be offered in the case. The barrister said it had also been decided that it was not in the public interest to pursue the obstructing a constable matter, a summary-only offence.
Asked by Judge Geraint Walters why the decision to offer no evidence had been taken on the eve of the trial, the barrister said the original statement taken from the police officer “does not coincide” with what he later said in his victim personal statement, and she said the alleged assault itself was not captured on bodycam. The judge said having read the papers in the case it seemed to him “the high point of the prosecution case” was that somebody employed as a photographer was taking pictures and a police officer “took offence” to it.
When faced with taking this case to trial, the CPS finally admitted it had no evidence. But it took a court calling this out as a bullshit “contempt of cop” prosecution for that to happen.
And while there’s a very rare apology here, it comes couched in exculpatory language that suggests the CPS was completely in the right until it was forced to admit it was completely in the wrong.
A spokeswoman said: “We take assaults on emergency workers incredibly seriously. In all cases, including those resulting from police charge, we have a duty to continually review the evidence. In a review prior to the recent hearing, we decided that there was no longer sufficient evidence to continue with the prosecution and it should be stopped. We acknowledge this should have been done sooner.”
Maybe the CPS should divert some of its resources to investigating police officers who cook up bogus charges for the sole purpose of deterring public accountability. And, very definitely, the agency employing the officers who arrested the journalist and concocted a host of criminal charges should act quickly to punish the officers involved in this potential miscarriage of justice. It shouldn’t take 15 hours of detention and the run-up to a criminal case to finally have the truth come out. Because if that’s what it takes for the government to finally admit it’s in the wrong, the harm has already been done and the chilling effect on public accountability remains intact.
That being said, it’s still a step ahead of the status quo here in the United States. Even when governments pay out settlements to people whose rights have been violated, the payments are almost always attached to legal verbiage in which the government refuses to admit any wrongdoing. At least in the case above, the government acknowledged it was at fault. And that’s something, even if the lack of consequences means CPS and the cops that provide it with cases to prosecute are free to make the same “mistakes” over and over again.
Since its launch, Infinite Craft has taken the world by storm with the near-infinite amount of combinations you can make. With that, plenty of combinations that were beyond my wildest dreams were suddenly being generated before my eyes, so I figured it would be best to compile those that struck me the most.
10. Radioactive Kanye West
Image Source: Neal.fun via Twinfinite
“What was I doing combining Chernobyl and Kanye West?” you might ask. The answer isn’t quite as simple as the results, but it expanded my horizons and showed me that you can do quite a bit with only a little in Infinite Craft. Getting Kanye West was the hard part, mainly because I can’t remember how I got my way to Kardashian. However, getting the string of “Divorce, Husband and Marriage” meant I could pull the rapper from the weeds of wherever he hangs out nowadays.
If you’ve been spending as much time as we have with Infinite Craft, you probably didn’t notice Neal.fun has other games to play. In fact, some may be just as entertaining and addicting. After much debate, we’ve ranked the top 10 best games on Neal.fun!
10. Ambient Chaos
Image Source: Neal.fun via Twinfinite
Ambient Chaos is less of a traditional game and more of a fun tool to mess around with, especially if you’re into sound mixing. It features 30 unique sounds that you can toggle at will, and even adjust the volume for each one. I can see it as a useful tool for filling the silence with the soothing sounds of the waves while you work.
Over the years, as the Harry Potter IP grew in popularity, the franchise has had its run in all forms of content, including video games. The most recent title Hogwarts Legacy has been a major success since its launch, but the games haven’t always been such smash hits.
There have been game releases for at least every movie released, with some being more enjoyable than others. The games have branched into almost every aspect of the wizarding world, so here are all of the Harry Potter games, ranked.
