The Gamer Guide - Issue 15

The Preamble

So, you have stumbled across The Gamer Guide and you are wondering, “Why do I need a guide to gaming?” Well, we will not guide you on how to game, but we will keep you informed as to what the gaming industry has to offer to get you the best gaming experience! Now, the second thing you are probably wondering is, “How did The Gamer Guide start?” Well, it can be a slightly long story. However, the shortened version is that the journey of three Twitch streamers brought them together, and with their passion for gaming, their experiences of streaming, and their love for everything within the world of entertainment… The Gamer Guide was born.

But what exactly is The Gamer Guide? The Gamer Guide is a digital magazine that focuses on everything gaming and streaming. This includes the latest/upcoming releases, reviews on gaming accessories, streaming tips, and even interviews with streamers and industry professionals from across the globe. Our readership is predominantly other gamers and streamers, just like us! We understand that the love and passion for gaming extends far beyond just playing a game, and that is what we are all about!

So, who are the people behind this magazine?

Brandon Sawyer - Content Director

Brandon who goes by the name of Sawyer is the Co Owner & Content Director of The Gamer Guide. Predominantly Sawyer is an Xbox Gamer where he mostly plays his Xbox Series X but also has a Gaming PC, a Nintendo Switch, and even a Playstation 5, with a variety of platforms this gives Sawyer the ability to review the latest games for TGG. Sawyers main gaming love is Gears of war and RPGs because who doesn’t love an adventure or some chainsaw slaying with a cheeky blind fire or wall bounce. Due to Sawyers vast knowledge and background within the industry he came together with Emily to form The Gamer Guide.

Emily Welfare - Creative Director

Emily, also known as CreativeTrashGaming, came together with Sawyer to form the Gamer Guide, bringing her creative knowledge. Her favourite types of games are those with a compelling story, or those that just make her inner Fantasy Nerd go ballistic. She also likes spooky stuff, not just in the gaming realm but in general, and has a podcast with her two sisters where they discuss all things horror. Emily loves to dabble in the art world often, creating digital art pieces and learning new crafts. A graphics designer in her full time job, Emily is an integral part of the team whom designs the entire layout of our magazines from top to bottom!

Jamie Yong - Operations Manager

Jamie joined The Gamer Guide late 2022 as the Operations Manager. With gaming experience in multiple platforms, Jamie’s preferred platform is PC gaming; from aiming down the sights in an FPS to brandishing swords in the world of MMORPGs. Jamie has come on board to bring you content on your favourite creators; from streamers and YouTubers, to cosplayers and artists!

The Gamer Guide's Tabletop Corner square enix release final fantasy xiv ttrpg

Based on the popular MMO Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix have released a tabletop roleplaying game that lets you experience Eorzea from a whole new perspective! You can choose to be an adventurer or be the GM behind the screen guiding players in their story. You can gather your friends to explore, battle and roleplay, with the only limits being your imagination.

The starter set comes with the Player Book, Gameaster Book, 4 Premade Character Sheets with the clases Warrior, White Mage, Dragoon and Black Mage, some custom dice, the rules and a bunch of encounter maps and character tokens. The recommended number of players is 5, but you can play from 3 onwards. It looks like an incredible game, and, being a lover of FFXIV myself, I will definitely be getting myself a copy to see how it plays! Keep an eye on this space for a review in a later issue!

Written by: Emily Welfare

Our wonderful friends over at Crucial have really looked after us this time by sending over not one, not two but three yes three of their portability SSDs.

X8

First up we have a monster of a portable SSD drive and that is their 4TB x8 portable SSD drive. Now this specific drive is the chunkier of the 3 but still small, compact and convenient. Showcased to work with Windows, MacOS, iPad Pro, Chromebook, PS4 and Xbox one but will work on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, this drive is a beauty with 1050 MB/S read times it runs your library of games perfectly.

Details

The X8 is one of Crucial’s older portable SSDs but still a powerful recommended piece of kit which you can store your files and or games with great confidence and faster speeds. The Crucial X8 runs up to 7.5x faster than most portable HDDs and 100x faster than any USB flash drive on the market making this the go to option for anyone looking to expand portability storage.

Launched in memory sizes of 1TB 2TB and 4TB which we were lucky enough to be gifted a 4TB by Crucial. Interface connectivity with USB-C and USB-A and not only that this drive is very durable with heat and cold durability shock and vibration durability and of course you can drop this without damaging the drive or your storage at 7.5 metres. The design itself is very slick with an anodized aluminium unibody and a 3 year arranty which is very much so welcomed. The X8 is designed for use with Laptops, Tablets, Phones, consoles and much more.

What is inside the box?

First up it is a small packaging as this itself is compact and easily portable, and inside is the X8 of course supplied with a user manual and of course a USB C – C cable with a USB A adapter which is super handy thanks for adding that.

What do we think?

Well the price point is the main factor here starting at £113.99 for 1TB, £208.79 for 2TB and finally £454.79 for 4TB, now this price is definitely something to throw you off but rest assured Crucial never seem to charge full blown retail and without a doubt always have a sale on with writing

Why portability a crucial x8, x9 pro

portability matters

pro and 10x pro review

this up currently 1TB is £56.99, 2TB is £91.99 and 4TB is £195.98 looks a lot healthier for that bank balance now doesn’t it.

Overall for us we ran into not one single flaw and this is becoming a regular occurrence with Crucial they never seem to disappoint us the speeds they boast and the faster they are all come in to be 100% correct I would give this a 10/10 if I could but again we fall down to the price which you pay for what you get and you are getting a lot so the design itself is very slick with an anodized overall we can’t justify anything more than a 9/10 solely down to price point without sales that is, the sales are arguably the correct price point for such a product.

X9 Pro

Second up for our review on portability matters is the all new X9 Pro, this time Crucial sent us a 2TB version as the 4TB ones are in small supply and not the easiest to come by. The X9 Pro offers plug-and-play compatibility with Windows, Mac, Android™, iPad, PC, Linux, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles via an included USB-C cable.

Details

The X9 Pro is one of Crucial newest portable SSDs alongside their all new X10 Pro that is. The X9 Pro runs similar to the X8 with speeds of up to 1050 MB/S. The X9 Pro comes in 3 sizes, the same as the X8 a 1TB, 2TB and 4TB version. Once again we have great durability even better this time around with added Water, dust and sand resistance making this an all tertian SSD.

An even better warranty this time around is 5 years and as per all SSDs Crucial supplies great encryption but this one has password protection and 256-bit AES hardware encryption to really protect those files. The Crucial X9 Pro Portable SSD comes in anodized aluminium with a rubberized soft-touch base in a mini 65 x 50 mm design that includes a drive activity light in the integrated lanyard hole which in my opinion makes this one of the slickest designs to date.

What is inside the box?

Well first up is of course the X9 Pro with its slick silver like design and of course compact small packaging, a USB-C to C cable and of course an instruction manual.

What do we think?

I personally love the design. I love how small and compact it is. I love that they have an ability to clip this onto stuff great for on the go. But again we come to a price point and with these only recently coming out there is zero sales which again could be a non-buy moment for some consumers. So what exactly is the pricing? Well the 1TB is £85.19, 2TB is £151.19 and the 4TB is £274.19 so overall pricing is a lot cheaper than its predecessor the X8 so already the X9 Pro takes the lead here for us scoring another strong 9/10 as we again came with zero flaws just a price point the read speeds all matched up to what they boast about Crucial really do make a product shine.

X10 Pro

Finally we have the X10 Pro which in my opinion is the best of the three. The slick black design is so eye-catching and the fact that it can read at 2100 MB/S and write at 2000 MB/S is an absoluteshocker. Showcased more towards gaming the X10 Pro works with Windows, Mac, Android, iPad, PC, Linux, Xbox and PlayStation gaming consoles, all via a plug-and-play USB-C cable.

Details

As mentio0ned briefly this SSD has speeds which read at 2100 MB/S and write at 2000 MB/S. Again a capacity range of 1TB, 2TB and 4TB but in our case again Crucial hooked us up with the 2TB version. Compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, iPad, PC, and Linux and durability once again tackles Water, dust, and sand resistance.

A 5 year warranty similar to the X9 Pro and of course password protected encryption is once again a thing for the X10. So all in all pretty similar to the X9 Pro minus the huge leap in speeds and the slicker black design. Regards to the design, the Crucial X10 Pro Portable SSD comes in anodized aluminium with a rubberized soft-touch base in a mini 65 x 50 mm design that includes a drive activity light in the integrated lanyard hole.

What is inside the box?

Exactly the same as the X9 Pro apart from instead of a X9 Pro you have a X10 Pro so with that again you get the X10 Pro, a USB-C to C

cable and an instruction manual.

What do we think?

Well this is my favourite of the three with those read and write speeds alone and the slicker design if you’re going all out this is the one for you. Price point again with more speeds what can you expect on price well we shall tell you and yes there’s no sale on this either, the 1TB is £123.59, 2TB is £199.19 and the 4TB is £322.79 making this even cheaper than full retail X8 wow shocker but I suppose the way newer stuff arrives the price has to come down.

As per Crucial has not disappointed we ran multiple tests and found out their read and writespeeds were spot on a slight decrease from max but it states up to which if pushed it does reach, same goes for all three remember it’s up to not guaranteed but most of the time it hits that speed.

I can’t seem to find a flaw on any of these portable SSDs, just a moan of the budget friendly side but again you get what you pay for so I can happily slap a 9/10 once again with a 9/10 across the board, a great score for a fantastic product.

Why pick the x8?

Well it’s an older product which means the sales can make it super cost efficient for the highest of storage making it the most cost efficient for a 4TB drive during a sale that is and only a sale.

Why pick the X9 pro?

Well a newer product with much better warranty and full blown retail makes it in the middle for your budget putting this in a good place if you want something smaller which has more of a warranty and looks less chunky and slicker than a X8.

Why pick the X10 Pro?

Best overall design, best speeds and price point is somewhat in the middle but of course you get what you pay for and in my opinion if you have the money and you want something small that will last and keep everything super safe and encrypted the X10 is the one for you.

To summarise

Right, my final input on which of the three would I personally choose?

Well the X10 Pro is the one for me through and through those speeds are just not to be missed and the price is pretty reasonable, you know the saying i’ve used it enough you get what you pay for and with storage and encryption plus safety you really don’t want to skimp out on this. New always isn’t better but in this case it is do yourself a favour deep into those pockets a little more and go with the X10 pro but if you can’t hit the reach on price look back at my key points you’ll soon decide and either of the three are fantastic products by Crucial you’d be onto a winner with any.

As always thank you so much to Crucial for giving us these three products. It’s been a pleasure to review them and they will go to use in storing all the content we use and provide here at The Gamer Guide.

www.crucial.com

Facebook: @CrucialMemory

Twitter: @CrucialMemory

Instagram: @crucial_memory

YouTube: @CrucialMemory

Once again our great friends over at ZOTAC UK have kindly sent us yet another graphics card to review, a little bit less power than before (4070) but this time it’s a special kick with your buck.

Introducing Zotac and their all new RTX 4060 Spider-Verse special edition GPU, now if you are thinking what I was, this GPU is going to have a cool GPU custom Spider-Verse casing mistaken we very much so was, however, inside are stickers to make that GPU look all super Spidey and what not. As you may know we tend to review our products differently each time based on what we have and with this specific product we are going to dive in first with the pros and cons to such a product.

Pros

First up this GPU comes with LSS 3 frame generation and that it provides excellent energy efficiency which is required nowadays for most builds, We can’t forget about the performance improvements they have made to Ray Tracing, of course this being Spider-Man themed is a pro in its own, the card itself is physically compacted and overclocked right out of the box, a feature I do quite enjoy is ide fan – stop a great simple solution, this GPU does come with a backplate also for more protection inside the casing, support for HDMI 2.1 & AV1 hardware encoder and decoder which again is a great addition and finally there is a 5 nanometre production process which is a nicer addition.

Cons

The elephant in the room of course is the price it’s a little more pricier for a few stickers and a theme but as a fan of Spider-Man its worst the extra cost, there is only a small performance gain over the 3060 which isn’t great having reviewed the 3060 this wasn’t great to find out, we mentioned idling those fans earlier well for this con the power while idling is quite high which can be a problem, only yes only PCIe x8 interface and finally there is no Display Port 2.0 Support a little strange I know.

4060 Details

So down to the 4060 which came out back in June, with this specific card it seems NVIDIA is going after gamers using monitors with the most popular 1080p Full HD resolution. While the RTX 4060 Ti was targeted at the same crowd, it offers higher performance at a higher price. The RTX 4060 in today’s review is crafted to reach the psychologically important $299 price point. To achieve that, NVIDIA is using their AD107 graphics processor, the smallest Ada GPU available. RTX 4060 Ti uses the bigger AD106, both are fabricated at TSMC Taiwan using a 5 nanometre process. You get 3072 GPU cores, which is the maximum available on AD107, paired with 48 ROPs, 96 TMUs and 24 RT cores. Memory capacity is set to 8 GB, with a 128-bit memory bus, there will not be a 16 GB version of RTX 4060.

With the RTX 4060 Spider-Man OC, Zotac has engineered a cost-effective RTX 4060 that still covers all bases and even includes a small factory overclock. I also like that they are giving us SpiderMan licensed goodies such as backplate decals, stickers, fan hub badges, etc., at no additional price increase—others charge extra for that. Included in the box are some goodies that let you customise your card’s look—or you can stick to the clean grey baseline looks. The factory OC is small, just 15 MHz, or 0.6%—something you’d never notice.

How does the 4060 stand against its competitors or predecessors?

We tested this specific 4060 with over 10 games at 1080p, we found that the RTX 4060 hits out at 4% ahead of its competitors AMD and their Radeon RX 7600, although that may seem like a lead it isn’t able to beat last generation’s RTX 3060 Ti, which remains 10% faster.

NVIDIA’s ageing RTX 2080 offers roughly the same performance as the RTX 4060 shocker right? and the gap to the four year old Radeon RX 5700 XT is only 20%. With these performance levels, RTX 4060 is a solid choice for gaming at Full HD and you’ll be comfortably getting 60+ FPS in nearly all titles at maximum settings. Gaming at 1440p is in reach at decent FPS rates, too, but you’ll have to reduce settings in some games, or enable upscaling with DLSS/FSR.

Ray Tracing

While I think that ray tracing isn’t the most important technology to have in this segment, it’s still some extra eye-candy that a lot of games come with these days, you know the ones you need to make that puddle look super realistic. Enabling ray tracing significantly impacts performance if you weren’t aware which can be troublesome if you’re struggling to maintain a frame rate above 60 FPS.

On the other hand in games where you have extra FPS to spare, activating ray tracing can further enhance the visual experience, beyond classic “ultra” settings. NVIDIA has been the leader in ray tracing for years and RTX 4060 isn’t any different. While AMD has to execute ray tracing in their shader cores, NVIDIA has dedicated hardware units, which can take over that task. Compared to AMD’s Radeon RX 7600, the RTX 4060 offers 22% better RT performance and is even able to beat the Radeon RX 6700 XT with its 12 GB framebuffer which if you have the ability to power up those extra frames the 4060 could really produce some stunning scenes.

DLSS 3

Probably the most important selling point for the GeForce RTX 4060 is support for DLSS 3 Frame Generation. The algorithm takes two frames, measures how things have moved in those two frames and calculates an intermediate frame in which these things moved only half the distance. While this approach is definitely not problem-free,

especially when pixel-peeping at stills or slowed down video, in real-time it’s nearly impossible to notice any difference. As you run at higher FPS and resolution it becomes even more difficult, because the deltas between each frame are getting smaller and smaller. Being able to double your FPS is a huge capability because it means you can enable ray tracing for free or game at higher resolutions. Of course you are limited to games with DLSS 3 support of which there are currently around 40 which happen to mostly be AAA titles but not every title will support it.

VRAM

Now I once spoke about this before and the GeForce RTX 4060 comes with an 8 GB VRAM buffer which is 4 GB less than last generation’s RTX 3060. This is a total non-issue for now but longevity could run into a problem. I think they should at least stand at 12 GB or above nowadays. However playing the Last Of Us which is a memory stealer at 1080p the RTX 4060 is still 8% faster than the RTX 3060.

During our testing period which does include some of the latest games I did find it very hard to spot significant FPS issues with the RTX 4060. No doubt, you can find edge cases where 8 GB will not be enough, but for thousands of games it will be a complete non-issue for now. I think it’s not unreasonable for buyers in this price-sensitive segment to set textures to High instead of Ultra, for two or three titles. However If you still want more memory, then NVIDIA has you covered. The RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB launched in July, for $500, and gives people a chance to put their money where their mouth is. Although I doubt there will be enough of a difference to justify the cost.

Cooling

Zotac’s cooler does a good job at keeping the card cool, without too much noise. 70°C and 33.7 dBA is an excellent balance between noise and temperatures, given the underlying cooling capability and heat output of the GPU. While that noise level is not “quiet,” it is good enough to make this card enjoyable and it’s actually the secondbest result today, only the ASUS Dual is quieter. In our cooler comparison test we found out that Zotac’s cooler is a solid design that sits roughly in the middle of the pack. Just a powerful cooler won’t be enough you need the right fan settings for it, good job Zotac! Just like all other recent graphics card releases, the RTX 4060 Spider-Man will stop its fans in idle, desktop work, internet browsing and light gaming.

Energy efficiency

Improving energy efficiency has been a major focus for all GPU makers for years. RTX 4060 is a highly energy-efficient design that consumes around 130 W during gaming which is very impressive. This result is a little bit better than the ~150 W on Radeon RX 7600, and considerably lower than the 180 W we’ve measured on RTX 3060.

PSU

PSU requirements of the RTX 4060 are minimal, any PSU that has an 8-pin power cable will be able to run the RTX 4060 just fine. For costsavings, the RTX 4060 doesn’t have dedicated board power monitoring hardware on the PCB, so the power draw is estimated, which results in unexpected readings in GPU-Z, and the power throttling mechanism is very aggressive in Furmark, which runs at only 110 W, while actual games reach up to around 130 W.

Pricing

NVIDIA has set a $300 MSRP for the RTX 4060, which Zotac is able to match. Considering the Spider-Man branding (which comes with some licence fees, no doubt), and the factory OC, I’m happy to see $300 and not $320, which some other vendors would charge in Zotac’s place, no doubt. Still, even that price point seems rather high, considering that performance is similar to the RX 7600, which launched at $270 and is currently sold for $250. Without question, the RTX 4060 is a decent card, but when looking at alternatives, combined with its price point, it’s very “meh.” While AMD lacked a clear unique selling point with the RX 7600, NVIDIA has DLSS 3.

As awesome as it is, I feel that paying $50, or +20%. for DLSS 3 a bit much, especially considering the relatively short game support list. Where it works, it is a game-changer, especially in single-player. While this pricing strategy against RX 7600 is nothing new, it’s actually textbook NVIDIA, there’s just so many good alternatives available on the market at this time. For example, GeForce RTX 3070 can be found for $320 these days, with considerably higher performance in both rasterization and ray tracing. A used RTX 2080 costs $240 at the moment and offers virtually the same FPS as

the RTX 4060 it just lacks DLSS 3 which is not an unreasonable trade-off for the $60 saved.

At $300 the RTX 4060 may be a tough sell, at $270 and below things will be better and at sub$250 it’s probably the best option available. Given these high hardware prices I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of PC gamers start considering the various game consoles. Microsoft’s Xbox Series S sells for $300, the Sony PS5 Digital for $400 - the price of just the graphics card. Both will give you a first-class gaming experience without shader compilation stutters and other PC port troubles. Gaming at 4K works well, and ray tracing is included in most titles. No doubt, the visual quality will be lower than on a highend gaming PC, but it’ll be good enough for a lot of people who just want to enjoy their games and feel like they are getting priced out of the PC gaming market.

To summarise

I, for one, would still recommend this GPU to most prospective builders of mid-range PCs, provided they’re sticking to 1080p and/or don’t already have a good 30-series card lying around. But it would be a grudging endorsement, delivered due to a lack of credible alternatives as much as the RTX 4060’s own merits. If you were to however pick up the 4060 then I would most definitely recommend ZOTAC as stated in my review they do up the bar and support the consumers not only with these custom launches but they also add to air flow and design to perfect the original product. Our final score being a Spider-Man fan this would get a 10/10 all day for me but its not on fandom but shear performance and for the price and product this specific rating only just manage to scrape by into thew 7/10 bracket from us here at TGG.

As always we can’t thank our wonderful friends over at ZOTAC for providing us this product, we really did love the design and was somewhat blown away with the product. Why not check out their store today and secure one of your very own RTX 4060s. That’s me Sawyer signing off, thank you for everything ZOTAC and readers. We hope you loved the article and we hope to catch you in the next one!

Check out their website here: www.zotac.com

i3-13100F CPU Review

Intel sent us over their all new 13th Gen CPU which is the i3-13100F which we found to be basically a rehash of the previous-gen model with a slightly higher price and clock speeds, although performance gains are pretty limited. It slots in as a solid performer in its price class which there isn’t many who can tackle the price but the previous-gen Core i3-12100F offers almost the same level of gaming performance and often costs less which is a real shame.

