The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition improves visuals, jacks up PC system requirements

As previewed by Alice Bee, The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition doesn’t simply bundle up Obsidian’s spacefaring RPG with its DLC expansions. It’s also an unexpected remaster, redoing and fine-tuning everything from companion AI and facial animations to weather effects and dynamic lighting. It’s an enticing prospect for a game that never previously counted visuals as its strong suit, though there will be a catch: the Spacer’s Choice Edition will have significantly higher PC system requirements than the 2019 original.

Read more

Echoes Within looks like the biggest update to Halo Infinite since launch

Halo Infinite has been in an extended slump since its second season began 10-months ago, but 343 Industries are hoping to turn things around when Season 3: Echoes Within starts next week on March 7th. Echoes Within is undeniably the biggest update to Infinite since launch, as it’s adding new maps, weapons and equipment, and expanding the multiplayer’s narrative – which has been a series of perpetual teases so far.

Read more

Boots Quest DX is the anti-RPG I’ve been waiting for

RPGs set you off on some kind of grand quest, a hero’s journey filled with danger and peril as you track down some legendary sword to defeat a world-ending evil. Boots Quest DX, however, has much humbler aspirations. You are a mere boot enthusiast on an adventure to find the very bestest best boots known to man (or blobs, I genuinely can’t tell what provenance these rotund creatures hail from), and nothing else will deter you from achieving your lifelong goal. Find a honking great sword on the beach? Trash. A pirate’s cutlass? Get in the sea, literally. If it’s not a pair of boots, you’re not interested – and it all makes for a brisk, anti-RPG adventure that’s incredibly refreshing.

Read more

Why real-time idle adventure games have “radical potential”

Time Bandit – brings up the question: how do you want to spend your time? I’m left pondering it for far longer than I think I otherwise would, thinking about it in context. The obvious answer here is: playing an videogame, please. But Time Bandit’s free demo doesn’t take long to make me almost uncomfortably aware that there’s more than one way to play something. I don’t even need to be anywhere near the PC. I might actually be playing it more when I’m not [X-Files music, but also I’m going somewhere with this].

Read more

Zangief piledrives into Street Fighter 6 with a bod that puts the Gears lads to shame

Street Fighter 6‘s roster last night: big lad Zangief, Union Jack-wearing Cammy and newcomer Lily, a descendant of T. Hawk’s famous Thunderfoot tribe. Before we talk about anything else, though, can we please just take a moment to appreciate Zangief’s enormous bod? The Street Fighter wrestler was always a force to be reckoned with in earlier games, but holy heck, I bet you could fit four Marcus Fenixes into those biceps and still have room left over for his son and fellow Gears Of War slab JD. Come and see what I mean in the new trailer below.

Read more

Visit Hobbiton in Microsoft Flight Simulator’s New Zealand update, out today

Microsoft Flight Simulator was already impressive at launch, using satellite data and some streaming tech to recreate the entire globe. Since launch, the team have been diving in to touch up certain areas giving Australia, Japan, Canada, and more big makeovers. Now, MS Flight Sim has its sights on the magical realm of Middle-Earth, also known as New Zealand. World Update 12, out today, is sprucing up New Zealand’s vistas, adding in nine handcrafted airports, and introducing a bunch of missions.

Read more