Are you looking for the best characters in Primon Legion? Check out our comprehensive Primon Legion Tier List 2024. Published by “PIXEL RABBIT LIMITED” it is a brand new mobile game. In this Primon Legion guide, we rank all of the characters from S tier to D tier. This makes it more difficult for new […]
Propaganda poster by Ed Reibsamen with a little help from Midjourney
Article by Aragorn Eloff
There’s been a lot written lately about the so-called TESCREAList ideology that is currently hegemonic in the Silicon Valley tech circles frequented by people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. TESCREAL stands for transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism and longtermism – terms that are probably at least intuitively familiar. Reading recent critical descriptions of this facile, elitist ideology, which is driving a lot of the hype around machine learning, I’m struck by how familiar it all seems. Listening to a podcast on 60s psychedelia on my run this morning, it suddenly all made sense.
It turns out you can trace a pretty direct line back from TESCREAL ‘philosophers’ like Kurzweil and Bostrom to Wired magazine and the extropians mailing list, and from there to the legendary Mondo2000 magazine – a 90s tech-enthusiast counterculture publication from California put together by old sixties heads enthused by nascent technologies like the web, VR and ‘nootropics’. Indeed, 1992’s Mondo 2000: A User’s Guide to the New Edge, a gorgeous typographic mess of glossy 3d graphics and paeans to the coming techno-singularity, feels almost like a secret peek into the TESCREAL gang’s wildest fantasies, although regulars like Douglas Rushkoff, Mark Dery and Bruce Sterling were admittedly far more interesting than the current dreck. Mondo 2000 was, in turn, the successor to the less glossy High Frontiers and Reality Hackers, 80s publications that mixed cyberpunk and surrealism with phone phreaking and experimental music. And then, of course, there was the psychedelic enthusiasm, particularly the strong echoes of one Timothy Leary.
As a diligent student at the Hofmann and McKenna school for young dropouts in the early 90s, I devoured all the Tim Leary books I could get my hands on. Classics like Psychedelic Prayers, High Priest and The Psychedelic Experience, but also an oddly singular text titled Neuropolitics: The Sociobiology of Human Metamorphosis, published in 1977. The book was written while Leary was languishing in jail for his psychedelics advocacy, and marks a shift in attention away from LSD and towards quintessentially TESCREAList topics like space migration, life extension and so forth. Indeed, Tim essentially argues in the book that by the year 2000 we’ll all be immortals travelling through space and indulging in increasingly exotic pleasures while expanding our intelligence using computers and smart drugs. As a useful heuristic, he coined some acronyms that are particularly revealing: SMI2LE (Space Migration, Intelligence Increase, Life Extension), HOME (High Orbit Mini-Earths) and HEAD (Hedonic Engineering And Design).
Essentially then, Tim Leary, psychologist and psychedelics guru, synthesised a fairly significant chunk of the philosophy that would become TESCREALism while sitting in his prison cell, undoubtedly fantasizing about the great outdoors and all the experiences he was missing out on. My fellow students and I also spent a fair amount of time in the early 90s learning how to SMI2LE and use our HEADs while gazing up into the stars waiting for our new HOMEs to be ready. In retrospect it was in large part a naive fantasy fueled in no insignificant part by prodigious consumption of 5-HT2A receptor agonists.
There is a grain of intuitive truth to Leary’s dreams, of course -—we could and should try to enrich life in whatever way we can – but when divorced from the messiness of real life in all its social, political and ecological complexities, SMI2LE, like TESCREALism (and, yes, like Fully Automated Luxury Communism) is the kind of indulgent hopium that’s fine, perhaps even vital, when you’re 16, but probably not when you’re a billionaire with immense economic and political power seeking to enact your juvenile fantasies at the expense of the rest of the world. More importantly though, the TESCREALists are far, far more boring than Leary and the Mondo crowd. We could do a lot better.
Aragorn Eloff is an experimental musician and long-time wanderer through the counterculture. He is based in South Africa, where he is currently working on a PhD on the philosophy of psychedelics. He writes on anarchism, embodied cognition and the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari.