First up what are our pros and cons for such a product well we will start with the pros, Gaming performance is pretty strong you can run most games which is what most people are looking at, it also supports DDR4 which again is more cost efficient to not be struck to the higher of the DDR5 range, it also supports PCIe 5.0 which is great for upcoming components not requiring you to upgrade so soon and of course it has single threaded performance which is a great thing to have.

Now onto the cons, of course the higher pricing of the predecessor is one to note will little to similar specs, No CPU core overclocking of course is a huge one to note as many do overclock these days, a limit on memory overclocking also and comparatively slow in thread applications which is a slight downfall. Now we have got the pros and cons out of the way lets deep dive into this CPU and explain why and what we have found.

The Intel Core i3-13100F comes to market with big shoes to fill its predecessor, the Core i3-12100F, built a reputation as the best budget CPU for gaming. Intel is obviously looking to repeat that success, but perhaps the Core i3-13100F follows in the footsteps of its predecessor too closely, the company repurposed the previous-gen design for the Core i3-13100 so it has the same four p-cores paired with an ever-so-slightly-improved 200 MHz higher boost clock of 4.5 GHz.

The 13100F addresses the sub-$150 budget segment, so pricing is critical. However, while Intel launched the previous-gen graphics-less Core i312100F at $104, it later quietly raised pricing. So naturally, that leads to higher prices for the new Core i3 models, too. As such, Intel’s recommended pricing has jumped to $144 for the full-fledged Core i3-13100 model and $119 for the graphicsless 13100F model. That’s a 12% and 15% genon-gen price increase, respectively. Meanwhile, AMD might have moved forward to its new AM5 platform for its high-end Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 chips, but it also refreshed its Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 lineup to address the lower end of the market with its AM4 motherboards. The new Zen 3 processors initially arrived with slightly higher price tags than expected, but they now represent an exceptional value at their current pricing.

That leaves Intel’s quad-core chip battling two sixcore processors: The $144 Core i3-13100 faces stiff competition from the $140 Ryzen 5 5600, while the $119 Core i3-13100F squares off with the $99 Ryzen 5 5500. Both AMD chips drop into the inexpensive and plentiful AM4 chipset ecosystem, giving builders plenty of affordable options for budget builds, thus creating a fierce contest for a spot on the list of best CPUs for gaming. Let’s see how the Core i3-13100F stands up to the pressure. Retail pricing for AMD and Intel’s chips now diverges widely from suggested pricing, so here we’ve listed the latest street prices. Intel has

used re-badged silicon for its lower-end chips in the past and continues that practice with its new lineup. So while the new Core i3 models slot into the 13th-Gen Raptor Lake family, Intel re-uses the previous-gen 12th-Gen Alder Lake ‘Intel 7’ silicon and Golden Cove core architecture. Intel also takes this approach with some of the Core i5 models, like the Core i5-13400.

As such, outside of some microcode tuning, the 13100 is identical to the 12100. That is evident from the L2 cache capacity, which weighs in at 1.25 MB per core for the 13100. In contrast, the truly new Raptor Cove cores come with 2MB per core. Like its predecessor, the Core i3-13100/F comes with four performance cores and eight threads, but no e-cores for background tasks. Intel sprinkled on 200 MHz of extra boost frequency (+5%), bringing it to 4.5 GHz, and 100 MHz higher base clock (+3%), bringing it to 4.3 GHz. The clock speed adjustments are all that Intel has to justify the step up to 13th-Gen branding and the much higher price tag.

As before, the 13100 has a 60W / 89W processor base/max turbo power, 16 PCIe 5.0 lanes and four PCIe 4.0 lanes, and support up to DDR4-3200 and

DDR5-4800 MT/s (caveats apply to DDR5 support). Intel’s non-K models don’t allow overclocking the CPU cores, but they do support memory overclocking. Unfortunately, the company’s nonsensical decision to keep certain voltages locked restricts DDR4’s overclocking headroom, so gains are limited.

The standard Core i3-13100 comes with the UHD Graphics 730 engine and 24 EUs that run at 300/1500 MHz base/boost frequencies. You can save some cash by going without graphics with the F-series model, but that means you will lose Quick Sync capabilities and the iGPU fallback that you can use for troubleshooting. Otherwise, the chips provide the same performance.

The 13100 models drop into either 600- or 700-series motherboards and come with a bundled Laminar RM1 cooler that is sufficient for cooling the chip under normal conditions, albeit at the expense of a higher noise level than you’d get with a better cooler. The six-core 12-thread Ryzen 5 5600 is a 7nm Vermeer model that debuted at $199, but its new $140 price point makes a lot more sense. This chip is the ‘non-X’ version of the Ryzen 5 5600X, so the two chips are nearly

identical besides the 5600’s reduced 3.5 / 4.4 GHz base/boost clock. Overall, the 5600 has the same feature set we see with other chiplet-based Zen 3 chips.

AMD’s lowest-end Zen 3 chip, the Ryzen 5 5500, debuted at $150 but now retails for a mere $99. For this chip, AMD repurposed its monolithic (single-chip) Cezanne silicon that it typically uses for APUs but disabled the chip’s integrated Radeon Vega graphics engine. That leaves us with a sixcore 12-thread chip that looks and largely acts like a standard Vermeer processor. The 5500 has the same design as the Ryzen 5 5600G, including support for PCIe 3.0 instead of PCIe 4.0. As a result, this chip will make a great pairing for older, lowerend AM4 motherboards (you definitely don’t want to pay for functionality you don’t need by pairing it with a PCIe 4.0-supporting motherboard). The 5500 wields a 3.6 / 4.2 GHz base/boost clock.

In contrast to the locked Core i3 lineup, the Ryzen chips are fully unlocked for overclocking the CPU cores, memory, and fabric, and like their more fullfledged counterparts, both chips come with a

bundled Wraith Stealth cooler that is sufficient for stock operation. They also support up to DDR43200 memory. Neither chip has a functional iGPU, so you’ll need to plan for a discrete GPU.

So to conclude and finalise, for us this CPU is great for a budget build but there is way too much competition and cheaper alternatives for similar specs if you can’t find its predecessor for cheaper then do pick up the i3 13100f as for the price and the gaming quality you so get it fits in any budget build for a cheaper solution,

To rate such a GPU we would give this a 7/10 down to the cons mainly for the score and the predator really struggling to make this a fullyfledged upgrade.

As always we thank Intel so much for supplying us with this CPU and we look forward to working on more and even newer more powerful chips in the future.

Make sure to check out intel and their socials below.

Facebook: @Intel

Twitter/X: @Intel

Instagram: @intel

Our wonderful friends over at Tecware UK have hooked us up with not one but two of their all new keyboards, Those keyboards are the Phantom+ and Phantom Elite.

Phantom+

Let’s start first up with the Phantom+ which is Tecware’s new addition to their keyboard range with their previous keyboard being the original Phantom, now the phantom+ is a mechanical keyboard with a 87 key or 104 key layout for these specific review we got the 87 key layout which for us is the ideal option for us gamers and content creators as not only does it make it more compact it gives you that easier reach and access.

Details

The Phantom+ brings with it great RGB 16.8 million colour RGB illumination and 18 pre-set lighting modes, not only that they are wraith lubed switches which come with a RED switch, the switches do come in four colours Red, Pink, Brown and Orange, this does not affect the actual RGB it just produces different forces and travel distance.

This keyboard brings doubled walled and double shot ABS keycaps, v3 stabilisers which are Clipped and lubed stabilisers for a smooth typing experience and sound dampening foam which is multi-layered foam padding combined to reduce the unpleasant noise within the keyboard. Added silicon fillers on the top plate gives keys like the spacebar a more solid sound profile to really reduce the tapping away, personally all keyboards should come with such a design and an addition especially those in a budget friendly range such as Tecware who excel in great products and great price point with this specific keyboard at around £79.99.

Inside the box

So what comes inside the box you ask? Well first up you get the Phantom+ Mechanical keyboard of course, alongside this you get a switch & keycap puller tool, a 1.8m braided USB-C cable and four yes four spare switches.

This product is compatible with Windows 10 & 11 with some official software support via Tecware themselves. You also get a one year warranty with this product.

Stress Test

We stress tested this keyboard first we used right and left handed gamers to get a understanding a feel of which side would benefit and for comfort we can gladly say under some tests both left and right handed gamers found the comfort was on point and the compact ability to game and create content was second to none. We then went onto keyboard wear we intensely loaded up a few keyboard controller games like world of warcraft and league of legends where we found there to be no difference after a few weeks leaving this keyboard sounding and looking almost brand new.

We then decided to use this keyboard to produce articles for you with some serious intense typing over a couple of weeks again we was really impressed we even tried finger marks with food and drink to see if it too had effected the keyboard and we found there to be no damage to the product and everything ran and read as fast as it should, for £79.99 I think this is a bargain it looks good with the 16.8 Million RGB illuminations it glows so great it really makes your setup look that extra awesome.

Lighting modes

Below are listed all 18 preset lighting modes you can choose from.

Breathing - Cycle Colour

Reactive – Ripple

Vertical Wave

Breathing - Fixed Colour

Reactive – Single

Waterfall

Fixed Colour

Reactive – Horizontal

Swirl

Diagonal Wave

Fixed Colour

Ripple

Sine Wave

Vortex

Rain Drops

Horizontal Wave

Pulse Wave

Hurricane

To Summarise

Unfortunately this keyboard currently isn’t available in the UK layout (when writing this but is soon), so we was using the US Qwerty layout which to be honest aint that much of a difference.

For the price you are getting a premium great product for a budget friendly cost, we quite like this keyboard, 3.8mm travel distance, 45g of actuation force and 50g of bottom out force with a linear type you can’t really go wrong for this price, I can’t really see anyone else on the market who manage to match the price and quality that Tecware produce for me this is a across the board 8/10 for me personally there was a few minor things stopping this receive a higher score and it was the silicone space barf filler for me it seems like the spacebar clicks much slower than the keys and overall just the look of the keyboard itself it doesn’t really give off a wow factor for me yes the lightings are great but you don’t have certain cool features like razer does and such but again personal preference on price point comes into factor so if you are on a budget its Tecware all the way.

Phantom+ Elite

Now onto the upgraded Phantom+ the all new Phantom+ Elite what justifies the extra £20 price addition for a keyboard that looks the exact same well let’s see.

Same as the Phantom+ again we have an 87 key US Qwerty layout this keyboard however already gets some brownie points because you can get this in white or black and the white looks so clean with a kind of nostalgia vibe so we are already onto a winner where customisation is a factor, this time however we didn’t get a red wraith prelubed switch but a brown one, what’s the difference you may ask? Well the brown switch is more of a tactile type much better for gaming! It also has a 50g actuation force more than the red and a whopping 63g bottom out force again higher than the red with a same travel distance of 3.8mm which in my opinion makes this already a much better key than the red one.

Details

Starting off with the major difference here in the two is that the ELITE has 3-Modes, which are 2.4gHz Wireless, BT 5.0 and of course a wired

mode but come on for £20 more wireless all the way!

This time the keys are not ABS but Double shot and double walled PBT Keycaps which are much thicker and more durable than before, the silicon space filler is back and to be honest he spacebar is the only thing that puts me off from my fast typing as it seems to slowly click in my opinion whereas key clicks much faster.

The overall slick look of the Elite+ however gives off a whiter and grey look or a black and grey look which is slick in itself. The sound dampening is back which I personally love whereas the Razer keyboards that don’t have this are super noisy, with wireless comes a 2500 mAh battery with up to 250 hours of continuous usages time which can vary in brightness of your RGB, speaking of RGB the 16.8 Million RGB illumination is back with a bang same as the previous Phantom+, in addition we have Universal Hot swap 5-pin switch sockets now these are pre-installed with Tecware wraith switches but this allows most aftermarket switches to be compatible with this keyboard.

The Phantom+ Elite is currently priced at £99.99 which for me for a wireless prem ium keyboard is totally budget friendly, consumer friendly and an all-around a hit.

Inside the box

This time we have a couple of additions to inside this box again getting so much more for that extra £20. Starting off with the Phantom+ Elite Mechanical Keyboard of course, a Switch and Keycap Puller Tool which is a must for all keyboards, That sweet 1.8m braided USB-C Coiled cable making it give off early 90s house phone vibes, Mr game changer the 2.4gHz Wireless USB Dongle, a multimedia function guide and of course those sweet 4 spare switches.

This product is compatible with Windows 10 & 11 with some official software support via Tecware themselves.

You also get a one year warranty with this product.

Stress Test

First up is the elephant in the room: how long at full charge does this last? I used the keyboard intensively for a good month logging easily 150+ hours wireless and I haven’t had to charge it yet! To me that’s a solid guarantee right there, The braided coiled USB C cable has held up super well also that’s because i’ve not even used it yet! But it still looks brand new, that’s because it is… I did however pull it around a bit and it seemed super durable.

Now again we used a left hand gamer and a right hand gamer to really test this product out and once again we were very pleased with the outcome hitting great comfort and being able to have thew on your laptop for some chilled sit back typing great for gaming too! We once again used foot and drink to see how it would react with that again very happy with the outcome similar to the previous of course. Now here is a flaw. I found the case kept on clicking open from the top left corner making it super annoying thinking I’d broken the

whole thing. I do think this is intentional to get to your circuit board but damn it was frustrating making me rethink my overall score unfortunately. We also intensely gamed playing some CS:GO and even the all new Starfield we were very pleased with this outcome.

We then decided to use this keyboard to produce articles for you with some serious intense typing over a couple of weeks again we was really impressed and we found there to be no damage to the product and everything ran and read as fast as it should, for £99.99 I think this is a bargain it also like the non-elite looks good with the 16.8 Million RGB illuminations it glows so great it also really makes your set up look that extra awesome.

Lighting modes

Below are listed all 18 preset lighting modes you can choose from which are the exact same as the Phantom+.

Breathing - Cycle Colour

Reactive – Ripple

Vertical Wave

Breathing - Fixed Colour

Reactive – Single

Waterfall

Fixed Colour

Reactive – Horizontal

Swirl

Diagonal Wave

Fixed Colour

Ripple

Sine Wave

Vortex

Rain Drops

Horizontal Wave

Pulse Wave

Hurricane

To Summarise

Unfortunately this keyboard currently isn’t available in the UK layout (when writing this but is soon), so we was using the US Qwerty layout which to be honest aint that much of a difference. Once again for the price you are getting a premium great product for a budget friendly cost, we do prefer the Phantom+ Elite over the Phantom+, 3.8mm travel distance, 50g of actuation force and

58g of bottom out force with a Tactile type you can’t really go wrong for this price.

I can’t really see anyone else on the market who manage to match the price and quality that Tecware produce for me once again, However that clipping for the casing has really bugged me and I didn’t want to originally give this a 9/10 succussing the Phantom+ but I can’t justify that annoying possible feature so it’s coming in high because over all we are pleased and happy to give a mid-tier 8/10 for me personally the casing coming off and the silicone sticking of the spacebar I just can’t justify a higher score.

For price though Tecware have this spot on £79.99 for the non-wireless Phantom+ but oh my add £20 to that and you get so much more with the Phantom+ Elite priced at £99.99, do yourself a favour and make that extra budget choice as wireless is such a need nowadays.

Overall Tecware is a great brand they make the product you want as a budget friendly price these are not to be overlooked and you should really check them out today we can give Tecware an overall 8/10 across the board which to us is a great score as you should check them out which you can do so below.

Tecware Forge L & Mirage 360 Combo Review

We are back once again with our great friends over at Tecware and this time we are showing you again their budget friendly products with one being a PC case and the other being a liquid cooling system. Those being the Forge L PC ATX compatible Tower/Case & their Mirage 360 RGB liquid cooling system that doesn’t actually use any liquid you put in yourself.

Forge L

Now first we will dive into the Forge L and then follow that up with the Mirage which you put into your cases with the Forge L being compatible with the Mirage.

Details

The Forge L is a High airflow ATX Case now ATX is very important here as some motherboards are micro ATX factor so please make sure your motherboard is a ATX when purchasing such a case.The Forge L comes with Pre installed OMNI P1 intake and exhaust fans that are PWM & ARGB Compatible great for making your setup super colourful, the control fan speed is from 800-=1800 RPM which with minimise noise and maximise airflow, the front of the case provides a full mesh panel which again increases air flow.

On top of the case however is a button which

allows you to toggle between various different lighting modes via the LED button, or you can sync with ARGB capable motherboards, not only that we have supplied an all in one universal controller which sync compatible across multiple RGB devices providing 8 ports with a 3-pin header, 8 ports for PWM fans to connect and of course powered by SATA.

Inside the box

First up you get the Forge L with a great glass panel, 3 supplied OMNI fans and of course the all in one controller.

What do we think?

Well at a price of £79.99 and 3 fans included you must be mad not to choose a case like this with its maximised airflow and slick look and of course beautiful ARGB you can’t go wrong at all, we also built a full brand new PC in this case and it has

been going strong for around 2/3 months now no issue whatsoever glows wonderful and really makes your setup shine. The only thing I’m not a huge fan of is the mesh on the end but it does add to an increase with airflow.

On that not overall price point spot on, design is slick, ARGB runs flawlessly, what more could you ask for maybe instead of dropping hundreds on a case check out Tecware who deserve so much more notoriety.

To rate this case?

We can comfortably give this case a 9/10 with just the mesh being the only down size and possibly the case being a tad heavy. What do you expect? It is an L as in Large tower.

this enhance your system with a beautiful mirror LED Ring effect, but you can also re-orientate the logo with the adjustable 4-position cap.

The Mirage brings a low-resistance radiator, which is pure aluminium high density fins which increase heat dissipation which effectively reduces your CPU temperature and very quickly at that. The tubing itself is sleeved with FEP Tubing, which is flexible and corrosion resistant, bringing reduced coolant evaporation rate.

On top of that we managed to get the 360 version which in itself comes 3 OMNI high pressure fans which are designed to maximise the thermal dissipation from the high density radiator. All of this is PWM and ARGB Sync compatible.

And finally the All in one universal controller which comes with this also which as you can imagine is sync compatible across multiple ARGB devices.

Mirage 360 RGB Liquid Cooler

Now this is a cool thing which most setups need and that is the Mirage 360 RGB Cooler by Tecware rocking a 3 set of RGB fans attached to a beautiful Tecware Mirage screen to cover your CPU.

The Mirage series comes in a 120, 240 and 360 the difference between the three are fans and size with the 360 being which was supplied filling the whole top of your PC chassis providing three full fans.

Details

The Mirage delivers optimal cooling performance paired with a beautiful aesthetic, not only does

Whats inside the box?

Inside the box comes a bunch of things for you to get your all new Mirage setup. First up we have the Mirage itself that is the 360 for us. Secondly this is a must and we are great that Tecware supplies this with their cooler and that is AMD and Intel CPU sockets great addition right there. We can’t forget the supplied three fans which come in the 360 set, fan and radiator mounting screws which of course are a must, now this is a bonus and its very much so welcomed as when fitting a CPU this is majority a must have and that is a 0.5g tube of

thermal compound or thermal paste as to many and lastly a 6 port all in one controller supporting PWM and ARGB.

What do we think?

Well at a price point of £89.99 which in itself is more than the case we showcased but you have to think this thing is protecting your CPU and it protects it very well you have already saved a bunch of your chassis choosing the Forge L splash out a little more on the cooler after all it is super cool looking.

Not only that this slick premium design is much cheaper than their competitors and it makes any build look super clean. I just wish you could maybe change the mirror to a custom one. I’d like some Dragonball ones if possible, thanks! Tecware x Dragonball I can see it!

What do we rate this?

On that note the cable length is great it fits in the Forge L well and the fans and super clean and efficient so another solid 9/10 for us here at The Gamer Guide with the price maybe putting some people off for a basic CPU fan which are clunky by the way and awful on the eye do your setup a favour and try the Mirage 360 from Tecware it honestly is a game changer.

Final

Finally across the board this is a fantastic combo pairing up Tecware and their Forge L plus their Mirage 360 liquid cooler. Overall rating is a strong 9/10 so in that case we highly recommend you check these out not only because they are budget friendly their product is super premium and great on the eyes. Make sure to check out Tecware which you can do below.

portable touchscreen monitor 15.6 full hd pmt-15

Here is a new name we haven’t seen in a while or at all within our magazine and that is of course Verbatim, now you may be asking who Verbatim are, just like we did until we remembered the old DVD/CD Rs they make. Verbatim’s products are sold in over 120 countries with a line-up that includes Optical Storage Media, USB Drives, Memory Cards, Hard Drives, Solid State Drives (SSDs), Mobile Accessories and Filaments for 3D Printing. Verbatim’s R&D strength and technology leadership combined with its demanding quality control during the manufacturing processes guarantees first-class products and Technology you can Trust.

Now you know that and the fact they have been around for 50+ years we are glad to have them peak an interest to us here at The Gamer Guide. Verbatim however hooked us up with their all new Verbatim PMT-15 Portable Touchscreen Monitor 15.6” Full HD 1080p Metal Housing to review for you all today.

