PC Gaming

There were reasons to be skeptical of the turnkey, emulator-centric Steam Machine idea, and reasons to root for it too — but in the end, Sedano tells me he only got around 40 orders, and that he needed closer to 100.

He says he’s already refunded every backer, and did produce these two cases before shutting the project down:

Valve:

Going forward, when you submit a new game to Steam, if your game installs a client side, kernel mode anti-cheat, you will need to fill out this new field. We will be going through old games and contacting partners with games that fall into this category.

Kernel level anti-cheat is divisive, to say the least; now you’ll know before you buy.

The Stealth Pivot has a different approach from other modular controllers — you depress and swivel the front plates to get a mini arcade stick or extra buttons on the fly.

It’s wired only on Xbox and works wirelessly with PCs, mobile devices, and smart TVs. Turtle Beach is accepting preorders today for $129.99 ahead of its November 24th release.

Apple’s smallest computer is about to get way smaller, if all the rumors about an almost Apple TV-sized M4 refresh in the coming week of Mac announcements are to be believed.

It might also be a gaming powerhouse, as the diminutive machine will get ray-tracing capability, according to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg today.

A tiny $1200 laptop that doubles as a gaming handheld, with an incredible array of ports. Surprisingly easy to type on, plays games as well or better than a Legion Go, supports two kinds of eGPUs. Keyboard and touchpad make navigating Windows way easier than most handhelds.

But you might not enjoy holding its stiff metal frame, and it’s better paired with a mouse!

Nvidia has released a new Game Ready driver (566.03) that includes support for Alan Wake II: The Lake House, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Red Dead Redemption, and more. The 566.03 release also includes support for 32 new G-Sync compatible monitors. If you use Bluestacks or Corsair iCUE equipment, hold off on this driver as there’s a known high CPU usage issue.

Nvidia’s beta all-in-one app is set to replace GeForce experience later this year, and it might fully launch with the RTX 50-series. Hardware leaker kopite7kimi says it will be released officially together with Nvidia’s next-gen GPUs. Nvidia is holding a CES 2025 keynote in January, where we’re expecting to see the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080.

Last week I asked: “Will Valve really sell a Steam Deck plugin that helps bring Epic Games to the handheld?”

Turns out the answer is no. As far as I’m aware, Junk Store will still be available to sideload through Decky Loader, though.

Riot Games’ Marc Merrill announced the layoffs, and spokesperson Joe Hixson shared the number affected with The Verge. The layoffs are focused on the League of Legends team.

“While team effectiveness is more important than team size, the League team will eventually be even larger than it is today as we develop the next phase of League,” Merrill says. Riot announced cuts affecting more than 500 people in January.

Then check out the full list of recommended specs, which were released today. (The game is also verified for Steam Deck!) On PS5 and Xbox Series X / S, Dragon Age: The Veilguard will have fidelity and performance modes that will target 30 and 60 fps, respectively.

The game will release globally at 12PM ET on October 31st.

There are lots of free demos to try during the fest, which runs through October 21st. Personally, I’ll be checking out the demo for Windblown, the new roguelike from creator Motion Twin coming out this month.

“Junk Store has been approved for sale on the Steam Store!” its developers write — before pointing out Valve hasn’t technically approved the Epic Games Store and GOG game installer tool quite yet.

But why shouldn’t they? You can already add Junk Store to a Steam Deck with the Decky Loader sideloading system. I asked Valve; we’ll see!

I don’t know who needs to hear this, because that era of 3D platformers haven’t necessarily aged well — but I’m feeling some nostalgia well up anyhow! The three-game Tomb Raider collection is coming February (trailer below), while Jedi Power Battles (trailer here) is coming January.

Nate Mitchell, the CEO and cofounder of Spectre Divide developer Mountaintop Studios, published a blog post seemingly trying to assuage fears about the game’s concurrent player count, which Mitchell admits is “lower than we’d all like.” Currently, Steam says there are 2,345 people in-game.

The free-to-play shooter launched in early September. Shroud, a hugely popular streamer, was an adviser.

Update: Added player count and Shroud’s involvement.

Meanwhile, the original game has been delisted on Steam, Polygon writes. (You can still get it in a bundle with the remaster, which requires you to link a PSN account.)

Sony introduced the same requirement for God of War: Ragnarök earlier this year, and unlike with Helldivers 2, it hasn’t taken that decision back.

The game already kicked players into a third-person mode when wielding big machine guns — and a modder extended that to the whole single-player game in 2022 — but this November it’ll be an official multiplayer mode at minimum.

Curious if they’ll balance the rocket launcher and sniper rifle. In first-person mode, they’re partially balanced by how much the weapon blocks your view.