Propaganda poster by Ed Reibsamen with a little help from Midjourney
Article by Aragorn Eloff
There’s been a lot written lately about the so-called TESCREAList ideology that is currently hegemonic in the Silicon Valley tech circles frequented by people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. TESCREAL stands for transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism and longtermism – terms that are probably at least intuitively familiar. Reading recent critical descriptions of this facile, elitist ideology, which is driving a lot of the hype around machine learning, I’m struck by how familiar it all seems. Listening to a podcast on 60s psychedelia on my run this morning, it suddenly all made sense.
It turns out you can trace a pretty direct line back from TESCREAL ‘philosophers’ like Kurzweil and Bostrom to Wired magazine and the extropians mailing list, and from there to the legendary Mondo2000 magazine – a 90s tech-enthusiast counterculture publication from California put together by old sixties heads enthused by nascent technologies like the web, VR and ‘nootropics’. Indeed, 1992’s Mondo 2000: A User’s Guide to the New Edge, a gorgeous typographic mess of glossy 3d graphics and paeans to the coming techno-singularity, feels almost like a secret peek into the TESCREAL gang’s wildest fantasies, although regulars like Douglas Rushkoff, Mark Dery and Bruce Sterling were admittedly far more interesting than the current dreck. Mondo 2000 was, in turn, the successor to the less glossy High Frontiers and Reality Hackers, 80s publications that mixed cyberpunk and surrealism with phone phreaking and experimental music. And then, of course, there was the psychedelic enthusiasm, particularly the strong echoes of one Timothy Leary.
As a diligent student at the Hofmann and McKenna school for young dropouts in the early 90s, I devoured all the Tim Leary books I could get my hands on. Classics like Psychedelic Prayers, High Priest and The Psychedelic Experience, but also an oddly singular text titled Neuropolitics: The Sociobiology of Human Metamorphosis, published in 1977. The book was written while Leary was languishing in jail for his psychedelics advocacy, and marks a shift in attention away from LSD and towards quintessentially TESCREAList topics like space migration, life extension and so forth. Indeed, Tim essentially argues in the book that by the year 2000 we’ll all be immortals travelling through space and indulging in increasingly exotic pleasures while expanding our intelligence using computers and smart drugs. As a useful heuristic, he coined some acronyms that are particularly revealing: SMI2LE (Space Migration, Intelligence Increase, Life Extension), HOME (High Orbit Mini-Earths) and HEAD (Hedonic Engineering And Design).
Essentially then, Tim Leary, psychologist and psychedelics guru, synthesised a fairly significant chunk of the philosophy that would become TESCREALism while sitting in his prison cell, undoubtedly fantasizing about the great outdoors and all the experiences he was missing out on. My fellow students and I also spent a fair amount of time in the early 90s learning how to SMI2LE and use our HEADs while gazing up into the stars waiting for our new HOMEs to be ready. In retrospect it was in large part a naive fantasy fueled in no insignificant part by prodigious consumption of 5-HT2A receptor agonists.
There is a grain of intuitive truth to Leary’s dreams, of course -—we could and should try to enrich life in whatever way we can – but when divorced from the messiness of real life in all its social, political and ecological complexities, SMI2LE, like TESCREALism (and, yes, like Fully Automated Luxury Communism) is the kind of indulgent hopium that’s fine, perhaps even vital, when you’re 16, but probably not when you’re a billionaire with immense economic and political power seeking to enact your juvenile fantasies at the expense of the rest of the world. More importantly though, the TESCREALists are far, far more boring than Leary and the Mondo crowd. We could do a lot better.
Aragorn Eloff is an experimental musician and long-time wanderer through the counterculture. He is based in South Africa, where he is currently working on a PhD on the philosophy of psychedelics. He writes on anarchism, embodied cognition and the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari.
(Information on Steam’s top games were gathered for this article from Steam Charts)
A couple of weeks ago I went through eight of the most popular Steam games at the time, and linked which Logical Increments PC build tier is needed to play that game at a specific performance level. Well, that proved to be a popular article, so I’m here to round out the list with more of Steam’s most successful titles (and maybe a couple trending ones)!