Details

Verbatims all new Portable monitor comes with a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 and 16.7M colours, supporting capacitive 10-point multitouch with G+G technology, not only that the panel itself is a IPS Panel with a full viewing angle of 178° and 16:9 screen ratio. With this specific model it also introduces HDR technology which improves picture quality creating a fantastic viewing experience.

The housing itself that protects the monitor is very solid and durable aluminium housing, not only that it is ultra slim and light weight with an integrated speaker.

For compatibility this monitor is designed for work, travelling and or gaming as you can connect the portable monitor to your PC, Mac, Tablet, Phone and or consoles with USB-C or HDMI making this a game changer for on the go Xbox Series S gaming. With a One Cable Solution this allows a plug and play setup of compatible devices via USB-C connection.

Finally the monitor itself has the ability to connect to an audio jack which will allow you to add speakers and or headphones. And of course a nice slick neoprene protective sleeve to make sure you can transport this monitor securely and safely.

The system requirements are of course use of HDMI (Power Supply required, included) and USB-C supporting DisplayPort Alt Mode with compatibility with Android OS, Windows 11/10/8, Mac OS, iOS (Adapter required for Lightning devices, not included ,Touch Screen function not supported by iOS/iPadOS) although I hadn’t been able to connect my iPhone 14 Pro it would have been nice to include a lightning cable too.

This product also comes with a 2 year warranty which is always a bonus.

What’s inside the Box?

Well first of course is the Verbatim PMT-15 Portable Touchscreen Monitor 15.6” Full HD 1080p Metal Housing, accompanied with that is a USB-C to USB-C Cable 1.0M and of course a HDMI-HDMI Cable 1.5M and even a USB-A to USB-C Cable 1.5M, they really spoilt us with all these cables that’s for sure.

Alongside all that you get an EU power supply with UK adapter (5V 3A) a Neoprene Protection Sleeve and finally a Quick Start Guide, so overall you are really kitted out as terms of what you may need the only thing I would have added was DP support but that’s me.

Specs

So what are the overall specs? Well we have listed them all below for you.

• Size: 15.6 inch

• Dimensions (WxHxD): 357.10 (H) x 215 (V) x 6/12mm (D) (Min/Max)

• Net weight: 1180g

• Panel: Capacitive Touch Panel, IPS Technology

• Panel type: 10-point multi-touch with G+G technology

• Contrast (typical): 800:1

• Resolution (H x V): 1920 x 1080

• Aspect ratio: 16:9

• Brightness: 250 cd/m2

• Response Time (Typical GTG): 6ms

• Response Time (Typical Tr+Tf): 14+11 ms

• Response Time (BtW): 10ms

• View angles LR,UD (CR>10): H 178°/ V

178°(Min)

• Display colours: 16.7M colours

• Input 1: USB-C x 2 (Full-featured USB-C)

• Input 2: Standard HDMI (1.4) x 1

• Input 3: USB-A 2.0 x 1

• Output: 3.5 mm Audio jack

• Supports: HDR, FreeSync, Low Blue Light

• Stand: Built-in kickstand, Tilt: from 0° up to 85°

• Frame material: Aluminium

Energy Efficiency Rating: A

What do we think?

First up portability is great, colour is great, supplied cables great, speed is also great and the price of this item currently being £179.99 which to me is an amazing budget friendly price for what you actually get so onto a winner here but it isn’t all perfect and I will explain why.

So I tried to connect this via mobile which it states you can and using an apple device (an iPhone 14 Pro) I had zero luck with cables and such to even connect at all however I did not try an android device but that was a first thumbs down. Secondly I connected it to a laptop and it read super-fast via HDMI, a great start point but the touchscreen didn’t seem to work again, another thumbs down. I then went on to test via an Xbox Series X & S and a PS5 and the results were higher that I had initially expected it look great and ran super smooth so there’s a thumbs up there and a huge one as I see this monitor as something on the go or a second one for your streaming chat would be a great selling point for streamers to closely monitor their chat and priced under most monitors this would be a great sell.

Now an additional test I decided to do was play the all new Starfield game I used HDMI connectivity to my PC and it seeming less connected and ran smoothly we was hitting 1080p super smoothly and the game looked great with zero screen tear or any issue we ran this test for 12 hours straight and it was all around great.

Overall

So final verdict: what score do we give this product and do we recommend this? Well of course we recommend it for the price its designed greatly for on the go and under a budget yes there were issues and yes they will be ironed out in the long run.

With us not being able to use the touchscreen feature at first attempt but we did after some fiddling and charging and not being able to connect my iPhone made this come down a tad bit but was gracefully saved with its performance on console and ability to run smoothly on PC at around 6 M/S.

Scoring the Verbatim Portable Touchscreen Monitor 15.6 Full HD PMT–15 a strong 7/10 which is good if you are a creator and want the portability but on a budget and let me tell you the competitors are a long pricier, then this is for you.

So with that verdict we do recommend Verbatim and would love to see what they produce next, as always we can’t thank Verbatim enough for supplying us with this beautiful piece of kit and we look forward to working alongside them in the near future.

Please make sure to check out Verbatim and their socials below.

www.verbatim-europe.co.uk

Facebook: @VerbatimEurope

Instagram: @verbatim.europe

YouTube: @verbatimeurope

Well isn’t this a blast from the past! Having featured this wonderful business way back in January 2022 we thought it would be the perfect time to reach back out and work together again and oh was we impressed once again.

Let’s start off with who Gambit are, Gambit Gaming has combined the love for Gaming and the passion for looking your best. Rooted in the heart of England, Gambit Gaming has taken the cliché, that Gaming clothing has to be loud, brash and un-stylish and turned it on its head. their Goal is to redefine and reimagine what Gaming Clothing is. Geared by this vision Gambit Gaming was founded to create innovative, timeless and iconic products that their customers would be proud to wear anywhere. Their clothing is made to last and with that they use premium fabrics and embroidered crests, so there’s no fading or peeling of stuck on designs and logos.

Gambit gaming creates so wonderful made and beautiful embroidered gaming inspired t shirts and back in January 2022 Gambit sent us a range of their clothing from Halo to Apex and even a god of war inspired tee, now fast forward to today and these t shirts have been washed, dried, ironed, caked in dirt and they still look and feel brand new so a lifelong quality product is always produced from Gambit.

This time around however gambit had a new line of designs which we just had to try and that was their all new Starfield inspired tees, these looked so clean the embroidered logos were beautifully finished and the comfort these t-shirts bring are Nulli Secundus which means second to none.

We also got sent Gambits Horde range which is a gears of war inspired tee that being one of my all-time favourite games however the team really looked after me this time around, however with Gambit there is one thing which hasn’t changed since the start which we mentioned in our first feature and was the fact it is only t shirts at this moment in time I feel with how good quality the tees are Gambit could really produce other forms of clothing and one day produce a full outfit.

On that note there is one thing Gambit has produced which they didn’t have before and that is their creator program, Gambit allows creators to come together and produce a wonderful design which gets embroidered onto a shirt and is up for sale for that creators community or frequent visitors to gambits website, the creator program

initiates a kick back for creators offering you to gain a profit from each sale of your t shirt which Gambit gave me the rundown of how much a creator gets and in my opinion its probs the best kick back out there for clothing, if you are a creator and this is right up your street you should contact Gambit to enquire more about this and check out their creator segment on their website which is still in early days but about to grow massively soon.

Back to the nitty and gritty of product testing, okay so I Sawyer took these t shirts to two gaming conventions here in the UK one being Insomnia The Gaming Festival i71 and the other being WASD x IGN event, now both t shirts I had with me endured hot weather me sweating an awful amount and constant movement where some clothing may rub and mark your skin with gambit this wasn’t the case, the sweat did not stain on linger, the shirt did not rub or cause marks, the shirt was breathable and comfy throughout, even in the heat so on that note why wouldn’t you want to buy one of these.

Pricing of said products is also another factor to consider with gaming inspired t shirts listed at only £20 what an absolute steal not only that there is a causal range at £16 and a next gen range which is also gaming inspired at £12.99 a tee and there’s even a Zelda inspired one at that price, come on what a bargain i’ll have 20 please!

The team over at Gambit Gaming UK are very passionate and friendly really upping the game and do deserve more notoriety of what they do, I personally would rate this product a 10/10 as i’ve had zero faults and some of the tees I have from them are almost two years old, only thing i’d like to see is a variety in different clothing like hats/caps, beanies, hoodies or even jerseys come on Gambit you know we are waiting ha!

Either way I’m impressed and I can guarantee you too would be, and on that note I’m Sawyer it’s been a pleasure, please do head over to their site which you can see below and show some love because they truly deserve it.

www.gambitgaming.co.uk

Facebook: @GambitGamingUK

Instagram: @gambitgaming_uk

Twitter/X: @gambitgaming_UK

We got invited to cover Timeless Gaming Convention back in August 2023, which is a gaming convention but done so differently. First up this isn’t held in places like the NEC or the Excel it’s actually hosted inside a retro arcade called Arcade Club which is situated in Bury, Manchester, UK, Hosted by the wonderful and talented Middle Aged Gamer Guy (MAGG).

Timeless Gaming Convention provides hours of entertainment starting at 10am and wrapping up at 10pm so a 12 hour spectacle of fun and laughter, throughout the day you had some wonderful panels, some great gaming tournaments and plenty of sweet gaming nostalgia and of course lots of great vendors to buy some wonderful gaming related merchandise, The team behind the event is only small with us getting to catch up with MAGG and his wonderful second Aimee, these two really do know how to put on a show.

To Start it off

So let’s start from the beginning of our day we was provided the full VIP treatment with complimentary tickets, we was greeted wonderfully by the team on the door who provided us with our wristbands and had full knowledge about everything what was due to be happening and provided a flyer with all the times we needed for the panels, which was very helpful. Now, arcade club has a bunch of floors with different types of gaming on each so at a first glance on the ground floor there was a handful of arcade games from the retro shootem ups like Time Crysis, to the basket ball hoops and even a few pinball machines and some DDR (dance dance revolution).

Not only that, there were tons and I mean tons of old retro arcade machines and even some up to date ones with Nintendo switch’s on the big screen or even a bunch of Xbox’s! We did play Fortnite on a cinema screen which was a cool experience. We brought along our children for the day as Timeless Gaming Con is a family friendly event and they where very pleased and happy with the range of activities the arcade had on for them.

Family Friendly Event

Timeless Gaming Con being family friendly should

bring all gamers to this once a year event. From age 5 upwards your little gamer in training would love this and it doesn’t stop at the games! My two children were struck on the tournaments which were being held especially the intense rocket league battles we saw. Not only that, the event hosted some wonderful and greatly priced food and drink options for visitors. We had settled for pizza, burgers and a couple of nice refreshing slushies. Let’s get down to the panels now and what was on show for the event itself. A range of tournaments were on throughout the day starting off with streetfighter 6. A lot of the audience did get up and get involved with these which was great to see the wonderful community get involved. Throughout the day we had several more tournaments and each were granted some great prizes that being things like Warhammer or some wonderful backbone and player ammo merchandise.

Why we need gaming events

At around 12:30 the show kicked off with its first guest hosted panel. There was a familiar face on the panel, none other than Simran Whitham, who is the man behind Format GG which is another great gaming related event also located in Manchester. We aim to cover their next one so do please keep up to date with that.

Simran went on to discuss why we need gaming events and it was a very knowledgeable experience and great to hear the positivity within the industry.

Gaming Journalism

After some more wonderful gaming tournaments came to the stage was a bunch of Gaming Journalists something which is very close to our hearts as you can imagine, These journalists had a range of experience in all sectors and provided a great segment on Gaming Journalism, now we would have loved to jump into the seat with these guys and bring our hot take on gaming journalism but there’s always next year.

Following that we had some more intense gaming tournaments, one big rocket league and this was such a close battle we were on the edge of our seats, so much fun are these and the community are so wholesome. We love to see it!

Content Creator Panel

Shortly after that we had the Content Creator Panel something close to us as you may know we specialise in Content Creator interviews and within this panel was a familiar face to us one of our first ever feature and that is Chlooeeeexo, was great to see her again, accompanying Chloe was some other great creators DJ Slope, King Krazey, Irish Panda Queen, Misantics and Celtbrenny, a couple of these creators were new to us but every single one of them stood out and spoke some great facts with even audience questions we feel this panel was great and the creators performed well.

As you already know it was back to it with more gaming tournaments we love that Timeless always had something going on to keep their audience entertained very well done with that one, some great organisational skills from MAGG and Aimee right there. There was another Panel shortly after which discussed everything about Podcasts, sadly we missed this one as the sweet smell from the canteen was pulling us away and being on your feet all day and gaming is hungry work, we were told by the audience that the podcast panels was another wonderful addition regardless.

Gaming Legends Panel

More gaming tournaments soon followed but we managed to return around 5pm after being fed and watered where we was grazed by what was my favourite panel MAGG blew this one out of

the park with some Gaming Legends discussing the gaming industry and their rise throughout it, This panel was hosted by the legend himself Peter Ward a master behind some of the biggest retro games around, we also had on stage Richard Stevenson who coded some of the great original games some of us know and love, Nick Clarkson from Team 17 who make some fantastic indie games like moving out 2, Kev Bayliss who is an absolute legend from Rare ltd working on games like Donkey Kong and Killer Instinct (huge fan!) Paul Machacek another fan favourite of ours who also works at Rare Ltd and produced some fantastic games we all know and love and last but not least Adam Sawkins who to me is my favourite as he produced such a huge game I loved as a kid and that was burnout nothing more pleasing than burning out what a game that was.

This panel with these legends was really a fantastic feature and the best of the day for me. I look forward to seeing what else MAGG can pull out of the bag for next time but overall this panel has great Q&As and a wonderful reaction with the audience very well done.

Cosplay

Right after although only a small turn out, with us being used to huge championships at events like comic con we was slightly disappointed for the Cosplay Parade nothing to do with the event as they had a great host MAGG & SJ Jinxx and some really well dressed judges, The cosplay however had a great Padme who happened to be pregnant at the time so it fit so well baby Skywalkers wouldn’t be far off, a great sonic and knuckles duo, a wonderful harry potter duo, the blue power ranger! And a range of others, Blue Power Ranger stole the show for us! However it was lovely to see and we are glad Timeless added Cosplay to their event, The official winner was Padme of course.

Dance Central Competition

In between the cosplay judges deciding who would take the crown MAGG got up and hoisted a dance central competition, three people took to the stage, a man, a woman and my son! Yes that’s right my 7 year old son who I must say rocked and stole the show should have won I call it rigged but nonetheless MAGG welcomed my son on stage and the whole crowd was cheering for him the smile and happiness that brought gives this event a 10/10 alone I thank you so much for that moment, MAGG shortly got up after the

competition and took to the stage to have a go at Dance Central himself and he beat everyone was great to see even the host was getting involved.

DJ Mike Storm

It had started to near 7pm with only three hours left of the event DJ Mike Storm who is a wonderful DJ who may I mention came all the way from Canada for this set too to the decks to provide us with 3 hours of cool upbeat jams unfortunately for me I feel the placement and sound for the DJ was a little unfair and he deserved to shine but again not a fault on Timeless just the space Arcade Club had given them which I hear a rumour more space next year! DJ Mike Storm however did superb on those decks for the final 3 hours which settled the event out wonderfully.

Summarize

To conclude this event it was a fun fuelled packed out day with panels that could cater to all gamers but even if your not into gaming it’s always great to try something new and give it a go as many had done that day and didn’t look back, MAGG

sets a great bar with being so small and relying on partners and sponsor to assist with the setup being a twitch streamer himself I was really shocked how he came to par and produced such a wonderful event, a few tiny hiccups but being year two of timeless he’s got plenty of time to perfect this and he isn’t far off at all, we won’t rate the event as it was great for us but what we will do is tell you our readers it’s a must if your local, looking for family fun day out or just to geek it out with the homies.

Make sure to show the team some love just like they did to us and we hopefully can assist and get involved with the next Timeless Gaming Convention. On that note I’m Sawyer thanks for reading, please do check out Timeless and their socials below, peace and enjoy the rest of the mag.

The next Timeless Gaming Convention will be back in Manchester, UK at Arcade Club on Wednesday 14th August 2024 with tickets on sale now!

So click the link below to secure your tickets today.

www.timelessgaming.co.uk

Facebook: @TimelessGamingConvention

Instagram: @timelessgamingconvention

Twitter: @Timelessgc

MAGG: @middleagedgamerguyuk (Twitch)

Insomnia The Gaming Festival, where do we start? Well with this being our second visit as press with our first being back in April, we chose to tackle this event with all we had, with around twenty creator and company interviews carried out over the three day spectacle and over 4000 photos and a bunch of videos taken it is safe to say we took our chance and went all in with collecting content for this great event.

What is Insomnia The Gaming Festival?

Now for those who may not know what this wonderful event is let me give you a run down, Insomnia The Gaming Festival which was Founded in 1999 and originated as the I-Series which was a small LAN (Local Area Network) event where gamers could come together and play together as part of one community, but now Insomnia focuses on bringing the community together as they welcome 40,000 visitors to Insomnia and their LAN parties which has grown to the biggest in the UK which sees up to 2,800 gamers in one space for a weekend of non-stop, 24-hour gaming.

Expanding from the LAN, Insomnia is a diverse show for gamers of all backgrounds, identities and ethnicities to come together and celebrate everything that we love about video games and popular culture. From brand new and upcoming releases, cosplay, Indie games, tabletop games, gaming content creators, esports and much more, Insomnia Gaming Festival isn’t just a gaming expo, it’s a celebration of all things gaming.

When & where did this event take place?

i71 which means this was the 71st time this event had been held took place from the 7th – 10th September 2023 located at the NEC (national exhibit centre) in Birmingham United Kingdom where you could attend the LAN from the 7th and the actual gaming event from the 8th until the 10th of September 2023.

Recap

Down to our recap here at The Gamer Guide, lets begin with the event itself and the team who bring it together, we would like to thank all the volunteers all the organisers all the vendors and creators you all were absolutely great once again the Insomnia team do exceptionally well always with putting on a fantastic show so thank you so much for hooking up the whole team with those wonderful Press passes once again well done team!

First things first was pass pickup which we was greeted wonderful from the team who had everything super organised and ready for us, being press we was welcomed in before the public to grab our bearings and set up this in general is always so nice that insomnia allows this as it gets us ready for capturing the public coming in and such, once the public had started to filter in of course next up was the games.

Games

As the Fridays are normally quieter than the hectic Saturday brings we decided to dive into the games which throughout the weekend the game sections brought an electric atmosphere with huge excitement surrounding gamers.

There was some fantastic titles on show with one game immediately catching my eye or should I say a giant life sized pigeon usher me over to said game (if you know you know) and that was a new battle royale rhythm type game called Head

Bangers brought to you by the wonderful Team 17 not only that they also had moving out 2 on show right beside it with some wacky themes and picture opportunities. Shortly further on was a huge section which surrounded indie games from puzzle solves to action rpgs, they had the lot, which were beautifully created and some huge duck themed vibes.

The highlight of course for me within the games available to play was of course Tekken 8 this game was great where the team at Bandai Namco had a huge PVP stage where you could battle it out on the big screen or a bunch of PS5s where you could go head to head with your buddy and no one else knew how hard they beat you.

Insomnia does esports very well with a huge area dedicated to face to face team tournaments with cash prizes up for stake, Insomnia has always been a haven for esports enthusiast and this year was no exception if not done even better than the last one hosting some stand out tournaments that’s for sure with one being an all-female head to head battle of Valorant which may I say was super intense and wonderful to see, the level of skill I saw over at the esports stage was mind blowing and having the crowd cheer at every step added to the excitement.

Panels

Throughout the three day festival you have these wonderful panels which are hosted by some great creators, these panels can be anything from talk shows, help with being creators, industry help or just rocking your best moves to Just Dance which may I say is one of the best things on throughout Insomnia.

The panels where actually really well done this year and also they were great back in April too, we had of course a fantastic panel back to shine and that was women in gaming where some strong women on the creator scene come together to discuss their struggles in the industry and offer support to other which is wonderful to see, we of course had another great panel which was about diversity in gaming you had some very strong well spoken individuals discussing their struggles with diversity in the industry and why it matters and how they can help others, this specific panel was hosted by Saskia Cole and to me it was such a good panel and the whole team did superbly.

Throughout the three days you obviously had some other great panels and wonderful shows from cosplay to creators to even dance offs and even a drag show which was hilariously well done, these really were great to see.

Creator café

Next to the festival stage however you had another great area and that was the creator café with some upbeat tunes and a great vibe with some great burritos right next to you. This place was wonderful just to recharge, relax, dance, vibe, network and eat. This was a new and great

addition to Insomnia. Hosted by Steanside who are a copyright free music library and they really did bring the vibe at one point they even had a bunch of cosplayers up dancing away going all in it was so awesome to see.

Meet & Greet

Not too far from the Creator Café was of course what people travel all over for and that is the Meet & Greet where fans can come together to get autographs, photos or just to see their stars within the industry. With the likes of Devora Wilde, who was one of the lead roles in Baldur’s Gate 3, playing the Githyanki fighter Lae’zel, Ben Star, who voiced Clive Rosfield, the main protagonist of Final Fantasy XVII and there also was Neil Newbon known for voicing Karl Heisenberg in Resident Evil Village, Nicholai Ginovaef in Resident Evil, and Elijah Kamski and Gavin Reed in Detroit: Become Human, over all these bunch stood out to me the most but there was a bunch of other great stars you could greet too.

Artists & Merch

The artist alley and merch was located way at the back of the venue but this was a treasure in itself with some wonderful artistry work and of course some great memorabilia, from posters to mouse mats and overkill of plushies and even some cool poke ball themed collectibles with gardens inside of those you could easily of spent a small fortune over there. As I walked amount the stalls thinking what I should pick up for my kids, I saw swords, guns and accessories which I really wanted to pick up myself but was pulled away before I could even check the prices as we had to cover several more things throughout that day, however the merch and artist alley never seems to disappoint and is always booming with customers.

Physical Activities

Back again by popular demand was two very special additions, ones which bring so much joy but have you running or flapping around and that is Zombie Infection and MeetSpace VR, now these two events have you either running around being chased by zombies or running around with a vr headset on both very entertaining and fun to do with friends, zombie infection has you running around shooting and being chased by zombies whereas MeetSpace VR has you running around doing pvp in VR with guns and body movements which is surprisingly super fun!

However this year they added one more and that was alongside the Royal Navy which has you running around with airsoft laser like guns battling head to head against friends or randoms or iud your super unlucky a team of the royal navy, this was a great touch and welcomed everyone into the knowledge that the army does esports and that they do it well too.

Brands

Scattered across the event was of course some huge brands within the gaming industry who allowed you to either purchase play or win some of their products from the likes of Overclockers showing off a range of products or companies they had worked with including the great PC builder Battle Rigs to the bunch of green glowing Razer products to even Intel and JD hanging around, there was a sheer incline in industry diversity leaders which we was happy to see and network with, you could purchase products at a discounted rate which is always a huge bonus at attending Insomnia.

Cosplay

It’s worth noting that Insomnia really goes all out with their Cosplay. You have so many cosplayers attending providing a range of different and somewhat random cosplay attire. Insomnia hosts the cosplay championships which boast a great cash prize and also gets Ubisoft involved to host a community side one which also boasts some great prizes with this year’s winner getting flown out to Montreal to play the new assassin’s creed and vibe with the team at Ubisoft. Overall cosplay is a fantastic spectacle to see which all of us enjoy here over at the Gamer Guide and we cover these very well with great imagery and wonderful video recaps which you will be able to see on our YouTube of some of the amazing ones during Insomnia.

Creators

Insomnia invites a ton of creators to their events that being Streamers, Youtubers, Tiktokers you name it they are all there and in that space this allows you to meet the creator you watch even catch them streaming which this year the did with 2k and even gave away Lego which was once again a fantastic touch we loved to see it. Creators are great to have a part of your event as they are always catching good shots, helping build brands, networking with your event and of course

producing brilliantly done panels. It’s wonderful to see a huge part of Insomnia. We hope to see old and new creators at the next one!

To Summarise

Overall I love this event being at the NEC and having cheap on site parking is always a winner but I must say I noticed one thing at September Insomnia and that was a women from the team running around and taking feedback from anyone and everyone and actually writing it down and taking in depth interest in what people had to say this was the finishing touch all events should have she was lovely approachable and very happy to accommodate with peoples queries as to what the next event may bring so Insomnia very well done in listening to the public with that.

On another note we obviously can’t thank you all enough for inviting us to cover this wonderful event I tell all the creator or people I work with Insomnia is up there as one of the best gaming events in the UK and we look forward to being there at the next one as far as ratings go and if there was one thing id change that is bring back monster! Those free cans in April really got me by and more backdrops for photo ops would be great. The one i71 at the front was a nice touch but we need more for photos!

Rating though 9/10 with very slim improvements to be made but with people on hand to listen to what people want, I think you will make it an easy 10/10 next time. We did however manage to capture some great recaps over on our YouTube channel which I will be linking below.

On a final note Insomnia The Gaming Festival will be back in March 2024 with LAN 28th – 1st April 2024 and the festival 29th – 31st March 2024 at the NEC in Birmingham once more!

Check out Insomnia and get your tickets now: www.insomniagamingfestival.com

i71 Cosplay FRIDAY - COSPLAY

COSPLAY SHOWCASE

As the time goes by so does the amount of events we come across and recap as press, with this one which was new to us being added to the list of events we cover, WASD which partnered with IGN to bring us three fun fuel game packed days, developer meets and networking circles. WASD took place at the Trumans Brewery on Brick Lane in London, UK between Thursday 14th & Saturday 16th which we was invited to by WASD as press with an additional invite to myself (Sawyer) as a creator provided by Dead Good Media who also had free pizza across the weekend for creators, nice touch right.

Recap

Thursday was more of an industry day where you got to chat and network with fellow industry leaders which was a nice take on an event open to the public, as we got to relax a little before the crowd picked up on the Friday and Saturday, the Friday and Saturday was more public friendly and with that brought some more queues to play the games which were on show. To me this isn’t a three day event more of a one day.

Games

Throughout the weekend we got to play a bunch of upcoming games with some wonderful ones like Loddlenaut brought to us by Secret mode, a new prince of Persia side scroller called the lost crown by Ubisoft which seemed to be the star of the show and of course ghost runner 2 by 505 games, overall these stood out to me the most with up to 60 games on show at this event majority were indie developed.

I of course played some power wash simulator DLC and got to clean a pineapple in bikini bottom followed by rocking out to new BR rhythm game headbangers and of course moving out by the wonderful Team 17.

We met up with a greatly marketed individual who made a steampunk styled flying game with animals as the protagonist, I spoke to the man

behind The wings of sycamore which personally stood out the most for games at WASD, the old fashion tackle and the passion and time it took for the sole person to make this game was astounding.

Their mission is to make everyone a 3D content creator! Our mission is to simplify and redefine 3D content creation for everyone across the metaverse. They want to eliminate the barriers to 3D creativity.

Now to me this was fantastic to see, we first was given a well in depth talk about how the game runs by a very knowledgeable individual who showed us how anything world works and even showed us how to add a panda to their makeshift world it really was great to see and I think this will be genius for companies and game developers in the future, so this was a highlight of the show for me.

Creators Lounge

Brought to WASD by Dead Good media who was accommodating and kind enough to allow us into this lounge to conduct our creator interview not only made creators feel welcomed but fed them with free pizza too, talk about a great bunch of people!

The creator lounge was much needed as only allowing access to creators and press this lounge was the place to network for creators hang out

chews the fat and just recharge a little more events need these, situated out of public view these special areas really help when anxiety starts to kick in and you need that break, more events should take note and add this.

What do we think of WASD

Well at first glance the venue is pretty small but not over crowded, to say IGN co-hosted this event there was not a single IGN member of staff or branding around the event which was a shame to see as I would have loved to talk with IGN, you had one game hidden behind a locked door not allowing press to see or even get the chance to apply and play which did not go down well at all with the people we spoke to so that was shame.

But overall WASD staff had a friendly vibe with good ideas and future plans to make this event bigger and better, for me I’d move location out of London the parking and getting to the venue situation sucked! Being from the North, I would

have liked it closer to home or outside of central London for cheaper parking but we can’t down rate the event for that. The event itself was more for networking with creators and developers, if anything for that solely it’s a great reason to attend, the games on the show floor were great you can’t fault the variety there I really loved the indie aspect it made those games really shine.

We thank the team the most at WASD as they were brilliant from start to finish supplying the team with a press pass making us feel comfortable and happy on arrival so the team gets a 10/10 with the games getting an 8/10 and the event as a whole to me is a good strong 8/10, if you plan to network and are around the location then this is for you. We however look forward to the next one.

Anyways that ‘s me Sawyer from The Gamer Guide signing off again, but in the meantime make sure to head over to WASD’s website and check out when their next event is and what will be on show.

www.wasdlive.com

Twitter/X: @WASDlive_ Instagram: @wasdlive

On August 22nd 2023 Gamescom opened up with their end-of-summer showcase, Opening Night Live which came to highlight games coming your way in the near future. Hosted by Geoff Keighley, who introduced himself as “the creator of The Game Awards,” the stream primarily focused on new or first looks at previously announced games like Mortal Kombat 1, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, and the next season of Diablo 4, along with a few surprises. Here’s a breakdown of the announcements that were shown.

LITTLE NIGHTMARES 3

Co-op is the big new addition in the third instalment of the creepy-cute platformer, which lets players journey through the game in local or online co-op.

There’s also a podcast: The Sounds of Nightmares, going behind the scenes of the games’ production. Expect this one in 2024.

BLACK MYTH: WUKONG

The much-hyped action-RPG from Chinese developer Game Science, Black Myth: Wukong takes the Soulsbourne formula and brings it to a world of Chinese myth inspired by Journey to the West. The new trailer blends wonderfully macabre imagery with ornate fantasy and looks like a great way to get your post-Elden Ring fix.

KILLING FLOOR 3

Remember the Killing Floor games? Well they announced the third one. They really didn’t say much else about it, but there was a gnarly looking trailer.

AGE OF EMPIRES 4: ANNIVERSARY EDITION

A remaster of the classic real-time strategy game, now available on Xbox, joining Age of Empires 2 and politely ignoring Age of Empires 3. The first shadow drop of the night, now on Xbox consoles and Game Pass.

REBEL MOON

Zack Snyder showed up to show off the first trailer for his forthcoming Netflix epic Rebel Moon, and some further plans to expand the world of his twopart film. Including a video game, where you will “pick your rebel” and join in on the fun. No footage of the game though.

CRIMSON DESERT

Pearl Abyss’ long-AWOL open-world action game got a good long gameplay trailer, showing off a game that looks like it wants to out-Assassin’s Creed Assassin’s Creed, complete with weird hightech puzzles, a frankly incredible-looking fishing game, and hot air balloons. There is honestly a frightening amount of stuff in this game, and all of it looks wildly detailed. Bananas stuff.

ASSASSIN’S CREED MIRAGE

Speaking of Assassin’s Creed, the new one takes a further step toward cultural immersion, with a story trailer introducing Assassin’s Creed Mirage entirely in Arabic. The soft reboot of the Assassin’s Creed franchise arrives Oct. 5.

TEKKEN 8

The year of kickass fighting games continues with the newest look at Tekken 8, showing off the story mode that focuses on your player-created character, similar seeming to World Tour mode in Street Fighter 6 — and the assurance that the traditional story mode focused on the Mishima bloodline will continue.

CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 3

We was shown the first look at gameplay from the campaign to the second Modern Warfare 3 game. The showcase also dropped some details on what will be rounding out the package, namely an open-world Zombies mode and a full multiplayer suite with the usual fare when it launches on Nov. 10.

NIGHTINGALE

The retro-fantasy survival game gets an early access release date and a very thorough gameplay trailer showing off exploration, gunplay, building, magic, and... cards? Nightingale is scheduled to launch in early access on Feb. 22, 2024.

ZENLESS ZONE ZERO

Hoyoverse’s next showstopper, full of sci-fi furies and a fully stocked arcade jam-packed with minigames. Get ready for another free-toplay timesink. Zenless Zone Zero kicked off a mini-block of Hoyoverse updates, with a new trailer for the PS5 release of Honkai Star Rail and a glimpse of a very French-looking update for Genshin Impact.

LORDS OF THE FALLEN

A new story trailer was shown for the follow-up to one of the first Soulslike imitators to come from a Western studio. Lords of the Fallen showed off its grim bona fides and monstrous foes in advance of its release on Oct. 13.

SONIC SUPERSTARS (AND SONIC FRONTIERS)

Did you forget that Sega is releasing a co-op Sonic game? In case you did, we got a new trailer for it. Make sure you make friends before the game comes out. In the meantime, there’s an expansion for Sonic Frontiers coming out for you to play solo.

UNDER THE WAVES

Shown off apropos of nothing, Under the Waves looks like a lonesome submarine narrative/ survival game that gives echoes of Firewatch. Very different from much of the big-budget stuff on display today, the game comes from French development shop Parallel Studio and Spotlight, the publishing arm of Quantic Dream. The game arrived on Aug. 29.

EXPEDITION: A MUDRUNNER GAME

Focus and Saber Interactive have followed up Snowrunner and Mudrunner with a game about open-world off-road driving to accomplish tasks that you can only do with some heavy duty fourwheel drive and some series tow cables

THE CREW MOTORFEST

Ubisoft’s racing franchise The Crew gets the Forza Horizon treatment, with a festival-style approach to racing a full garage of customizable wheels.

CYBERPUNK 2077: PHANTOM LIBERTY

Cyberpunk 2077 reaches its final form in its upcoming expansion, Phantom Liberty, which adds a new campaign but also overhauls the game’s systems top to bottom. The perk tree and cyberware are being redesigned, and new skills are coming to update the base game for new players and lure lapsed ones back. Those updates, by the way, came to the game for all players in a free 2.0 update. Both the patch and the expansion are out now.

STORMGATE

Real-time strategy game throwback Stormgate showed off one of its factions, the Infernals, a cartoonish demon horde that looks to give the StarCraft 2/Warcraft 3 homage a character all of its own.

LAST EPOCH

The “community-built” action-RPG showed off its new class, the Runemaster, the latest bid in the developer’s effort to build the ultimate action RPG. The game launched on Sept. 7.

MORTAL KOMBAT 1

The “wildest” trailer for Mortal Kombat 1 yet showed off some brutal gameplay alongside NetherRealm’s expansive storytelling. The backto-basics reboot featured a very young Raiden, a Shao Khan that is only just starting to be a problem, and of course, some bone-breaking fatalities.

ARA: HISTORY UNTOLD

A turn-based grand strategy game set in an alternate history, Ara looks like the next contender for the Civilization crown.

DIABLO 4: SEASON OF BLOOD

Would you believe that the land of Sanctuary is still having a bad time? Everyone, little kids included, is turning into messed-up little monsters, and you’ve gotta do something about it with new vampiric powers. Diablo 4’s new season is called Season of Blood, and it’s coming this fall — with a new character, the vampire hunter Eris, played by Eternals actor Gemma Chan.

DUSTBORN

Refreshingly weird, it’s not quite clear what kind of game Dustborn is full of story about oddballs on a road trip, but also full of third-person action in a cartoonish sci-fi world. Keep an eye out for more.

THANK GOODNESS YOU’RE HERE

Look at this little guy! He’s so little! What a great weirdo! It looks like he’s the star of a platformer? In what looked like a Cartoon Network-y game.

ALAN WAKE 2

Alan Wake’s journey to escape the nightmare realm of The Dark Place blends live-action and in-game footage in Remedy’s sequel, which looks to continue the first game’s equal parts Twin Peaks homage and Stephen King riff.

So there we have it, overall the show was all about updates with a few announcements here and there and still no GTA6 announcement! even though a fan had rushed the stage early on to ask Geoff Keighley this exact question, but still no luck!

However once again Geoff but on a great show as per and announced the game awards is back December 7th which we are very much so looking forward to.

everything announced at the future games show at gamescom 2023

The Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023 was broadcast live on August 23 and was hosted by Erika Ishii (Valkyrie from Apex Legends) and Troy Baker (Joel from The Last of Us). The jam-packed August showcase delivered over an hour of updates, release dates, and reveals for more than 40 exciting upcoming games. If you couldn’t watch the show as it was streamed live across GamesRadar’s social channels, then you’ve come to the right place. We’ve put together a list of all of the games shown during the show and the accompanying news, so you can follow up with anything that may have caught your attention.

Stop Dead

This year’s Future Games Show at Gamescom kicked off with the world premiere reveal trailer for Stop Dead, a speedrun shooter where if you take a second to think, you’re toast! Stop Dead is coming to PC on October 5, but as revealed by Troy and Erika, a special FGS demo of Stop Dead is available right now on Steam. Players have until August 30 to set the highest score or the fastest time, and if they do, they could be in with a chance of winning a PS5 or an Xbox.

OutRage

Hardball Games’ hectic, ass-kicking 32-player brawler Outrage was revealed during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. The developers debuted some pre-alpha gameplay and let us know that Outrage is coming to Steam Early Access in Spring 2024.

Streets of Rogue 2

A brand new trailer for Streets of Rogue 2 debuted at the Future Games Show at Gamescom, revealing some open-world gameplay from tinyBuild’s action-packed roguelite sequel, which is coming soon (and features a gun-toting gorilla).

Soulslinger: Envoy of Death

A rooting-tooting roguelike where you play as the

last soul in limbo, Soulslinger: Envoy of Death got a gameplay trailer during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. This Wild West FPS is coming to Steam Early Access in 2023, but a demo is available now on Steam.

Eternights

Eternights is a post-apocalyptic anime hack-andslash where you beat up monsters and go on dates.

A new trailer for the game debuted during the Future Games Show at Gamescom, revealing an updated release date for the game. Eternights is now launching on September 12, 2023, for PC, PlayStation and Xbox.

Blasphemous 2

Penitent players rejoice! The Game Kitchen cooked up a delicious launch trailer for its pixelated Metroidvania Blasphemous 2, which aired during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. Blasphemous 2 is out on August 24 for PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.

Parcel Corps

Parcel Corps is Billy Goat Entertainment’s satirical bicycle messenger simulator and a new traversal trailer for the gig economy game aired during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. Parcel Corps is launching on PC and consoles in 2024.

The Gap

A developer presentation for Label This’s memory-diving psychological thriller The Gap dropped during the Future Games Show at Gamescom. It’s coming to PC and consoles this fall.

RoboCop: Rogue City

A cinematic gameplay trailer for Nacon’s metal justice FPS RoboCop: Rogue City dropped during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. Rogue City is coming soon to PC and consoles.

Gangs of Sherwood

Gather your merry men because Appeal Studios’ co-op action-adventure Gangs of Sherwood is coming to PC and consoles on October 19. An all-new trailer for the game arrived during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023.

Star Trucker

A gameplay trailer for Star Trucker pulled into the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. Haul precious cargo across the final frontier in this intergalactic truck sim when it launches on PC in 2024.

Castle Craft

Twin Earth appeared at the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023 to deliver a gameplay trailer for Castle Craft, the studio’s fort-building voxel mayhem simulator. It’s coming to PC this winter.

Sprawl

Maeth’s hardcore cyberpunk shooter Sprawl shadow-dropped on PC during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023, with some killer gameplay to accompany the big reveal.

Tavern Keeper

An animated trailer revealed Tavern Keeper to the world at the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. It’s the next game from the creators of Game Dev Tycoon, and it’s bringing its cartoon tankard management to PC in 2024.

AK-xolotl

AK-xolotl is a top-down shooter where you play as an adorable amphibian... with an assault rifle. As well as an adorable jingle, 2awesome Studio brought the news that AK-xolotl is launching on PC and consoles on September 14 to the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023.

Twin Sails Interactive Montage

Twin Sails Interactive delivered a veritable smorgasbord of indie goodness to the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. The stacked trailer included a trio of news hits. Wantless is coming to Steam Early Access in November 2023, News Tower is coming to Steam Early Access in early 2024, and Bloomtown is coming to PC and consoles in Q2 2024.

Aloft

Turn your island home into a flying fortress in Aloft, a survival game where you strive to survive on an archipelago orbiting an eternal hurricane. Aloft is floating onto PC in 2024, but there’s a demo available right now on Steam.

The Last Faith

Gothic Soulslike The Last Faith swung by the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023 to reveal that a beta for the grimdark game is now live on Steam. The Last Faith is coming to PC and consoles in November 2023.

It’s a Wrap

A puzzle adventure where you set up scenes from the director’s chair, It’s a Wrap launched during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. It’s out now on PC, with a Nintendo Switch version coming soon.

Underlab

A new social deception game from the team behind Project Winter, Underlab is a subterranean sabotage simulator where you can get up to plenty of survival-based hijinks with your friends. It’s coming soon to PC and consoles, with a closed beta on the way.

VR Showcase

The VR showcase returned after its sophomore showing during the Future Games Show Summer Showcase earlier this year. The otherworldly montage was, once again, packed full of VR reveals delivered by our lovely hosts.

• A brand new gameplay trailer for HellSweeper VR showed us an intense action game where you defy twisted souls with a trifecta of pure pain - swords, guns and magic. It’s coming to PSVR 2, Meta Quest, Steam VR and Viveport on September 21st.

• Lucy Liu appeared during the Future Games Show at Gamescom to talk about The Pirate Queen, a VR puzzle adventure which is coming to Quest 2 and Steam VR in early 2024.

• An exciting gameplay and accolades trailer revealed that the intergalactic VR FPS Vertigo 2 is coming to PS VR 2 on October 24, 2023.

• Islanders: VR Edition is a minimalist city builder with a relaxing atmosphere, and it’s launching on September 28.

• A poignant narrative adventure starring a troupe of mischievous metal soldiers, Tin Hearts is coming soon to PC VR and PS VR 2.

• Davigo lets you crush your friends like ants as a godlike figure in a cross-reality VR vs PC battle, and it’s launching in 2023.

Park Beyond

Limbic Entertainment gave us an update on the future of Park Beyond at the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. Park Beyond is out now, but Patch 2.0 and the Beyond Extreme DLC are both coming on September 29, so get ready to build some more awe-inspiring coasters.