Something that surprised me as I went through the list last month was how closely linked 1440p resolution at 120 frames per second (1440p120) and 4K resolution at 60 frames per second (4K60) were. I guess it’s not too much of a surprise since 4K is more-or-less double the amount of pixels in 1440p, but I still found it intriguing that you could sometimes get away with a system that was one tier lower at 4K60 than the 1440p120 ones. In a way, it makes sense: lower frame rates tend to be more stable than higher frame rates, and your processor isn’t having to work as hard since only half the amount of frames are being generated.
And, as you’ll now see, that trend continues here!
Criteria:
As I mentioned in the previous article, Logical Increments keeps its primary tier list consistently updated, showing you the cost of building systems geared towards particular performance milestones. From the humble ‘Destitute’ system to the jaw-dropping ‘Monstrous’ setup, it shows what is attainable at each price point, offers a roadmap for some upgrading, and generally makes it convenient to knit together a balanced system with top-notch parts.
With that list in hand, we can match each of the most popular games on Steam right now with a Logical Increments tier. In this piece, I cross-referenced eight of the most played Steam games with our tier list to see what is required to hit 60 frames per second at 1080p (referenced as 1080p60), 120 frames per second at 1440p (referenced as 1440p120), and 60 frames per second at 4K (referenced as 4k60).
Back in the old 2020 version of this exercise, I stuck to certain non-negotiables for a system to land in a specific category. In this article and last month’s article, though, I made a few changes:
The lion’s share of the time, we’re talking 99% or more, it had to cruise within 10% of the minimum frames per second or higher at the chosen resolution. So, I care more about the ‘minimum’ than the ‘average’ frames per second.
It had to strut with at least very high graphical settings.
What should you do with this information? Find the games you play most often, or at least the games that interest you. Look at the resolution and frames per second you’re interested in, and (assuming you’re not bursting your budget), get the suggested tier for a satisfying, pleasant experience. You won’t have any regrets, as these systems have been vetted to ensure a proper balance of performance and price.
Now, let’s get on with what you came here for! On with the games!
Games:
Naraka: Bladepoint
We covered PUBG, Apex, and Warzone last month, and this is yetanother free-to-play battle royale game. I guess those are pretty popular at the moment? Anyway, this game differs from many others in that it features a melee-based combat system inspired by martial arts. There have been a few comparisons to Apex Legends, but it still stands out with a style that, according to former Rock Paper Shotgun writer Matt Cox, is a game where “fighting game aficionados will feel right at home” with its mix of combos and rock-paper-scissors-style combat. Cox summarizes, “charged attacks beat normal attacks, parries beat charged attacks, and normal attacks beat parries”. But what do you need to run the game? Well, according to its Steam page, it “requires ‘Windows Memory integrity and VBS enablement’ to be disabled.” That’s unusual. But, hey, it’s still popular.
I find that getting specific benchmarks on this game a little difficult, at least for current-generation hardware. An RX 6600XT is enough to play at 1080p60 quite comfortably, and it’ll provide a much smoother experience than the recommended specs on the Steam page.
An RTX 4070 is an excellent choice for this tier. Achieving around 124 FPS with minimums of around 106 FPS means that you’re all set with an Excellent Tier system
It’s actually pretty similar to the 1440p120 tier, which is why we can just stick with that.
Grand Theft Auto V
Explore the world of Los Santos and Blaine County! …Again! Team up with friends, do missions, go crazy! This game was released on Steam in April 2015, and it has maintained a high level of popularity throughout that time. It’s just a fun multiplayer game with friends. Nothing too stressful, nothing too competitive. So, what do you need to enjoy this level of mayhem? Considering how old the game is, I don’t think you need much. Heck, the minimum requirements include an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 with a 9800 GT or HD 4870! One thing to consider throughout all of this is that MSAA is crazily hardware-intensive, so if you want to play with that enabled, jump up two tiers from my recommendations.