Tiny Glade

An adorable gameplay trailer for Tiny Glade adorned the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. Pounce Light’s laid-back sandbox castle builder is coming to PC in 2024.

Pacific Drive

A story trailer for Pacific Drive took viewers on a scenic trip through the chaos of the Olympic Exclusion Zone, revealing more about the game’s world. Pacific Drive is coming to PC and PS5 in early 2024.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin

A thrilling gameplay trailer for Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin cleaved its way into the schedule at the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. You can pre-order Realms of Ruin now ahead of its PC and console release on November 17.

Abiotic Factor

Abiotic Factor, which is a multiplayer survival game where you try and escape a doomed facility with your friends, Abiotic Factor unleashed its scientific mayhem on the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. It’s coming to PC in 2024.

Phantom Spark

We got our first look at the future-fantasy time trial racer Phantom Spark during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. It’s speeding its way onto PC and Nintendo Switch.

Ones To Play Section

Our Ones to Play montage exclusively includes games with Steam demos that you can play right after the show. The section returned for its third outing, featuring Super Adventure Hand, Corsairs Legacy, Afterdream, Loddlenaut, Clem, Night Loops, Airship: Kingdoms Adrift, and Luna Abyss.

Europa

Europa is a peaceful Ghibli-esque adventure game where you glide around an interstellar paradise, past rusty robots and adorable wildlife. It’s coming in 2024, but a demo dropped during the show, so you can check it out on Steam right now.

Warframe

A new trailer concerning the future of Warframe

debuted during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. Watch out for more Warframe news at TennoCon 2023, which kicks off on August 26!

Wild Country

A careful blend between a card battler and a city-builder, Wild Country brought its chaotic critter-based gameplay to the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. It’s coming to PC and Nintendo Switch.

Ravenswatch

Passtech Games gave us an update on what’s coming next for the studio’s roguelite action RPG Ravenswatch, which is out now in Steam Early Access. The Shores of Storm Island update which launched in September 2023.

Scorn

We were pleased to reveal during our Gamescom show that Ebb Software’s Giger-inspired nightmare adventure, Scorn, is undulating its way onto PlayStation 5 on October 3.

PC Game Pass

Our friends at Xbox dropped by to deliver a trailer concerning all of the awesome games available now and coming soon to PC Game Pass.

Symphonia

We revealed Sunny Peak’s Symphonia at the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. It’s a musical puzzle platformer, and it’s coming to PC and consoles in 2024.

Dome-King Cabbage

Dome-King Cabbage is a visual novel set in the world of a monster-collecting RPG, and we were over the moon to debut a magnificent trailer revealing that it’s coming soon to PC and Nintendo Switch during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023.

Astronimo

A gameplay trailer for Coatsink’s platform puzzler Astronimo arrived during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. Get ready to

build cute cosmic contraptions with your friends when it launches in Steam Early Access on September 27 later this year.

Hexxen: Hunters

Hexxen: Hunters was revealed during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. It’s a tactical action RPG set in the 18th century where you repel supernatural forces. It’s coming to PC in 2024.

Freedom Games

Freedom Games dropped by the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023, showing off some of the publisher’s exciting indies. The montage featured Vengeance of Mr Peppermint, Humanitz, Tavernacle!, Sugar Shack, Asterogues and Dust Fleet.

Wayfinder

A launch trailer for Airship Syndicate’s massivelymultiplayer Action RPG Wayfinder aired during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023. Gather your friends to restore the shattered

world of Evenor, as Wayfinder is out now on PlayStation and PC.

Ad Infinitum

A psychological horror game full of unspeakable nightmares, Ad Infinitum is a first-person action game set in the context of the First World War. It’s coming to PC and consoles on September 14.

Helskate

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater meets Hades in Helskate, an action roguelite where you kickflip, grind and manual to defeat hordes of demons. Shred your way through Vert-heim when it launches in 2024.

Deathground

A grisly gameplay trailer for Jaw Drop Games’ dinosaur survival horror Deathground debuted during the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2023.

It’s coming soon to PC.

apple event recap september 2023

Apple’s annual fall product-launch event brought few surprises but still delivered big news: The company unveiled four iPhone 15 models which trade in Apple’s proprietary Lightning charging port in favour of USB-C, two new Apple Watches, and a fresh AirPods Pro pair that also moves to USB-C. Here’s everything that Apple announced at its Wanderlust event.

iPhone 15 and 15 Plus

The new 6.1 inch iPhone 15 and 6.7 inch iPhone 15 Plus run on Apple’s A16 processor, which allows for faster performance and better multitasking in comparison with last year’s models, but the most obvious difference at first glance is the addition of the Dynamic Island display cutout, which was limited last year to the pricier iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.

The Dynamic Island houses the iPhone’s camera and depth sensors. There you’ll also find your active calls, audio playback, and other interactive elements, and the area expands to show relevant information as needed. This is mostly a neat visual feature rather than a functional one, but we found it useful enough in last year’s premium iPhones. The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus also get an improved, f/1.6 48-megapixel main camera and a 12-megapixel telephoto camera with up to 2x optical zoom. Apple is introducing its tougher Ceramic Shield display to the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, as well, and the screen will feature an increased peak display brightness of up to 2,000 nits.

However, the biggest and most potentially controversial change is the iPhones’ charging cable. Say goodbye to the Lightning port and all of your old Lightning cables, because Apple is finally switching to USB-C, bringing the iPhone in line with the rest of its devices. Apple has also partnered with AAA for iPhone-based roadside assistance via satellite, which comes included with each new iPhone for two years. In addition, Apple is continuing to push its sustainability initiatives, the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus’s frames consist of 75% recycled aluminium, while their internals use 100% recycled copper and the battery uses 100% recycled cobalt.

The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus will come in pink, yellow, green, blue, and black colour options made of aluminium with colour-matched back glass. The lineup starts at $800 for the 128 GB iPhone 15 and $900 for the 128 GB iPhone 15 Plus, and they are available now.

iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max

Apple also took the wraps off the titanium-framed iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. The shift to titanium from stainless steel was designed to make the Pro models lighter, and titanium is more resistant to fingerprint smudges. The titanium models come in four shades: black, white, blue, and a “natural” finish. The new Pro models also sport a thinner bezel, which provides more screen area than on the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max despite basically identical dimensions of 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches, respectively.

The iPhone 15 Pro models reimagine the classic ring/silent switch, turning it into an action button. You can now press and hold the button to turn on the volume or toggle it off, but the button can also trigger customizable actions such as launching the camera, starting a voice memo, or further personalising the action button with the Shortcuts app. The 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max run on Apple’s custom A17 Pro chip, which Apple calls “the fastest chip ever on any smartphone.” It delivers faster USB 3 transfer speeds and hardwareaccelerated ray tracing for playing games on your iPhone, which will enable games to come to the iPhone 15 Pro that were previously available only on consoles, including newer titles such as the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Mirage.

Many people upgrade to an iPhone Pro model because Apple typically saves its best camera

features for the priciest iPhones, and that hasn’t changed with the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. The Pro camera lenses have a new coating to reduce lens flare, and you can choose custom focal-length defaults in the Pro Camera app. The 15 Pro Max offers 5x optical zoom in its telephoto lens plus up to 120mm focal length, and the ultra-wide camera lens provides improved night-mode and macro photography.

And, like the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are switching from Apple’s proprietary Lightning charging port to the more common USB-C standard. To make Apple’s forthcoming headset, the Apple Vision Pro, more compelling, Apple is enabling a new video feature that lets you shoot “spatial videos” later this year on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max.

The iPhone 15 Pro starts at $1,000, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at $1,200 with 256 GB of storage. That represents a $100 price bump over last year’s model, but that Pro Max came with 128 GB of storage. The iPhone 15 lineup is available now.

Apple Watch Series 9

The Apple Watch Series 9 runs on the new S9 watch chip, which Apple promises will make animations “super smooth.” Siri requests are also now processed on the watch itself instead of in the cloud, which Apple says will produce faster responses. You can also ask Siri for your health stats or input your health info with your voice in a new feature rolling out later this year. Battery life remains unchanged at 18 hours.

The Series 9 has a second-generation ultrawideband chip that will help you track down your iPhone when you misplace it (if it’s nearby). This feature will work only if you have a 2023 Apple Watch and an iPhone 15, however. The Series 9 has a much brighter screen that can go much dimmer—from 2,000 nits to 1 nit. That’s double the brightness of the Series 8. Apple is also introducing a new double-tap feature with the Series 9, which activates when you tap your thumb and index finger together twice; the gesture triggers actions

such as answering or ending a phone call. The feature will be available next month, Apple said.

The Series 9 comes in five shades of aluminium, including a new pink, as well as stainless steel.

Apple also announced that it’s phasing out leather in all of its accessories, starting today. The company introduced a Fine Woven material for Apple Watch bands that is made of 68% recycled materials and has a suede-like feel. Apple is working with Hermès and Nike to make new bands in more eco-friendly materials.

The Apple Watch Series 9, which starts at $400 for the Bluetooth/GPS model and $500 for the cellular version, Which is available now.

Apple Watch Ultra 2

Like the Apple Watch Series 9, the newly announced Apple Watch Ultra 2 gets the advanced S9 chip and features such as the new double-tap gesture, on-device Siri, and the new ultra-wideband chip for precision-finding your iPhone. It features an even brighter display, capable of up to 3,000 nits. You’ll also find a new Modular Ultra watch face and new cycling features.

The Ultra 2 has the same battery life as the firstgeneration model, 36 hours of regular use and 72 hours in low-power mode. The design remains unchanged.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 starts at $800 and is available now.

USB-C AirPods Pro

Apple is also introducing a new version of the second-generation AirPods Pro earbuds with a carrying case that has a USB-C port instead of Lightning. (The AirPods Max and the cheapest AirPods are not yet making the jump to USB-C.) In addition, Apple is updating its classic wired EarPods so that those headphones connect through USB-C rather than a Lightning port.

So there we have it, yet another jam packed show from Apple and their new range of product I for certainly will be upgrading to an iPhone 15 Pro.

the xbox tokyo game show recap september

2023

The Xbox Tokyo Game Show showcase premiered on September 21st 2023. Gamers saw what Xbox has to offer from creators across Japan. Here a rundown of what was announced and shown at the Xbox Tokyo Game Show.

Party Animals

To start off the showcase a Party Animals and Ori and the Blind Forest crossover was announced allowing players to play as the main characters through animal skins. Party Animals is currently out on Xbox Game Pass.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy has been announced for Xbox Game Pass on September 26. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy was also shown as well and is set to launch in early 2024.

Palworld

A gameplay trailer has been announced for Palworld with a release date set for 2024. During this trailer Character customization and gameplay mechanics were showcased giving us a better look at what the game will be like.

Forza Motorsport

Forza Motorsport was showcased as well for a brief moment showcasing a bit of in-game footage. Nothing new was announced but it is nice to see some gameplay in acting showcasing the beauty of the title.

Persona 5 Tactica

Persona 5 Tactica was talked about as well by Atlus. They talked about how the game mechanics differ from the mainline Persona series and also showed off some of those mechanics as well

showcasing a skill tree and different methods of fighting. It will be released on November 17, 2023, and will be available on Xbox Game Pass.

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai

A story trailer for the upcoming Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai was showcased too. It’s set to release on September 28, 2023.

Altheia: The Wrath of Aferia

The gameplay for Altheia was showcased showing off the game mechanics such as solving puzzles, exploration, and combat as well.

Mineko’s Night Market

Mineko’s Night Market was shown at the event showing game mechanics showcasing crafting, eating, and a bunch of cats.

Persona 3 Reload

Persona 3 Reloaded gameplay was displayed briefly and reiterated that the title will be coming out on February 2, 2024, and will be available on Xbox Game Pass.

Fallout 76

The Atlantic City Expansion for Fallout 76 will be released in two parts.

The first will be released on December 5, 2023. On October 3, 2023 PC players can test the expansion early on player test servers before the first part of the expansion releases.

Wo Long Fallen Dynasty

Conqueror of Jiadong DLC has been announced for Wo Long Fallen Dynasty and a Lies of P crossover gives players iconic items from the game to wear.

Like A Dragon

Like A Dragon Ishin and Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name were both announced to release on Xbox Game Pass. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth will be released on January 26 2024 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One.

Eiyuden Chronicle Hundred Heroes

Eiyuden Chronicle Hundred Heroes’ gameplay was shown off showcasing the setting, characters, and voice actors of certain characters. Not only that but combat mechanics were showcased as well showing off certain abilities too. The title will be released on April 23, 2024.

Elder Scrolls Online

On November 15, 2023, ESO will be fully localised in Japanese. They also talked about the recent expansions that were just released for the title and are excited for the future of ESO.

My Lovely Empress

The title is about building up an empire using resources and allies to create a thriving empire. You can perform rituals to resurrect beings such as yokai. It will be released in 2024.

Exoprimal

Season 2 of Exoprimal is coming soon which adds new content such as cosmetics, weapons, maps, and so much more. It also brings a Street Fighter crossover as well. It will arrive on October 18, 2023.

Hotel Barcelona

Hotel Barcelona is a horror side scroller hack-andslash game where you fight a variety of bosses in a giant hotel. Those bosses are actually a wide variety of serial killers. As you progress through the game you go through a variety of floors and attempt to reach the end. Each boss is harder than the last. Every time you die, you’ll be able to upgrade your character, making them stronger. It’s set to release in 2024.

So thats a wrap that was everything announced at the Xbox Tokyo Game Show, we hope there were a few games or updates you can add to your wishlist, i know there was for us.

Platstation announces all new playstation portal and accessories

On August 23rd PlayStation players received big updates on a trio of exciting upcoming devices: the PlayStation Portal remote player, the PlayStation Pulse Explore wireless earbuds, and the newly revealed PlayStation Pulse Elite wireless headset.

PlayStation Portal remote player

Formerly codenamed Project Q, this is PlayStation’s new option for fans who want more ways to play their PS5 library. Imagine a DualSense wireless controller split down the middle with a highdefinition LCD display inserted in the middle, and you’re halfway there.

DualSense controller experience

The PlayStation Portal remote player spares no expense delivering the true DualSense controller experience. Everything from the grippy texture of the sticks to the throw of the triggers felt like home.

I trotted through Cooling Springs in Astro Bot’s Playroom, feeling the familiar crunchy grit of a sandy beach with the haptics and adaptive trigger tension of a spring-fired jumping suit. Your hours of muscle memory playing with the DualSense controller will translate one-to-one with PlayStation Portal.

High-definition display

The device boasts a sizable 8-inch LCD 1080p display running at 60hz for up to 60fps gaming. During my hands-on session, PS5 hits like Astro Bot’s Playroom, God of War Ragnarök, and Returnal looked crystal clear on the screen. No detail was lost, from the dark alien ruins of Returnal to the bubblegum-bright, cheerful tech-platforming stages of Astro’s Playroom. The generous size of the screen also made in-game UI and menu text legible at a comfortable arm’s length distance.

Touchscreen touchpad

PlayStation Portal has a screen where the DualSense controller’s touchpad usually lives, but the device still supports similar functionality thanks to touch-responsive areas of the screen. Extending your thumbs towards the bottom corners of the display brings up two translucent rectangles on screen, representing a virtual touchpad. One moment in Astro Bot’s Playroom requires players to “zip” up a suit with a swipe up on the touchpad – the new virtual version makes this feel like second nature.

Impressive performance

During my demo with the PlayStation Portal remote player, I was impressed by the responsive and smooth gameplay from the very first seconds. Precision platforming felt tight and responsive in Astro’s Playroom, as did landing critical shots and dodging enemy projectiles in Returnal. Tapping the PlayStation button and navigating to the PS5’s home menu provided the exact same intuitive experience we’ve come to know and love, and it looked clean and clear on the 8-inch display.

(Additional context: PlayStation Portal was connected to the same local wi-fi network on the 5GHz band channel, but other wi-fi channels work too. A wired ethernet connection from the PS5 to your wireless router is recommended.)

Button setup

Your fingers will naturally find most of the DualSense controller buttons in the places you’d expect (e.g. face buttons, shoulder buttons, triggers, Options, Create button, etc. A couple of notable changes include the PS button found on the left side of the device and the mute microphone button on the right.

PlayStation Portal boasts extra functions, so some additional buttons are in the mix. Volume buttons are located at the top right, and the power button on the top left. The PlayStation Link button, used to connect the device to a Pulse Elite or Pulse Explore is on the left.

3.5MM audio output/input

Have a different pair of wired headphones you want to use? If they’ve got a 3.5MM jack you can plug it into the bottom of PlayStation Portal.

Pulse Explore wireless earbuds & Pulse Elite wireless headset

Good news today for audiophiles, as we have the first details and hands-on (ears-on?) report for a duo of new wireless audio devices. Before diving into the robust features that make each unique, let’s dig into their shared functions.

Immersive audio quality

Both the Pulse Explore wireless earbuds and Pulse Elite headset take PlayStation audio quality up a big notch. Both devices sport planar magnetic drivers, which are more commonly found in the high-quality headsets game audio engineers use. Put simply, unlike typical cone-shaped drivers, these flat (planar) drivers convey a wider range of nuanced sounds. Combine this with PlayStation’s potent 3D audio and players are in for a crisp, immersive experience.

PlayStation Link wireless technology

A fourth announcement was PlayStation Link wireless technology. This new tech allows the PS5 console, PlayStation Portal, Pulse Explore wireless earbuds, and Pulse Elite headset to achieve low-latency, lossless audio. The vision is to enable players to bounce between devices at home, freely swapping between their PS5 and PlayStation Portal to play games and bringing their audio devices along for the jump. Both the Pulse Explore wireless earbuds and Pulse Elite headset come with a PlayStation Link USB adapter, which plugs into your PS5 or PC for low latency, lossless audio.

Bluetooth compatibility

Both the Pulse Explore and Pulse Elite also support Bluetooth audio, allowing users to enjoy a rich audio experience with a wide range of devices.

Pairing and using multiple devices

One unexpected benefit of this new function will allow players to pair and listen to multiple devices in a single session. For example, I experienced a demonstration that involved receiving a phone call while playing God of War Ragnarök on the PS5 console. The Pulse Elite headset was paired to the PS5 console through the PlayStation Link USB adapter, while the phone was paired through Bluetooth – so I heard the phone ringing through my Pulse Elite headset. After answering the call, the call audio seamlessly mixed with the game audio, allowing me to continue playing uninterrupted while chatting. This is great news for anybody who loves to use alternative voice chat platforms or multitask by watching their favorite show or content creator on another device.

AI-enhanced microphone noise reduction

Ever been “that person” toggling the mute button in party chat as you munch your favourite snack? Or worse, been on the receiving end of a friend chewing their food with abandon? Thankfully Pulse Explore and Pulse Elite come equipped with AI-enhanced microphone noise reduction to smooth away repetitive background noise like loud munching, noisy traffic, vacuum cleaners, and the like. The example I experienced involved my caller loudly crumpling a piece of paper near their phone’s mic, which the AI-enhanced noise reduction quickly muffled.

Charging case

The black and white charging case sports a similar futuristic aesthetic to the PS5 itself. When closed, the compact curved design features a USB-C port on one side, allowing you to charge the earbuds. The white cover can be slid back to reveal the earbuds themselves. Notably, the magnetic sliding action of the cover has a satisfying click to it when opening and closing – I couldn’t stop playing with it. The earbuds are magnetically attracted to small contacts within the case, ready to be popped off for use.

Equipping the wireless earbuds

The uniquely designed earbuds come with four ear tip sizes to help users find the right size for their ears. From there, the Pulse Explore earbuds are inserted into each ear with a slight twist motion, resting with the PlayStation logo upright. The Pulse Explore wireless earbuds feel secure and

light, allowing you to stay focused on the game as the crisp audio immerses you in the game.

Volume and Link buttons

Players can adjust the volume with up / down buttons on each earbud. Each also has a Link button, which can be used to reconnect and switch to paired devices. Finding the buttons by feel and adjusting the volume is an intuitive and quick experience.

Premium over-ear form factor

The new wireless headset sports a comfortable fit with a flexible band that stretches across the top of the head. The earpads cup the ears with a perfect balance between luxurious softness and secure firmness. The headset has a lightweight feel and any awareness of them being atop the head melts away after diving into gameplay.

Clever microphone storage

The Pulse Elite wireless headset has a microphone built into it, which can be extended with a simple pull of the mic’s tip. This allows for more precise mic placement with a simple motion. Muting the

periphery.

mic is as simple as pressing its button, which activates an orange indicator light visible in the Storage with built-in charging

The Pulse Elite wireless headset comes with a charging hanger to hang your headset in a convenient location of your choosing. A power cable can be routed into the hanger which charges the headset through contacts located inside the headband.

Summarise

Ther Pulse Elite wireless headset and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds deliver new levels of immersive 3D audio and user-friendly functions that make them worthy additions for PlayStation fans. My mind continues to race with possible new applications for the PlayStation Portal remote player around the home, enabling me to play my favourite PS5 games off the couch.

Stay tuned for more info on pre-order details and availability for the PlayStation Portal remote player and Pulse Elite wireless headset and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds.

new xbox console wraps

experience the power of series x in style

Xbox back in late August announced that Xbox Series X Console Wraps are launching this year, and preorders are available now. We know gamers want to be able to customise their consoles and show support for their favourite games, and Xbox are delivering an option that’s more affordable and more sustainable than purchasing a special edition or limited edition console. With the launch of Series X Console Wraps, you can customise the console you already have. There are three striking designs to choose from, complete your Starfield setup with a Starfield design that pairs perfectly with the recently released Starfield Controller and Headset, and Xbox are also launching two camo colours to choose from, Arctic Camo and Mineral Camo.

The wraps were designed specifically for Series X and have a custom, precision fit. Every detail was taken into consideration to ensure your console performance is preserved– vents are all clear, and small feet were added to the bottom of the wraps to ensure air can flow freely through the console. Made with solid core panels that are layered with high-tech fabric finishes, the wraps are folded around your console and secured with a hook and loop enclosure. The interior of the wraps are printed with silicone designs that keep the wrap in place.

Explore the Starfield Universe in Style

The Starfield-inspired console wrap reimagines your console as an on-board avionics module, powering you through your adventures. Key internal console components are highlighted through outlined access panels and game inspired graphics. Technical call outs detail actual console functionality, with an in-game twist. This wrap has a soft smooth white high-tech feel, with vividly printed surface graphics that are tactile. The internal fabric has a soft precision sheen, with a silicone gravity wave print for cling and stability. Reach through the colourful Constellation ribbon to power your module on and take to the stars with the bronze metallic Constellation insignia on the wrap closure.

Launching in the US, Canada and Europe October 18th for $49.99 USD / £44.99 GBP. You can pre-order yours now at the Microsoft Store.

Camouflage Your Console

Wrap your console in Xbox’s designed woodland camo inspired pattern. Choose between the Arctic Camo grey and white colour pallet for a neutral and quiet effect or make a bold statement with a bright Mineral Camo of modern blues and purples.

Each option has a soft microfiber outside fabric. The internal fabric has a soft precision sheen, with a silicone camo pattern print for cling and stability. Changing the personality of your console or matching to your Arctic and Mineral Camo controllers is now easy!

Both the Arctic Camo and Mineral Camo Xbox Series X Console Wraps will launch in the US and Canada on November 10, and Mineral Camo will launch in Europe on November 10. Pre-orders are available now at the Microsoft Store for $44.99 USD / £39.99 GDP.

(For imagery the Source is Xbox Wire)

uk regulator provisionally clears microsoft’s activision blizzard deal

Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has now been given preliminary approval by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

After blocking the proposed deal earlier this year due to concerns it would harm competition in the cloud gaming space, Microsoft was forced to submit a restructured deal to appease the CMA. Now, the UK regulator says that this new deal “substantially addresses” previous concerns and “opens the door to being cleared.”

Under the new deal that Microsoft submitted to the CMA in August, Microsoft would not purchase Activision’s cloud gaming rights, and this would instead be sold to Ubisoft before the acquisition is completed. This is apparently enough to get a provisional green light from the CMA as the “prior sale of the cloud gaming rights will establish Ubisoft as a key supplier of content to cloud gaming services, replicating the role that Activision would have played in the market as an independent player.”

The CMA added that the “sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft will prevent this important content – including games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft – from coming under the control of Microsoft in relation to cloud gaming. The CMA originally found that Microsoft already has a strong position in cloud gaming services and could have used its control over Activision content to stifle competition and reinforce this position. The new deal instead results in the cloud streaming rights for Activision’s games being transferred to an independent player, Ubisoft, maintaining open competition as the market for cloud gaming develops over the coming years. This deal with Ubisoft also requires Microsoft to port Activision games to “operating systems other than Windows and support game emulators when requested, addressing the other main shortcoming with the previous remedies package.”

While the bulk of the CMA’s concerns have been addressed, the UK regulator does have “limited residual concerns that certain provisions in the sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft could be circumvented, terminated, or not enforced.” However, the CMA notes that Microsoft has offered remedies to “ensure that the terms of the sale of Activision’s rights to Ubisoft are enforceable by the CMA.” The competition regulator says that this additional protection should resolve this concern.

In a statement on Twitter, Microsoft president Brad Smith said, “We are encouraged by this positive development in the CMA’s review process. We presented solutions that we believe fully address the CMA’s remaining concerns related to cloud game streaming, and we will continue to work toward earning approval to close prior to the October 18 deadline.”

Third parties can now submit feedback on Microsoft’s proposed remedies up until October 6. The CMA is expected to make a final decision on the deal before October 18.

Well, this is it, Todd Howard’s new immersive 25 years in the making space baby, Bethesda’s latest behemoth and after a lengthy wait full of anticipation, I was honestly a bit nervous starting it up thinking what If I am wrong what if this won’t live up to the hype. When my character opened their eyes to find themselves with a stranger sitting across from them, I was half expecting them to tell me it was good that I was finally awake. But before any Skyrim nostalgia could surface, someone else had dumped a helmet on my head and it was off to the space mines with me.

Starfield doesn’t slow down from there; it really is a beast as the universe really does suck you in. The more you explore, the more you realise there is to explore. The more you do and the more you become acquainted with the game’s systems, the more Starfield’s potential begins to unfold and it dawns on you that the game you’re playing 10-15 hours in is far different than the game you started with. That’s partly why this is an unfinished review as having finished the main quest and over 100 hours in and of course with Starfield being so chunky, it’d be difficult to ever feel like you’d “finished” the game, especially since so much of what it has to offer exists outside of the main story campaign which I must say please do beat the main questline first! Leave the sides and collectibles after okay.

I’m writing this review with over 100 hours in and so far I’ve beat the main questline, fought alien creatures, negotiated the release of hostages from a bank robbery, delivered an

espresso, been ambushed by space pirates, obtained a ton of credits, became a deputy and a whole lot more and my thoughts and opinions about the game have changed quite a bit since I started. There is so much to this game and to be honest it’s one of Bethesda’s finest to date.

Starfield’s sheer scope and ambition is by far its greatest strength and yet, it almost counts against it at first. There’s not much in the way of hand-holding and that can be a great thing, since it encourages you to immerse yourself more fully into the world to figure out how anything works. On the other hand, it does seem like quite a bit of basic necessary information is hidden, leaving you to feel overwhelmed by all the information and data Starfield presents you with and believe me there is a lot.

I was enjoying Starfield from the get-go, but I definitely feel that I’m enjoying it even more as I progress as this game really does drag you in from starting at 7pm at night to realising oh my its 4am this happened a lot by the way. As you continue you find more interesting weapons and start to be more selective with skills which have 4 tiers for each skill and 82 skills in total meaning you need to hit level 328 to max it out. With the levelling system somewhat a grind unless you are rocking very hard like myself then you can breeze through some experience points but there will be touch space battles and awful alien battles and of course with battles the combat becomes much more engaging as you progress. The overwhelming amount of ship-building options becomes much less frightening as you start to understand which

areas you want to focus on or improve whether you’re looking for more storage space, room for your crew, or focusing on the ship’s individual systems to power it up.

Speaking of storage, you have a ton of options. You can store things in your inventory, companions who are pack mules once again so take advantage and of course your ship holds, along with various storage boxes at bases across the cosmos. Storage seemed frustratingly limited at first, I was constantly over encumbered and bouncing between storage boxes looking for the crafting materials I had misplaced trying to not lose oxygen from being over encumbered once again. Mercifully, you can upgrade your carrying capacity down the line to help, but the issue never goes away entirely. It’s especially problematic if, like me, you’re a massive hoarder who picks up every random object you find in case you need it later.

Now for how Starfield’s massive scope works in its favour, with Bethesda telling us the game was huge, but it’s still sort of mind-blowing to think just how much you can do. You can travel to countless planets, many of which have their own cities and settlements, which are often again made up of distinct, individual districts. You can play how you want, I tried everything I could of what the game had to offer but after I’m done playing space ranger and gutsy explorer I think I could spend a good few hours just visiting different planets, surveying their resources, fauna, and flora, and selling the information to fund my next adventure or just building ships that look like Star fighters or the Halo pelican. The quests are already fantastic and it’s great to see that the “side” content such as quests for different factions, activities, character quests, and so on is just as brilliant, if not better. The dialogue is engaging, and it’s incredible to see that this quality is kept up for all of the characters, not just the main ones. I’m always taking any excuse I can to eavesdrop on the conversations between my companions but the idle chatter of passersby is just as interesting and it makes getting anywhere take twice as long since I can’t resist stopping and listening to everyone especially with the amount of hidden gems you can hear like the guy who used to be an adventurer like me but

well never mind you know where that’s going.

Choices feel impactful in the game, too. I chose the Bouncer background as one of my traits, so I had some dialogue options with people missions that tied in with events or clubs some of which I could even use during persuasion. You’ve always got a range of options with how to deal with anything, I tended to lean towards persuasion, and those options always felt tense. When trying to persuade someone to do something in particular, you’re given several attempts to win them over. You have to fill the bar to successfully persuade them, with each persuasion option you’re given filling it up to a certain degree, and each mistake meaning you make no progress. It’s been a while since I was so invested in persuasion and I reloaded a few persuasion situations several times to keep trying until I was successful, just because it felt important for my character to manage things that way. Your companions also comment on much of what you do and you can win or lose favour with them by doing actions they agree or disagree with. Depending on who you’re with, you’ll hear interesting conversations about the places you’re visiting or the people you’re meeting, with even more info if you’re travelling with a local. What’s more, you’ll start to hear tales of your exploits played on radio stations (especially if you start helping out a particular news group with news tips).

The main story sees you quickly joining up with Constellation, a private group of explorers working on uncovering the secrets behind a group of strange artifacts. Their quests branch off, taking you to different planets and meeting new companions. You could have a great time just following that story through which I recommend you do that before anything else. The side quests, however, are so irresistible that you’d be hard pressed to ignore them. One Constellation companion took me to their home planet to look for an artifact. I was barely there for a few minutes before being invited to apply to be a Freestar Ranger, and a new quest line opened up. In a minute, my allegiances completely changed: I had no time for Constellation, I was clearly meant to be a space ranger. Just moving from the Constellation objective to the Freestar Ranger

hub brought me into contact with even more quests and intriguing characters and that was just one part of one city on one planet. I want to be a UC Vanguard, I want to help a scientist figure out why that particular tree is liquifying, I want to help that shopkeeper recover the private data he lost about his clients, but there’s no time for any of that, because I absolutely have to head to Neon for my interview with Ryujin Industries, literally it was never ending one side thing opened several different options and I couldn’t help myself try them all.

Some quests are given by specific people, while overhearing conversations of random citizens can activate new activities. Starfield’s characters sometimes have that small, odd delay when you’re talking to them you wait to see if they’re done, and they stay silent, so you move onto someone else, only for them to start speaking again, meaning you miss out on what they’re saying. There are so many people offering you so much to do that it’s sometimes hard to listen to them all, my companion was talking to me at one point when someone else muttered something that started a new activity which threw me off all together. Before I knew it, a notification had popped up telling me to speak to the scientist under the tree. What tree? What scientist? Who knows? But I’m sure I’ll find him!

The menus are, honestly, quite unwieldy. Your options are set up in a radial format about your character, and most menus have branching submenus. After a while, you figure out some shortcuts, but navigating the menus is always an activity in itself, particularly when you’re transferring items between different storage types. It’s a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things, unlike the maps for planet surfaces, which are downright bad. The only icons you have are for districts as a whole within a city or landing areas on a planet’s surface; you can’t see a map of the district itself, such as where vendors are. It’s not even always clear where you need to go to get to your objective, sometimes a quest marker will tell you to land somewhere and then as soon as you disembark, it’s telling you to get back on your ship again. Again, when the rest of the game is as good as it is, this isn’t much to set

against it, but it does seem oddly undetailed for a game which is so forthcoming with the rest of its information.

Starfield is incredibly expansive. Just one base on one part of one planet, there’s so much to explore sometimes you’ll come across a locked door or a safe that you don’t have the skill to open yet and have to add it to the mental list of places you’ve “got to come back to… as soon as you’ve finished exploring the rest of the galaxy.” On that note the lockpicking minigame is great. Using digipicks, you’re shown several rings with gaps in them and have to fill the gaps with the different keys you’re given. Some keys appear to fit the gaps for several rings, and the challenge is making sure you save the right keys for the right ring. It’s quite irresistible and sometimes tricky when you hit up the master locks, however I’m sometimes guilty of leaving my companions to clear out the rest of an outpost by themselves while I crouch in the corner, muttering over lockpicks.

You often hear about games which promise to let you play how you like, so it’s genuinely satisfying to see this come true in Starfield. There are so many ways to play. If you’re looking to make money, you can pick up bounties, steal and sell ships, raid and loot outposts, join up with a faction and pick up paying missions, and a whole lot more. You might not always be able to avoid combat (although you often can with the right dialogue choices) but if you’re looking for a more peaceful playthrough, you could just float through the galaxy, cataloguing unknown planets and selling the data. With your scanner, you scan the creatures, plants, resources, and traits of the planets you land on until you’ve 100% completed your survey. Sure, some creatures object to being scanned (or approached, or looked at) but for the most part it can be a peaceful experience. Starfield’s systems hold up so well that you could lose hours just to mining. Upgrades and research paths cost different resources and items and when you’re starting out it’s a whole mission in itself to locate which planets have particular minerals and that’s even if you manage to stay focused., you might be bouncing along the surface of a planet looking for nickel, before you spot a strange structure in the distance,

and head over to scan it for your planet survey. On the way, you might bump into a group of spacers, or run across some alien monster, or even spot a landed and apparently empty ship and decide to borrow it for a while. Before you know it, you’re halfway across the system, you’ve got no aluminium, and you’ve turned to a life of crime.

Outpost building is also incredibly extensive and can hoover up hours of your time with what seems like you have created just a shack on mars. If you’ve got the right resources, you can build anything from a simple outpost tower and mining machines, to a full on base with all the crafting stations you need plus the option to decorate it and make it your own or if an outpost isn’t your vibe you can obtain houses through questing or picking one of the traits at the start of the game.

Bethesda games are famed for their bugs, and I don’t want to jinx it, but it’s been a remarkably smooth playthrough so far, with just the

occasional minor glitch which is normally a companion or NPC just glitching through a chair or table. I haven’t had any crashes or lost any progress thankfully.

The customisation options at the beginning are extensive and while I lost my mind trying to see the difference between the various neck and jaw choices, I was happy with the end result. Despite the infinite possibilities of space, some depictions of space settings in games or on TV can seem pretty generic, but Starfield’s various settings become more detailed as you examine them. Offices, shops, or homes seem thoughtfully planned out and Constellation’s Lodge in particular looks great. The drawbacks like the maps, a ton of fast travelling and the storage systems don’t drag this masterpiece of a game like Starfield, so one of the only things I’d like to see improved is better communication about its basic systems, so that you can enjoy it as much as possible without frustrations right from the start.

Overall TGG Rating

Bethesda doesn’t disappoint with one of the best games they have ever created, a true space adventurous Role Playing Game with hours upon hours of entertainment and minimalistic bugs, what more would you want? Without a doubt Todd Howard’s best work to date.

9.5/10

Audio 9/10

Great music dynamics from the great Inor Zur, that being from the menus or radios chattering to the brilliant voice acting far and beyond comes together to form a super talented team, only downfall is some audio glitches with audio not playing or voices not syncing up but a bug or glitch which sure will be ironed out.

Visuals 9/10

An absolute masterpiece with beautiful scenes in a spacious universe, the lower frames do not really make an issue here because it ran so smoothly and looked so damn good at every corner, the only visual issue again is slight bugs which may be ironed out soon, normally facial errors but nothing game breaking.

Playability

10/10

At over 100 hours of gameplay with so much more to do several paths to take and you can actually play the game how you want where you want gives this a high scoring as there’s so much fun to be had within Starfield.

Delivery 10/10

25 years in the making and Bethesda have come out with a bang without a doubt their best game to date with next to no bugs and a super polished game they have delivered exceptionally.

Version tested:Xbox Series X & PC

Reviewed by: Brandon Sawyer

Payday 3 is out and we’re raring to go, but wait, what’s this? I need to create a Starbreeze account before I can log in?

The tutorial was frozen during the first five minutes, okay, I’ll try to matchmake with other players and get a bank job going. No? That’s not working either? This heist seems to have gone horribly wrong. Suffice it to say, after an inauspicious start with Payday 3, I was ready to hang up my clown mask and live a quiet life. Yet, after managing to circumvent the weird bugs, I was off to the races and ready to indulge all of my Heat bank heist fantasies. Turns out Payday 3 is pretty good.

Ten years on from Payday 2, this new entry doesn’t go for massive, sweeping changes, instead choosing to refine the series’ core remit of setting up a job and then attempting to execute it. You could argue that the Payday formula doesn’t really need altering all that much, as many of the elements you might hope for in a shooter, where the key objective is to steal stuff and get away with it, are already present and correct. What would have been a welcome change, however, is competent AI accomplices – Payday 3’s bots are still utterly useless.

Of course, Payday 3 hasn’t been designed to be played with bots. This is a resolutely co-op affair, demanding actual cooperation and communication with real human beings, especially if you want to be in with a chance of tackling heists at higher difficulties. By the time you’re contemplating ‘Overkill’ difficulty, your crew will need to be a well-oiled machine, preferably adopting a stealthy approach, rather than going all Val Kilmer with an assault rifle. Of course, practice makes perfect, so learning the layout of each heist’s map is essential, as is having the right tools for the job in your loadout.

As you complete heists and accumulate cash, new weapons and gear can be purchased, so if you feel like a pump-action shotgun is your jam, then you can shell out for one and add it to your arsenal. Or you can throw your hardearned dollars at new masks, clothing, and gloves, if you feel like looking good during a job is important. Let’s be honest, it is, but you’re obviously better off purchasing auto-turrets or a sniper rifle, upon reaching the requisite level, rather than buying cosmetic stuff.

Regardless, each of Payday 3’s eight heists have their own challenges to overcome, and, if you’re with three other players all singing from the same hymn sheet, carrying off a job without a hitch is an unbridled joy. Getting in and out unseen is no mean feat, as cameras, alarms, tattle-tale civilians, and security guards can all lead to an assault from the police, with each wave of fuzz becoming increasingly hardline, until you’re dealing with heavily armoured grunts packing big guns and sneaky Sam Fisher-types who’ll attack you from seemingly out of nowhere.

Enemy AI isn’t the best, with most coppers running at you with zero thought for selfpreservation, or dutifully queuing up to take a dose of hot lead to the face. Still, what the rozzers lack in brains, they more than make up for in sheer overwhelming numbers, especially as you blast your way through each wave, and the heat really builds up. Naturally, you’ll want to avoid entanglements with the long arm of the law, so quietly cutting through window frames, picking locks while no one’s looking, deactivating security systems, cutting electronics, and locating passwords or keycards to infiltrate a facility, is invariably the best course of action.

Part of the inherent fun in Payday 3, however,

is when shit hits the fan. Its first-person shooter mechanics are nice and robust, with substantial thumping feedback as bullets hit Kevlar. Stealth is rather tricky, demanding a great deal of patience, as you figure out your routes in and out, and how to evade cameras and other security measures. Sometimes it just seems like less of a headache – and it’s invariably much quicker – to simply shoot your way in, gather up the loot, then shoot your way back out to the extraction point. But then, there’s less of a sense of accomplishment running away in a hail of bullets, rather than pilfering the goods and disappearing like a ghost. An all-out assault also pays less, as your benefactor will take cleanup costs out of your cut of the moolah.

From bank jobs to armoured truck robberies, jewellery heists, and art thefts, Payday 3 succeeds in being an immensely gratifying game of coordinated thievery, albeit one that is

infinitely better with friends or online partners in crime (assuming you can get the terrible matchmaking to work). You can’t rely on the game’s bots – they might help you out in a gunfight but forget them carrying loot; they’re seemingly allergic to it, or just plain lazy. But then, you’re not supposed to play Payday 3 on your own, just like you’d be a fool to rob a bank on your own (editor’s note: please don’t rob a bank).

As the foundation for a live service game with a long tail, Payday 3 is a good, solid start, its eight heists providing a nice variety of capers to pull off with fellow career criminals. While it may not be a huge evolution over its predecessor, developer Starbreeze has built upon and fleshed out the series’ systems, making for an experience that will fulfil some, if not all, of your cinematic crime fantasies. Payday 3 brings the heat.

Overall TGG Rating

If you’re hoping for a decent single-player experience, you’re shit out of luck. Payday 3 is a resolutely co-op affair, but then, you’ll need people you can trust to pull of the perfect heist. Either way, this is a first-person shooter that’s criminally good fun.

7/10

Audio 7/10

If you’re hoping for a decent single-player experience, you’re shit out of luck. Payday 3 is a resolutely co-op affair, but then, you’ll need people you can trust to pull of the perfect heist. Either way, this is a first-person shooter that’s criminally good fun.

Visuals 7/10

Perfectly decent. Each environment is tight and compact, but packs in the requisite detail, while character models – including the classic payday gang of Dallas, Hoxton, Wolf, and Chains, alongside newbies Pearl and Joy – also look good.