Ignoring the minimum requirements, I’m going to assume if you’re reading this you want to play online as well and that requires a bit more power than the single-player campaign. Really, any dedicated graphics card should do nicely.
With a minimum of 110 FPS (but pushing averages close to 150 FPS), the Great Tier is my recommendation here. Only concern is how CPU-bound you are.
With the CPU having to work less, you can probably get away with a lesser graphics card. But you don’t want to skimp on the CPU too much. The Very Good tier is the one just below the Great Tier.
Battlefield V
Ah, another ‘V’. This first-person shooter interestingly reached its peak popularity for the year on the 27th of November. I wonder how much Modern Warfare 3 influenced that. Anyway, for a game that came out a few years ago, the graphics still hold up nicely and it’s just an all-round fun experience. For the most part anyway.
This game does need a dedicated graphics card to run, but even the low-tier RX 6400 is enough to play at 1080p60. 66 FPS minimum and averaging much higher (close to 90 FPS), this tier is only $25 more than the one below it which is significantly weaker.
With lows of around 115 FPS, but averaging a solid 180 FPS, the Great tier is where you can get solid, dependable, consistent performance.
This is yet another situation where for 4K60 I feel comfortable recommending the next tier down from the last column.
War Thunder
Even though it came out around 10 years ago in August 2013, War Thunder has been steadily rising in popularity. In fact, its most popular day was around late March or early May of this year. How crazy is that? As a military MMO, this game pays high attention to detail and focuses on realism and authenticity—at least as much as a game can be, whilst still being accessible. Still, it’s got plenty of planes, tanks, and ships.
War Thunder doesn’t take a lot to run, so you can even get solid performance with integrated graphics.
The Fair Tier just meets the criteria, with a low of 109 FPS. It does have an average of 158 FPS, though, so you’re going to have a great time.
The Modest Tier can still pump out over 60 FPS at 4K. I had a look at the tier directly before this one, but you’re sacrificing too much performance.
Football Manager 2024
Well, this is a peculiar one. It doesn’t really need graphics power unless you want to watch your team run around in 3D—but even then the graphics are nothing amazing. Really, this is like a glorified spreadsheet, though I will say it’s become a little simpler and more friendly towards beginners than it used to be.
I’m sort of scratching my head with this one. Technically, technically, you can get away with the Destitute Tier for this game, but it makes me uncomfortable to recommend such a system. It has a dual core CPU. Without Hyperthreading. At that point, for a gaming system you may want to consider the used market.
You know what? I’m going to suggest the Poor Tier. With 8GB of RAM, to be precise. At just about $50 more than the Destitute Tier, it’s fully capable of meeting the needs of this game.
Erm, Poor Tier again.
Warframe
Set sometime in the fairly distant future, Warframe has you team up with other crazy metal ninjas and slice and dice your way through thousands (if not tens of thousands) of enemies that are powerless to stop your onslaught. You can also breed pets, that will help you slice and dicce you way through thousands (if not tens of thousands) of enemies. Grind, collect loot, build more powerful weapons, get more powerful classes (which are also known as frames), and relax as you’ve sliced and diced your way through a million or so enemies and they keep coming back for more.
This is a fast-paced game. To maintain a certain level of smoothness and fluidity, you should go with the Fair Tier.
According to the system requirements on Steam, you barely require something a little stronger than a toaster. But since then, the game has expanded to larger, open areas which take more graphical power. The Great Tier should cover you nicely.
Similarly, I think the Great Tier is the best option for 4K60 gaming.
Tevi
I don’t know too much about this game, as it’s just been released within a day or so of me writing this (which probably accounts for it making its way into this list, by riding a wave of release traffic). But, according to its Steam page, it is self-described as a “bullet hell metroidvania.” Neat! Based on its art style and recommended specifications, I doubt it really requires anything significant considering it’s a 2D game.
Lots of bright lights and neon… that don’t affect performance much, since it’s all in 2D. This game can run on integrated graphics.