Playability

7/10

Robust first-person shooter mechanics and stealth options make for a flexible and enjoyable experience, no matter which heist you choose to partake in. Get a posse of four together, all communicating and coordinating like they should, and Payday 3 is magic.

Delivery

8/10

Eight heists, each presenting their own set of challenges. You’ll soon blow through those, of course, which leaves you with either refining your approach and getting down to clockwork precision or braving the higher difficulties.

Version tested:Xbox Series X

Reviewed by: Brandon Sawyer

After eleven mainline instalments, it’s time for Mortal Kombat to undergo a reset. With Mortal Kombat 11 transforming Liu Kang into a Fire God, gifted with the ability to create an entirely new timeline, all of the dangling narrative threads have been tied up and Mortal Kombat 1 essentially represents a clean slate for NetherRealm Studios’ none-more-gory fighting series. This is the same brand of no-holdsbarred, uncompromisingly brutal brawling you’ve come to know and love, only this time, things are ever so slightly different. Oh, and Mortal Kombat 1 also happens to be far and away the most accomplished MK to date. It’s near-flawless.

Mortal Kombat 1 represents NetherRealm operating on a higher plane, delivering a confident, sure-footed fighter that gets practically everything right. For years, the developer has been making excellent fighting game stories, and MK1 is no exception, its ‘Kampaign’ encompassing the series’ fresh start, the Klassic Towers, and the brand new Invasion mode. The Story mode covers the origins of a new timeline, as conjured by Fire God Liu Kang, and the machinations of the

usual bad actors, Shang Tsung, Quan Chi et al. Story Mode manages to hold your attention during its fifteen chapters, liberally deploying narrative twists and turns, while giving MK’s main players their time in the spotlight.

Raiden and Kung Lao’s burgeoning friendship kicks things off, before events gradually spiral, and the narrative takes in Johnny Cage’s wisecracks, Shang Tsung’s sneer, General Shao’s single-minded plotting, Empress Sindel’s tense relationship with daughters Kitana and Mileena, Reptile’s surprising role, Sub-Zero and Scorpion’s struggle, Quan Chi’s wonderfully one-dimensional evildoing, and the story’s myriad other threads. It all makes for an engaging experience, in which each character gets a slightly different origin story and journey, but it’s in Invasion where the real single-player longevity lies.

With MK11’s Krypt consigned to the dustbin, Invasion steps in as a full-fledged adventure mode, wherein you move across an isometric map, taking on rivals entering the world through portals, dodging projectiles in survival events, testing your might, and being on your guard for

a possible ambush at any given moment. It’s the closest you’ll get to a Mortal Kombat RPG, with talismans and relics to equip, and attribute points to earn and spend on your chosen character. You can change your main character and Kameo Fighter at any time, keeping things interesting, while certain Invasion bouts chuck in modifiers, such as fireballs falling from the sky. And, if you find yourself struggling, you can visit the shop to purchase konsumables that can help to even the odds, or head to the forge to upgrade your talisman.

A wealth of single-player content means there’s an awful lot of fighting to be done if you want to eke out every bit of the story stuff Mortal Kombat 1 has to offer, so it’s fortunate that the core mechanics are excellent, the Kameo Fighter system injecting a spot of mixand-match experimentation to proceedings. Kameo Fighters are chosen alongside your main character before every fight, and are controlled by pressing R1, like a tag team buddy. They don’t just pop onto the screen to throw a fireball or execute a move, and then jump off. They each have their own fatalities and can perform combo-breaking interventions if timed correctly – it’s another nice string to Mortal Kombat’s bow, setting it apart from previous instalments. Tide-turning Fatal Blows return in all their bone-shattering glory, too, and MK1 doesn’t disappoint in the Fatality stakes, offering the signature stomach-churning spectacle you’ve come to expect.

If you thought Mortal Kombat X and 11 were a bit strong when it came to bloodcurdling ultra-violence, then you might want to give the follow-up a wide berth. Flesh melts, eyes are gouged out, faces are ferociously ripped off, heads

explode, skulls get crushed, spinal columns get forcibly removed, jugulars are slashed, arms get pulled from their sockets, limbs are snapped in eye-watering fashion, and, well, do you really need to know any more than that? Rest assured, it’s an offal-laden bloodbath.

As for online battles, these remain much the same for Mortal Kombat 1, with King of the Hill back once again, alongside Ranked League play and Casual Matches – pretty much everything a competitive player could ask for. On rare occasions, we’ve experienced a tiny touch of lag when playing online, but nothing severe enough to spoil the action. While we’re nitpicking, unlocking random rewards by chucking currency (at 1,000 Koins a pop) on the main menu’s Shrine and a complete absence of any new characters are among the minor quibbles you might have with MK1, and the addition of premium Dragon Stones and Seasonal Kredits as other currencies isn’t exactly welcome. But when the level of quality elsewhere is of such a superior calibre, it’s hard to care.

Mortal Kombat 1’s robust gameplay alone is more than enough to warrant a hearty recommendation, but with arcade-style Towers, a suite of competitive modes, a generous selection of launch kombatants and Kameo Fighters, a story filled with callbacks and Easter eggs for die-hard fans, a raft of kustomisation options and rewards, as well as the superlative Invasion mode, this is easily the richest, heftiest, and most varied series entry yet. Crucially, all of that grisly gore does nothing to detract from the sensational fighting game at the beating heart of Mortal Kombat 1- this is a truly magnificent thing, and no mistake.

Overall TGG Rating

Outdoing previous Mortal Kombats in the gore stakes and boasting a slew of meaningful and genuinely exciting single-player content, alongside the usual online offerings, Mortal Kombat 1 outstrips previous efforts, delivering one of the finest fighting games money can buy.

9/10

Audio

8/10

A cinematic soundtrack that frames the epic action perfectly and excellent voice work from a talented cast. Those fatalities sound suitably sickening, too.

Visuals

9/10

Still images and trailers don’t really do Mortal Kombat 1 the justice it deserves. This is a remarkablelooking game, and one of the prettiest fighters around.

Playability

9/10

No massive sweeping changes here when it comes to the fundamentals, but the Kameo Fighter system is great, adding a nice wrinkle to each fight.

Delivery 9/10

Story mode and online multiplayer would be about it for most fighting games, but MK1 goes big, with the brilliant Invasion mode and much more.

Version tested: Xbox Series X

Reviewed by: Brandon Sawyer

Killsquad first appeared all the way back in 2019 on PC. Four years on, the team at Novarama have ported the game onto consoles, with all the guns, swords and wacky character designs you could ever need. Basically, it’s been a hot minute for the game, so has it been worth the wait to get our hands on it via a regular old controller?

Despite Killsquad’s colourful appearance and chaotic looking trailers, the actual game feels as hollow as a Kinder Egg that’s had the interior gift surgically removed. As a twin-stick shooter, it needs to be quick, challenging, engaging and ultimately fun, all traits which the game sadly fumbles from the very moment you load into your first contract.

If you were coming into Killsquad with any semblance of hope for a semi-interesting story or even an intriguing lore, well, I’ve got bad news for you. You play as one of five available mercenaries for hire. Each “character” is as flimsy as those paper bridges you build at corporate work away days, with forgettable dialogue and horrid one-liner quips. Your boss is called Momma… for some reason. There are aliens abound and various factions who apparently are at logger-heads though I can’t say I was particularly well read about the situation. Most of Killsquad’s story is told through a tiny smattering of one-way dialogue and a smidgen of text information provided when loading into a level.

To call it bland would be an understatement

of rather epic proportions. The voice lines are delivered with the gusto of a damp squib and some of the text exposition has typos in it, so there’s that. I found very little to latch onto that actually told me anything about the world. Plus, if I have to hear my character embarrassingly meek out “it’s high noon” ever again it may well be the end of me.

While I applaud any attempt to create a unique gaming universe, this just isn’t the one. Also, I struggle to call it creative when voice lines are ripped verbatim from other games with no attempt to differentiate or even satire it. A crying shame, indeed.

Admittedly, most twin-stick shooters aren’t exactly gunning for the end of year story awards. Instead, they’re generally focused on high-octane and satisfying gameplay. While Killsquad fares ever so slightly better in this regard compared to its story, that isn’t much of a compliment. It controls as you might expect – left analogue stick to move, right to aim and fire. Your shoulder and face buttons are mapped to your dodge and specials. Thankfully, Killsquad’s controls are functional and work well, for the most part.

Whether you’re a melee focused or ranged combatant, the entire gameplay loop will consist of holding the analogue sticks, rotating a couple of specials (forgetting about the awkwardly mapped ones), before walking across chunks of unnecessarily large maps doing next to nothing. Your basic attacks

and abilities don’t feel particularly satisfying thanks to a lack of audio and visual feedback and enemies have a habit of becoming rather spongey, making your weapons seem like they’re made of polystyrene.

Some of the effects and colourful explosions look nice at points, but between the enemies that can trigger specials on you without warning, the bosses that erect permanent shields which make ranged characters utterly pointless and foes that can circle strafe around your ability to aim at them, it’s a tough old sell to actually have fun with Killsquad at times. You might think my concerns and frustrations would be alleviated playing the game in co-op as opposed to solo. You know how every game is more fun with friends? Not so, sadly. I partied up with fellow Finger Gunner Josh and we both in unison found ourselves uninterested. When a particularly bothersome mission reset 10 minutes of arduous progress thanks to a frankly stupid objective we called it quits and played something else.

Said mission involved running between designated safe points at intervals to avoid gas clouds – while being accosted by enemies we couldn’t hit as they could fire from further distances than we could. More aggravatingly, you could only move to the next point the game decided, even if the one after that was actually closer or reachable. Boring level design and inane objectives only serve to undermine the game’s limited fun even more.

I experimented with every available character to try out different compositions and abilities and found even less enjoyment. Melee characters can’t attack bosses without getting minced themselves, while Josh’s healing character could barely do a pittance of damage and his healing “ability” involved him just dumping out med kits.

It all works and if you have a team of four, perhaps the synergy between all the classes might mix into something resembling entertainment. We unfortunately just found it distinctly average and with too many small issues that prevent the game hitting any kind of stride and momentum. We also couldn’t really

work out if the game scales characters up or down depending on host and guest level, as I’d join Josh’s lower-ranked missions and do the same amount of damage as on my own and vice versa.

During contracts, you’ll either find via chests or be rewarded with various resources or credits. Between missions, you can spend credits at the shop to acquire higher level weapons, equipment and usable items. Your level is determined by the average of your gear, with contracts being nigh-on impossible if you aren’t at the requisite level.

Sounds like your typical progression system in an ARPG or twin-stick style game. It does however, run into the problem of if you fall prey to a level that stonewalls you and waste your items, you can run out of credits to improve or upgrade. Meaning, you’ll need to replay older contracts again. I cannot tell you how tedious that process is. Given that maps and enemies are reused after about 5-6 contracts, it’s just repetition on top of repetition. Upgrading weapons can have effective and satisfying impacts on your weapons and equipment stats, but it doesn’t fundamentally make the game more exciting. There are three tiers of contracts you’ll unlock via branching paths, with each tier making enemies tougher and basically reducing your ability to deal damage.

There’s a decent chunk of content between the available contracts and unlockable colosseum modes which pit you against waves of enemies for powerful rewards. Whether you want to play the content on offer is a whole other matter. One mechanic that is a bit more novel in Killsquad is the levelling up within missions. You start every contract at level one. As you kill enemies, you progress up to level ten, activating your equipped character upgrades at certain intervals.

It creates a slightly fun dynamic of starting off every contract slightly underpowered but then growing through every mission until the boss. It would also incentivise exploring to make sure you defeat low level enemies before moving on if the exploration was actually worth it. Which it isn’t. It’s a decent idea but it feels a bit short

changed owing to Killsquad’s lack of ingenuity and uninteresting level design.

To its credit, Killsquad does at least have a colourful presentation, some relatively cool character designs and cosmetics and a decent attempt at a more thoughtful upgrade tree for each character. Graphically, the game is undone by some major texture pop-in issues throughout levels and strange oddities like the menu locking up for chunks of time in the postmission screen.

I wouldn’t necessarily say I hated Killsquad. Far from it. It’s just a pure example of a smaller budget game that wants to capture the feel of

a great twin-stick shooter but fumbles so many of the core fundamentals. I’ll always applaud anyone who has a crack at making a decent, functional video game, which this is. It’s just unfortunately uninspired, unengaging and at times, unenjoyable.

I gave it a good go for a few hours before the bullet sponge enemies, the ridiculously unfair enemy mechanics and the bottlenecked progress systems made it too much. I’d recommend it only if you have an untreated addiction to twin-stick shooters or if you have three friends you want to get revenge on as you watch them get owned by an unavoidable enemy attack.

Overall TGG Rating

Killsquad’s attempt at a twin-stick shooter unfortunately falls flat in almost every aspect of its design. The competent but bland combat, aesthetically interesting but boring presentation and poorly balanced mechanics lead to a functional but ultimately lifeless video game. It’s not bad, it’s just not a lot of fun to actually play. 7/10

Audio 7/10

There’s not too much to say about the audio in Killsquad, either. The background music is very much in the background. It almost seems like it is not there at all even at 100%. Overall though nothing about sounds for skills, enemies, or any other actions felt like they need attention. I didn’t pick up on any audio glitching out either.

Visuals

7/10

The art style is exactly what I would expect from a sci-fi game of this type. Killsquad boasts some great takes on alien worlds and species. But again I have to fall back to the zones feeling very much the same. I also found it hard at times to actually notice where the boundary of the area I was in was. A lot of the time things just blend in too well. Sometimes the environments made it hard to see if I actually had an ability to go off as well.

Playability

8/10

Each of the five characters has their own in-depth skill tree and personal vector score. Maxing out each character requires playing through contracts with each individually. That means a lot of replay value, despite being somewhat of a grind. Novarama also doesn’t plan on slowing down development with Killsquad. Adding things like legendary weapons, competitive ladders and seasons, among other content updates will keep the game around for a good while as long as there continues to be a community for it.

Delivery

6/10

Although I enjoyed Killsquad, it is not without its shortcomings. It has all the groundwork for an amazing game ahead. But without a better loot system, more diverse zones, and some tweaking of the gameplay overall, it will fall short of its full potential.

Version tested: PlayStation 5

Reviewed by: Brandon Sawyer

Deceit 2 is the sequel to the surprise hit that both conquered and scared quite a crowd since its release in 2017. A multiplayer social deduction game with a hefty dose of horror, it messes with the players’ minds as they try to discover who among them are the infected, with hunches and misdirection contributing to the atmosphere of anxiety and distrust. It’s Among Us but not set in space, so everyone will hear you scream over the mic as you try to come up with reasons to uphold your innocence. But you will also scream at some shortcomings such as the lack of focus, or a single map available at the time of launch.

Deceit 2 does lean more to the social deduction aspect instead, sticking to an oppressive atmosphere with the added tension of knowing that two players are plotting against the rest. But how does it all play out when you are in your asylum scrubs and being observed by everyone?

Your initial matches in Deceit 2, which supports a minimum of six and maximum of nine players, may feel a bit overwhelming, despite or maybe by virtue of the introductory cinematic that tries to explain the mechanics as you boot up the game for the first time. You can replay this video to clear some lingering doubts, but it’s routine to find yourself amidst a handful of players that already know the game inside out, as you try to learn the better process to win the match, both as an innocent or an infected.

There are various tasks for the two sides to achieve, pretty much in Among Us style. Innocents must find and complete short challenges, such as revealing pairs of cards, achieving checkmate in one move, tuning a radio, cracking open a safe, turning off showers

at the same time, giving the right pills to a patient, set the right time on the clock, reassembling a photograph, and more. The infected, on the other hand, have some actions to sabotage the innocent. These tasks range from interesting to bland, giving some purpose to your wandering, with slight variations to each implementation. Besides, these challenges free lost souls that feed the sinister entity known as Peddler.

The Peddler can be described as the go-to in-game shop, regularly offering you diverse gadgets that expand on the gameplay mechanics. The binoculars allow you to find the locations of other players as the best night vision goggles do, the handcuffs can be used to prevent a player from doing some actions, and a mask can be used to disguise yourself as another player. Completing matches rewards you with currency that can be used to unlock new devices and outfits, in a standard progression system that would be more satisfying if the gameplay loop was more focused.

When the infected fracture the altars, it’s time for the in-between to exert its grasp upon reality, revealing the true form of the hunters. Innocents must flee from the terror creature, and when one is captured and executed, a voting session starts, as the world returns to its temporary normal. Unfortunately, guns are conveniently jammed during these stages, so there’s no gunplay when in theory it made the most sense.

One of the main concerns is how eager the Peddler is to give every player a gun, right from the very start of each match. Deceit 2 isn’t a shooter and shouldn’t try to be one, but the will to blend genres places a pistol in your hands and lights the spark for chaos and confusion.

It’s easy to jump into conclusions gun in hand, nervous shootouts happening frequently, a few shots enough to down a player because someone thought it would be fun, or the argumentation somehow pointed to this or that, despite the often-flawed logic.

Shooting is too tempting for some, social deduction and reasoning be damned; just vote out everyone and hope to win in a system that couldn’t be stranger – shoot a player so that it becomes trapped in this ritualistic circle, then if they get enough votes, they are banished from the match. That’s right, shooting doesn’t kill anyone, and you can’t even use it against the infected during the in-between stage; guns are but a vehicle for voting on a player.

The other underwhelming aspect is that Deceit 2 comes with only one map, Millhaven Asylum, and no, this isn’t Early Access, but the full launch. Even if it features three floors, the map remains fairly contained and above all without many distinctive areas, being easy to lose yourself in the somewhat labyrinthic areas. More maps are planned, but a single location at launch still feels like the bare minimum for a game that desperately needs content to grab players and keep them coming back for more.

Graphics are average, certainly not something to go nuts about, with character models leaving a lot to be desired, especially when everyone dons the same scrubs for a few matches (even down to the colour) before they earn enough currency to unlock an alternate costume. The asylum has a few nice details, with the lighting

during the in-between phase being a highlight. However, the game isn’t without its bugs, including players squeezing through cracks on the wall but occasionally doing so by blatantly clipping.

Performance issues also abound, with a beefy computer required to run the game to its full potential, but even more worrying are the frequent disconnect issues while trying to join a game. The loading screen gets us all prepped and excited to start a match, but suddenly we are kicked out to the menu without any information on what just happened.

Deceit 2 comes with a potentially capable core, but along the way it forgets that it should be more about the human aspect and dwell less on the urge to put guns on everyone’s hands, letting them grief others and bring whatever hint of intelligent gameplay there is to shambles. Trying to mix two genres that function on very different fundamentals – shooter and social deduction – didn’t yield the best results, birthing a messy concept in dire need of focus.

The low price tag is a good point, but not enough of a saving grace to make us forget about the glaring gameplay and network issues, lifeless characters, and the single map at launch. Deceit 2 feels like an Early Access release turned official launch, a game that tried to reach a larger community, but by doing that forsakes what could have turned it into something special. It’s definitely not one to make you go mad, but surely could have been a lot better with a more focused approach.

Overall TGG Rating

Despite its glaring flaws, Deceit 2 still shows some promise if the developers can keep updating it, overhauling large aspects of the game. Its predecessor Deceit 1 was a lot simpler, proving that the developers, World Makers, can produce a solid title. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem like the case with Deceit 2 as it lacks a lot of what makes games like Dead by Daylight and Among Us so memorable. The fact that it is basically the recycled concept of Among Us-style games and yet we were still flabbergasted and confused, is really telling about just how counterintuitive the gameplay loop is, especially for new players.

5.5/10

Audio 6/10

Main menu music is extremely jarring, loud, and unnecessarily dramatic. You’d think for a game going for this demonic aesthetic that the soundtrack would involve soft, eerie music that makes you anxious. Instead, players are greeted with an obnoxious theme that makes you question whether you launched Deceit 2 or Medal of Honor: Vanguard.

Visuals

6/10

The graphics are decent but nothing special at all. In fact, a lot of the characters, monsters and items are poorly rendered. The aesthetic and overall vibe are solid, providing a spooky ambience full of creepy and bloody objects. Yet, at times the graphical quality of this game is ridiculously silly. The model of the creature is basically ripped straight out of the Counter-Strike Nexon launcher and the guns feels like flash weaponry from Counter Strike Portable. Furthermore, most of the immersion is lost once you encounter the frequent FPS drops, performance issues, and wonky character models.

Playability

5/10

With only one map and the frequent disconnecting issues and performance problems it feels like there is very little playability as terms especially now how this is a paid product where as the first was free, however you do gather a range of fun while you can mainly at laughing with bugs or the somewhat horror vibes with your buddies.

Delivery

5/10

I ran into a messy amount of bugs and performance issues with the gain trying to mix shooting and social deduced but it is just too flawed right now, we did have some fun moments playing especially with how many can play and the horror aspect I can see where you are going with it but it just under performed hitting out at a low 5 to deliver.