Might, might, be worth getting a slightly more powerful system for this game. But I don’t think so. It’s not absolutely needed.
And for 4K as well, it’s the Minimum tier all the way!
Conclusion:
There we go, another list of Steam games completed! I find it a little interesting that the most popular games are mostly older games. I guess those of us suffering from the high prices of the newest and most powerful PC parts this year can be grateful that such popular titles are so easy to run (or maybe I’ve got the causation reversed there).
With rare exceptions such as Baldur’s Gate 3, the games I’ve covered in this article and the previous one are mostly several years old, if not older. Maybe there have only been a few really legendary multiplayer releases in the past few years. If true, that would go to show that a game with solid mechanics and a healthy multiplayer scene really can trump the latest and greatest tech.
(Information on Steam’s top games were gathered for this article from Steam Charts)
Back in January 2020, I crafted a neat little piece discussing the Logical Increments tier needed to enjoy each of the top games on Steam at the time. Fast forward to now, and oh, how the scene has shifted! Back around that period, we were seeing trade tariffs causing a good bump in prices for PC hardware. As we ventured into late 2020, high demand meant the cost of PC parts kept climbing, and 2021 brought even higher prices—especially for graphics cards due to a cryptocurrency boom. Oh, and let’s not forget, the world was just getting acquainted with Covid-19, adding a whole new level of complexity to tech market dynamics through supply chain issues.
Now, at the tail end of 2023, with prices and availability having normalized in some (though not all) component categories, and just a week left until Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s about time we take a fresh look at what Logical Increments PC building tier you’d need to dive into the most popular Steam games today. Let’s see what changed in the last few years, and whether that ol’ system still has some life in it, or whether it might be worth a little upgrade. Stick around as we unpack the current gaming demands and discuss today’s tech landscape.
Criteria:
Logical Increments keeps its primary tier list consistently updated, showing you the cost of building systems geared towards particular performance milestones. From the humble ‘Destitute’ system to the jaw-dropping ‘Monstrous’ setup, it shows what is attainable at each price point, offers a roadmap for some upgrading, and generally makes it convenient to knit together a balanced system with top-notch parts.
With that list in hand, we can match each of the most popular games on Steam right now with a Logical Increments tier. In this piece, I cross-referenced the 8 most played Steam games with our tier list to see what is required to hit 60 frames per second at 1080p (referenced as 1080p60), 120 frames per second at 1440p (referenced as 1440p120), and 60 frames per second at 4K (referenced as 4k60).
Last time, I stuck to two non-negotiables for a system to land in a specific category. This time I made a few changes:
The lion’s share of the time, we’re talking 99% or more, it had to cruise within 10% of the minimum frames per second or higher at the chosen resolution. So, I care more about the ‘minimum’ than the ‘average’ frames per second.
It had to strut with at least very high graphical settings.
What should you do with this information? Find the games you play most often, or at least the games that interest you. Look at the resolution and frames per second you’re interested in, and (assuming you’re not bursting your budget), get the suggested tier for a satisfying, pleasant experience. You won’t have any regrets, as these systems have been vetted to ensure a proper balance of performance and price.
Now, let’s get on with what you came here for! On with the games!
Games:
Counter-Strike 2
Counter-Strike 2 is the freshest iteration in the cherished Counter-Strike series, known for its intense competitive gameplay that’s been honed by Valve (and then by millions of players worldwide over two decades). Built on the Source 2 engine, this game was released on September 27, 2023, 11 years after CS:GO. Interestingly, even though it had a massive graphical upgrade and several systems were overhauled (to the disappointment of some), the minimum specifications haven’t really changed that much. Really, any gaming computer built in the last 5 years would be able to run this at 1080p60 without any issues. But I digress. Here are my recommendations:
An RX 6500XT 4GB, RX 580 8GB, or GTX 1060 6GB would be plenty to run CS2 at this tier of performance. In fact, the above graphics cards would run it in excess of 80 FPS on average, but I wanted the minimum to be above 54 FPS.
If you needed to save some money, you could get away with the Great tier, but Superb provides some extra smoothness and stability using those more graphically intensive parts.
It’s actually pretty similar to the 1440p120 tier. I am not overly surprised as both 1440p120 and 4k60 are pushing out a similar number of total pixels per second.
DotA 2
Another Source 2 engine game. Last time, I said that “the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) Dota 2 was officially released in 2013, and quickly rose in ranks to become one of the most popular games on Steam. Allowing for a range of different gameplay styles, such as strategical and tactical or more aggressive, you can play the game almost any way you want. It has a fairly steep learning curve, and can be an exercise in frustration for newcomers, but once you get the hang of the controls you’ll be greeted with fun, exciting gameplay.” Not much has changed on that front, so let’s see if the recommendations have changed:
Similar to last time, I feel that a dedicated graphics card would help immensely keeping the minimum FPS above 60. If you went with the Minimum Tier you’d be getting framerate dips down to below 40 FPS. Not desirable.
This surprised me a little. This system would comfortably push 200 FPS normally, but it would also drop to around 109 FPS on occasion. If you don’t care about smoothness that much, or you’re happy to drop settings, I think you could get away with the Good Tier.
Huh, you don’t need as powerful a GPU at 4k60 compared to 1440p120! Probably because the CPU doesn’t need to push as hard. At the Good tier, you can reach a minimum of 69 FPS, and average around 135 FPS.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG)
Released in late 2017, this battle royale game catapulted to the top of Steam’s most popular games, and it hasn’t really dropped from the list. Thankfully, it’s a lot more stable to run these days; in the early years, there were stability and optimisation problems, but hey, that’s now mostly a worry of the past.
This tier will run this game at a comfortable average of 79 FPS, sometimes dipping down to 55 FPS. Considering the minimal price difference between this tier and the Entry tier, this is definitely the one to go for.
With the Great tier, you’re getting a comfortable minimum of 109 FPS, averaging around 161 FPS. It seems like you need to pair it with an AMD CPU for that tier, because with the same graphics card, using the i5-13600KF (from the Superb tier) instead of the R5 7600 causes a minor drop in FPS. Not significantly, but enough to bring it below the standards outlined above.
With the CPU working less hard in the 4K tier compared to 1440p120, you could use the i5-13600KF and still achieve stable FPS. But I’d still stick with the specified Great tier and use the R5 7600.
Baldur’s Gate 3
A role-playing game released in early August, 2023. Baldur’s Gate 3 received high praise for its narrative, gameplay, and player choice. It has a fantastic amount of flexibility and replayability. You really can play this game any way you want. Its popularity has surprised its creators though, with a peak of around 800,000 players on release, and a current count still above 100,000 months later. The suggestions below include using upscaling technology in the game’s settings; if you don’t want to use it, I suggest going up a tier or two.
Considering the minimum specs, the equivalent current-generation tier would be the Modest tier. You’d get respectable performance with this.
With the Great tier, the RTX 3070 can comfortably push 100+ FPS using upscaling tech, though it will fare slightly worse in Act 3 in the big city.
Similarly to 1440p120, the Great Tier is perfectly fine for 4k60 as long as you use upscaling tech.
Apex Legends
Apex Legends is a battle royale game released in February 2019. Though it’s another game built on the Source engine, it isn’t similar to Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 because the engine of Apex Legends is a fork of the original Source engine from around the time Portal 2 came out. I’d argue that Apex Legends is really pushing the original Source engine to its limits, so I’m interested to see how well it performs on lower-tier systems. Without further ado, let’s check out the recommendations:
This game can push out over 60 FPS minimum on an RX 6400, so I’m comfortable recommending the Modest tier.
The Great tier can provide excellent performance, pushing close to 110 FPS minimums and averaging over 150 FPS.
The Great tier is also fantastic at this resolution, offering minimums just a smidge below 60 FPS and averaging closer to 77 FPS.
Team Fortress 2
Last time, I said that it’s “nearly impossible to get good data on how well current GPUs run this game.” And you know what? That still holds true today, thanks to the age of the game. Team Fortress 2 has been running for around 15 years, and still has popularity and longevity. Which makes perfect sense to me; it’s a great game! My only question is about how well-supported current-generation graphics cards are, comparatively. So, with some interpolation of available data, here are the choices I’ve made:
Similar to last time, the integrated graphics on an AMD APU is enough for this game. Getting the Entry tier with the R5 5600G means you could pop in a dedicated graphics card in the future, knowing your CPU is powerful enough and won’t bottleneck your system.
An entry-level dedicated graphics card should do well here. I would get the RX 6500 XT over the RX 6400 in this case, but I expect this to run well on this hardware.
Since 4k60 pushes only slightly more pixels per second than 1440p120, and lower frame rates tend to be more stable, I’m comfortable recommending the Modest Tier here as well.
Call of Duty
So, this part encompasses Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Modern Warfare II, and Warzone. Having both solid single-player campaigns and a “multiplayer combat arena with battle royales, resurgence and DMZ” this game, whose earliest member came out in 2022, does require a powerful system to get the most out of it. I definitely recommend using upscaling tech like DLSS or FSR if the visual artifacts don’t bother you.
The Great tier is really required to push this game. Though you’ll get averages of around 90 FPS, the minimums are just under 60 FPS at native resolution. You could drop a tier if you run it as a balanced preset instead. Check out whether upscaling tech is helpful or degrades your image quality too much.
At this tier, you should be able to use upscaling tech and still maintain high-quality graphics. Without it, your minimum FPS drops to around 90, and at this stage you really want to get 100 FPS minimums for proper smoothness.
Again, we see an overlap in requirements for this column and the previous one, so the Outstanding tier is my recommendation here too.
The Finals
A really recent entry, The Finals is a new shooter game that’s just been released. As in, I was typing this section the day The Finals was released (in open beta) so there’s not a huge amount of information available yet. To further exacerbate this situation, the system requirements on Steam all say TBD. Lovely. But that doesn’t mean there’s zero info, and we can extrapolate data from similar games and similar engines as well. Anyway, this game is much more arcade-like, and has some really solid destruction physics. Keep in mind though that at present this is in beta, so stability and optimisation isn’t the best yet (and may not be the devs’ current priority).
You definitely want a dedicated graphics card for this game, but it doesn’t seem to require too much to run. An RX 6500XT is my recommendation over the RX 6400.
Quite the jump up between the two tiers. Now, I’m removing ray-tracing from the equation here, because you’d definitely need something stronger than this otherwise.
As I’ve mentioned before, 4k60 pushes a relalitvely small number of additional pixels per second when compared to 1440p120. But the CPU doesn’t have to work quite as hard at lower frame rates, and lower numbers tend to be more stable. Hence the Exceptional tier works here.
Conclusion:
Something that surprised me was that for the most part, 4k60 required the same tier as 1440p120, or sometimes even the tier below. Personally, I prefer 1440p120 over 4k60—but for slower, single-player games it’s worth knowing. Nonetheless, whether you are chasing the thrill of multiplayer games like The Finals or Apex Legends, or getting immersed in the narrative of Baldur’s Gate 3, getting the right hardware is instrumental to a good experience.
It’s not just enough to look at the average frame rates, but the minimum you’ll get as well. You want to ensure the experience stays smooth, which is what my analysis has done here. It is fantastic that most of these games don’t require powerful hardware. You can get a fully enjoyable experience at 1080p60 with a fairly budget-oriented system. So, even though games continue to evolve and push new heights with new releases and updated versions, you can still be assured that your old favourites will be hanging around for years to come, and that you’ll have the system to run them.
The House of Mouse has churned out excellent games for PlayStation in recent years, whether they’re programmed exclusively for the PS5 or PS4 titles that can be played on the PS5 as well. Whichever version you have, you can experience the same magic playing fun Disney games as you can …
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