Version tested: PC

Reviewed by: Brandon Sawyer

There is one genre severely underutilised in video games, and that’s espionage. With so many badass spies littered throughout history in various different narrative spaces over the years, you have to wonder why so many game developers steer clear of this field - with a handful of rare exceptions, of course. The backstabbing and who-to-trust elements of an espionage thriller are the perfect ingredients for a rich narrative, if pulled off correctly. And not only does Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty do that with aplomb, but thanks to the setting and technology on offer, it makes the James Bond movies look like they’re set during the stone age.

Phantom Liberty is a standalone narrative set within the Cyberpunk 2077 world, leaning into V’s desperation to find a cure for her malfunctioning Relic woes. In Phantom Liberty, V finds themself pulled into the world of espionage by a mysterious Netrunner named Songbird, called upon to save the President of the New United States. What flows from that explosive start is a cleverly-written narrative that has you questioning the loyalty and motives of everyone around you, from President Myers to former operative, Solomon Reed, played by the brilliant Idris Elba. What makes Phantom Liberty purr, though, is not just the handcrafted and superbly articulated story, but the sheer variety of set-pieces. They’re exactly what you want from a 15-20 hour experience, with style and class in spades.

While the backdrop for Phantom Liberty, Dogtown (situated smack-bang in the middle of Night City’s Pacifica district), might seem relatively limiting and uninspired at first, the density of it is like nothing else you’ll have

experienced in Cyberpunk 2077 thus far. Every building seems to have a purpose, whether it’s as part of the main narrative or for one of the game’s fantastic Gigs and Side Missions. Dogtown is a brutal backdrop, with Kurt Hanson and his cronies running the show, and one that will grow on you the longer you spend in it.

As previously alluded to, it’s not just the main narrative that oozes class and style, as well as meaningful choice and consequence - the game’s smattering of Gigs and Side Missions are an extension of that. There’s pretty much a choice to make, and an ensuing consequence to feel the breadth of, around every corner. If The Witcher 3’s Blood and Wine was the perfect piece of DLC, this runs it close. It’s nearly enough to make you forget Cyberpunk 2077’s shaky launch. On top of the fantastic new Side Missions and Gigs, there’s now infinitelyrepeating emergent open-world opportunities, too, in the form of car deliveries and cache drops, which can result in some excellent loot, if that floats your boat.

It’s not just the narrative that’s superb in Phantom Liberty. The whole game feels like something completely brand new, thanks to the workings of Update 2.0. Sure, there is an adjustment period you’ll have to go through, as you try and forget everything you’ve learned, but the game as a whole feels better for it. Although, I would say that developer CD Projekt RED has perhaps gone too far the other way with vehicle handling since launch - it feels too floaty now (a change, I realise, from before Update 2.0, but it’s very apparent now I’ve returned to the game for an extended period).

There are some changes, however, that don’t sit

right with me, personally, like no longer being able to attach a silencer to a revolver. Armour values are also no longer attached to your gear but attached to your Cyberdeck instead. That last one, in particular, doesn’t make sense to me, as it’s now rendered clothing pointless - it’s now a purely cosmetic aspect, which boggles the mind in a first-person game where you rarely see your character. However, for the most part, Cyberpunk 2077 is a much better package overall, thanks to 2.0.

The truth is, any minor gripes fall away pretty quickly thanks to everything else, like the massively improved perk tree, the vehicle combat, and the improved police reactionsresulting in some epic GTA-style chases and shootouts if you cross them. I do wish CDPR had leaned into that more during Phantom Liberty’s missions themselves, but alas, it chose not to. Still, it’s there, if you fancy having

a bit of fun off the beaten path. The new Relic system, tied into Phantom Liberty, does leave a lot to be desired, though, effectively offering a paltry three new skills, and extensions of said skills. They either fit your playstyle, or they don’t - often, they won’t. The new changes to the Cyberdeck offer up more options there, and with the new Level 60 level cap, there’s room to extend your capabilities there if you haven’t already.

While Phantom Liberty has seemingly learned a few lessons from the base game, these lessons seemingly don’t go as far as improvements to Cyberpunk’s boss encounters. Some of them are still lacking a little tact and ingenuity. A main mission boss fight early on, for instance, can’t hold a candle to the more interesting boss fight approach in one of the Gigs, ‘Spy In The Jungle’. Some progress has been made in this department, though.

Overall TGG Rating

Phantom Liberty goes some way towards washing away the sins of Cyberpunk 2077’s messy launch, delivering a fantastic, bitesize Cyberpunk standalone experience - within the confines of the base game. With some truly memorable and innovative set-pieces, an explosive narrative that keeps you second-guessing at every turn, Phantom Liberty is everything you’d want in a spy thriller, made all the more exciting by the setting and advancements in technology. It’s just a shame that this is the only major Cyberpunk expansion we’ll see, as it feels like CD Projekt RED has finally found its feet in Night City. Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel can’t come soon enough.

9/10

Audio

9/10

An absolutely stunning soundtrack with perfectly finished voice acting, great work done with Idris Elba of course, this DLC brings crisp audio with the beautiful narration and with the right set up that really makes you feel in the moment.

Visuals

9/10

With update 2.0 this game looks beautiful on all platforms after ironing out 99% of all bugs now is the time to dive into Cyberpunk, with next gen technology for console and PC this is truly a beautifully visual game.

Playability

9/10

Whatever your playstyle, whether it be stealth, charm, hacking, brawler or master of arms, combined with Cyberpunk’s RPG mechanics, it’s an absolute joy to play and with this DLC brining a whole new area to explore giving you a ton of quests main and side to really dive into bringing hours of joy and excitement.

Delivery

9/10

Great story, fantastic additions to the game, a free update prior to this making the game 1000x better than launch, I believe this game brings so much to the table now and is not to be missed, so what are you waiting for? pick up a copy with this DLC today!

Version tested: Xbox Series X

Reviewed by: Brandon Sawyer

This was one of the most anticipated games for lovers of assymetrical horror games. Dead By Daylight fans were very excited for the release of this game, wanting a fresh perspective on victims vs villains. As one of those fans, I was very much looking forward to trying this out, knowing the Texas Chainsaw Massacre lore pretty well as a horror film fan. Thanks to Evolve PR, I was able to play the steam version of this game early!

From the get-go, loading up the game made me simultaneously excited and extremely nervous to play. The developers captured the tenseness from the movies extremely well in the game with the general aethetic, opening music and intro scenes. Being greeted with the menu, I decided it was probably wise I checked out the tutorials first. Whilst the videos were well made, I have to admit that watching them made me feel a little bit overwhelmed with the amount of tasks, tools and other things the characters could do in the game.

I would have preferred a small introduction video and then a silly AI match just to allow myself to get used to the controls and how a typical round goes. I found myself feeling even more nervous going into my first match, as I was so overloaded with information from the videos that I wasn’t sure I was going to remember everything.

That being said, I bit the bullet and loaded into my first game as a Victim. The aim of the game is simple: Escape. You can do this via freeing yourself from the basement via lockpicking, then traversing the map (carefully, you don’t want to get found!) in search for tools to get yourself out. Not only do you have three roaming Family members wandering around with weapons, but grandpa is also around, who acts as a sonar every so often. For my first match, I survived a bit longer than I expected, but was the first to die. I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going or what I was doing, and resorted to following the other victims around in order to learn what to do. It seemed I was with other new players though, and the Family players were far more experienced. That round unfortunately ended in mass death for the victims.

I decided to load into another game, not feeling satisfied with having lost that round. Again, I was struggling to remember all the things I needed to find and do, and whilst I was so occupied trying to figure that out, I walked straight into Bubba. First to die again. An exasperrated sigh and a small break was needed before I tried again. I slowly got the hang of how it worked in the end, but decided to try out playing as Bubba myself after a few rounds. I enjoyed playing as the family much more, as the process of winning was far simpler. Find the victims and kill them. Easy, right?

Turns out, not that easy. BUT, it wouldn’t be a good game if it was too easy! I actually enjoyed playing as The Family a lot more than being a Victim. Although I wasn’t much help on the killing side, I was grandpa’s favourite person as I was constantly feeding him and levelling up his abilities.

After playing a few matches on both sides, I will say that the game is definitely enjoyable, though I was still feeling a bit clueless even after some time playing it. However, I do think that once the mechanics are learned properly, it’s quite a fun game. The aesthetics of the whole thing are astounding, with amazing, brutal graphics and incredible audio. I spent each match crouching around, absolutely terrified, because of how well the sound was done as Bubba roamed around revving his chainsaw. Despite me being slow to learn them, the controls are extremely smooth and easy to use.

The game, whilst it does throw you in the deep end when it comes to learning how to play it, does have helpful reminders throughout for controls. I was beyond impressed with how well the game runs, and had to do next to no tinkering in the settings, other than turning the volume down just a little!

Overall I think this game is really fun. I don’t know how it will hold up against Dead By Daylight in terms of future-proofing, but having a lot more to do as both the Family and the Victims in this game is very refreshing. Unfortunately this game will always be compared to DBD due to it’s similarities, but I do think this is unique enough to stand on its own, and it’s an excellent change to the asymmetrical horror scene. A huge thank you to Evolve PR againg for sending us the review code. I can’t wait to play this more and become an expert at both escaping and preventing escape!

Overall TGG Rating

A thoroughly enjoyable game overall, though I think it could definitely do with having an AI match that allows new players to get used to the controls and how a typical round runs before being thrown into lobbies with much more experienced players!

8.5/10

Audio 9/10

Incredible sound design throughout. The music itself was amazing, but the overall sounds were terrifying, keeping me on the edge of my seat as I played. Very well done!

Visuals 9/10

Very good visuals and graphics. Some of the scenes were absolutely brutal but in the best way. The aethetics of the game capture the films extremely well, and everything runs smoothly without any/ much need to change the settings.

Playability

8/10

The controls are very smooth and straight forward, but I do think that providing all of the tasks and such via multiple videos is a little overwhelming for a new player. I believe it would be better to have a ‘training’ mode for players to use in order to get used to how a typical round functions.

Delivery 9/10

Incredible aesthetics, well designed characters and very well thought out mechanics. This game is a hugely refreshing addition to the asymmetrical horror game scene and I cannot wait to see what additions the devs have in mind for it!

Version tested: PC

Reviewed by: Emily Welfare

To say this game was highly anticipated would be an understatement. With it being in Early Access for so long, fans were eager to see what the finished product was going to look like. I can say for definite, it did not disappoint. The game had been in Early Access for nearly three years, with the full development of it spanning over four. I cannot express enough how every inch of the game from its story, to its environments and sound, most certainly show the amount of love and time that was poured into making it.

Already being a lover of Dungeons and Dragons was a huge reason for being so excited for this game and loving it throughout, but I can safely say that those who have never played a single game of the famous tabletop RPG would still very much enjoy this game. It’s not too complicated to understand, and the core mechanics of D&D that require a bit of mental maths is all done for you. But I digress, we will get to mechanics later. Lets start from the beginning.

As with all games of this nature, you start with the character creation. With plenty of races to choose from (although not as many as Dungeons and Dragons offers, but still lots!), you can be whoever you want to be, whether it’s an Elf, a Gnome, or even a Dragonborn! Whilst the character editor section isn’t as indepth as I would have liked, there are still a lot of options to choose from when it comes to hairstyle, colour, eye colour etc. Along with this

comes the choice of what class you want to be. Again, there are quite a few options to pick, from martial classes to spellcasters. All of them have their strengths and weaknesses, for example Barbarians are heavy hitters with their rage ability, but will be in the frontlines and will probably take the most damage in a fight, or a Sorcerer can throw some VERY damaging spells, but has hardly any health and would struggle in hand-to-hand combat.

Whatever you choose, there will be benefits throughout the game that your class offers, whether that is in combat, exploration or in dialogue scenes. It’s important to note that if you are not keen on spending time creating your character, you have the option to play as one of the NPC’s instead, including a mysterious character named the Dark Urge.

Now that your character is created and named however you see fit, it’s time to start the game. The story is thus: You were kidnapped by a Mindflayer and taken to their Nautiloid ship, where an Illithid tadpole was forced into your brain. You spend the game attempting to remove this creature before you turn into a Mindflayer yourself. You uncover all sorts of mysteries directly involving you and this invasion in your brain, discovering that it is far more than just a race against time. You must save Baldur’s Gate, otherwise the entirety of the Swords Coast could full under the influence of the evil that wishes to corrupt and control. Of course, you do not HAVE to play the hero in

this ttory, and could very well fight the evils of the world in order to gain that control and power for yourself.

That is the beauty of this game, as every single action you take matters. Whether you choose to immediately fight everything you see or attempt to charm them with your charisma skills, there will be awards and consquences to everything you do. Bonds will be formed, enemies will be made, and you must navigate those choices and see where the story goes. It runs like a true Dungeons and Dragons game, with the narrator acting as the DM.

If you play a single player game, you can have a party of three other NPC’s, interacting with them throughout and uncovering their own stories and side quests. This is important to note: that it is not just a singular story. There are many threads that you can follow, helping or hindering your companions and getting cool loot in the process. Not to mention you have the option of romancing the NPC’s as well, which is all in good fun and unlocks many more story options with them. It is very easy to put over 100 hours into this game and still not even be close to completing the main story if you are an explorer like me. Even then, there are many things I am positive I missed, which makes me all the more excited to play it again.

You also have the option to have a party of friends, up to four players. It’s a very different experience playing with other people, making the replayability of the game immense. The chaos that can ensue when playing with friends can be hilarious, a testament to many a D&D campain.

The game is so vast that it is hard to put into words how incredible it is. There hasn’t been a single side quest that felt pointless or tedious. They were all interesting and had some sort of connection to the overall story. What I enjoyed the most is that not all of them were serious. Some were outright silly and hilarious, which is a welcome reprieve. The voice acting is astounding along with the writing when it comes to the dialogue scenes, with some options leading to outright hilarity and others to serious consquences.

Moving onto the graphics and sound, as mentioned before, it is hard to find any faults in either when it is so obvious how much love and care was put into this game. The environments are gorgeous, with the maps being so vast and detailed. There are secrets everywhere, with all sorts of little pathways to take. So much thought was put into every single area. This is not to mention the sound that accompanies it. The musical scores are addictive and so well done, drawing out emotion when necessary. That being said, the sound used in combat is great. There is something so satisfying about the sound of an axe cutting through an enemy mid-rage, or the boom of the lightning bolt as it tears through 5 enemies at once.

That is to say, no game goes without its flaws. Having played it on release day, the game certainly did come with its fair share of bugs as well as some crashing issues. However, the devs worked VERY hard to patch it as quickly as possible. It would be impossible to find every single glitch/bug in the game with how large it is and how many pathways you can go down, and the ones I encountered were very minimal. There were a few elements of the game that were not originally there that I wish were there from the beginning, such as being able to swap out player characters when your friends aren’t able to play for a session, or being able to edit your appearance after character creation. Again though, the devs were very quick to respond to feedback and implemented these rather quickly.

In terms of flaws though, they were the only ones I could find. I throughly enjoyed every moment of the game, firstly taking a more neutral heroic route with plans to play again and choose the more evil options. I love to explore every inch of these types of games, and yet after conversing with my friends I have found that I have still missed things. The fact that there are so many paths to go down makes the game so interesting, with the devs going so far as to think of nearly every possibility of what players would try to get up to.

I cannot wait to try my evil playthrough soon, so that I can enjoy the game from a different perspective all over again!

Overall TGG Rating

I overall absolutely adored this game. It is genuinely hard to pick out any flaws though there were a few small ones in terms of some game-breaking glitches or frame issues. But other than that, it was an incredible experience, with the possibility of having so many more incredible experiences. Thank you Larian Studios for such an incredible game!

9.5/10

Audio 10/10

A beautiful soundtrack along with incredible sound effects. The combat feels so much more satisfying with the well thought-out sound design, and the music in every area of the game and dialogue scene feels impactful and emotional.

Visuals 10/10

Beautiful environments and use of colour. I found myself just stopping and staring at the views for a few minutes, much to the annoyance of some of my friends. The magical effects in combat and the motion capture of the characters in the dialogue scenes were amazing!

Playability

9/10

The mechanics of the game are very easy to understand and are very smooth, with the choice of using mouse and keyboard or a controller. That is to say, there were a few minor issues with framerate, small glitches and one game-breaking crash. All of which were patched very quickly!

Delivery 10/10

Amazing story with so many different ways of experiencing it. It’s a game that can be played over and over again with the sheer amount of detail in every single area . An S tier game through and through.

Version tested: PC

Reviewed by: Emily Welfare

Billietrixx

Billie, better known as “BillieTrixx”, is a UK streamer and content creator on Twitch, TikTok, and YouTube! Billie’s content focuses on variety gaming, with a particular love for RPGs. When Billie is not busy smashing goals on her own channel, she wields her staff as the Sorceress Trixx in Session Zero, a valiant band of adventurers exploring endless series of potentially unfortunate events in the world of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D).

Hey Billie! First of all, we would like to thank you for taking the time to have a chat with us. How have you been and what have you been up to recently?

Hey thanks for having me! I am really good, enjoyed the last of the summer but can I be honest? I am ready to stay inside and play games all winter!

Glad to hear it! We 100% feel the same way, so many games in the back catalogue! Although we’re bigger fans of autumn than winter; not too hot, not too cold, and of course it’s spooky season! Let’s start from the beginning, tell us a little bit about your streaming and content creation life? How long have you been streaming/creating content? And what made you want to start?

I stream a few times a week and also spend time creating content for YouTube and TikTok, I go from working as a social media manager during the day to variety entertainer in the evening. Needless to say it’s a busy schedule essentially having two jobs.

I started streaming oh, maybe 5 years ago? Time flies when you’re having fun! For me it has always been within me to entertain, I actually did pantomime for a while and the skills really transfer! Being a PC gamer too meant I struggled to find other friends online as I didn’t go to university so missed out on making those connections until I started attending LAN events across the country.

Streaming gave me a way to find people who enjoy the same things as me. The saying “if you build it they will come” springs to mind here!

And they did indeed – you have an amazing community behind you! We love seeing the friendships and community support that develops from streaming, it’s so wholesome and heartwarming. Also, a BillieTrixx pantomime is something the world needs, just putting it out there. So, what influenced your decision to be a variety streamer/content creator instead of being dedicated to one game?

I have the attention span of a gnat. No really, I have SO many different interests and although it isn’t recommended for growth, I just cannot tie myself down to one content niche.

We feel the same way. There are so many great games out there to play, and content to watch or experience as well, it would be a shame to miss out on them. Speaking of great games, we see you’ve played a fair few hours of Baldur’s Gate 3. What are your thoughts on it as a D&D themed game and does it do the TTRPG justice? If you have one, who would be your favourite character?

I’ve never played a game which lets me throw a guy onto a goblin to kill him and take his loot. I’ve never played a game where, as a druid, I can shift into bear form to get frisky. Baldur’s Gate 3 is the closest you’ll ever get to bringing TTRPG to life. I also think it has a lot of capacity to expand even more on the huge potential it’s now unlocked.

My favourite character? Easy! Karlach. She’s a red hot Tiefling with a heart of gold, she is just a cinnamon roll wrapped up in the skin of an angry barbarian Tiefling with an infernal engine for a heart. She has captured my heart entirely and if you dear reader have decided to snuff out her life in your playthrough, I highly recommend keeping her around for your second go.

It is amazing what you can actually do in Baldur’s Gate 3. I feel like if you can imagine it, you can do it! And YES, Karlach is everything – she’s so unbelievable sweet, I just want to give her a massive hug! Give me all the fire resistance potions, scrolls, everything. Staying within the video games bubble, what would be your top 3 games you have played so far?

This is a battle, ruling out Baldur’s Gate because I’ve already love bombed it. My top 3 games are The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, Spyro… Then it gets tough for 3rd place, House Flipper, Sims 4, Vampire Survivors, Hades and Borderlands could all take that spot, and I wouldn’t be mad. But just by sheer number of hours Skryim has to go there!

It is definitely tough narrow it down with so many amazing games out there, and just your list alone is a battle to pick just 3! Moving on from video games - You play the Sorceress Trixx in the amazing Session Zero. For those who don’t know, could you tell us a bit about what Session Zero is, and how it began?

That’s Yemmara Trixx to you! Session Zero is an improv Dungeons & Dragons stage experience where the audience have the control over the dice and encounters!

We focus on an audience first performance by bringing a solid storyline as a foundation and letting our players improv acting skills and the audience suggestions help us fill in the details.

We have a giant fluffy D20 we throw into the audience; they throw it back and whatever it lands on counts as the roll for the action the player is trying to do. Including fireball inside a small room!

Of course, Session Zero started how all good D&D games start, my friend Jess was chatting with her friend Josh and they were looking for 2 more players and I happened to see the tweet and jumped straight on it!

The irony is that earlier in the year I wrote in my goals that I wanted to be in a D&D group and perform. I call that ultimate manifestation!

That is hitting your goals at its finest! You love to see it. We manage to catch SessionZero at i70 as well as i71 and it really is a great experience! Readers, definitely check it out if you have the chance. There are many who play D&D, but not many can do it live on stage. What is it like doing live improv D&D on stage? How does it compare to your live episodic sessions?

The best thing about improv is you cannot go wrong as long as you “yes and” the story, whatever the audience or other players throw into the mix, or even the DM you HAVE to lean into it!

It might mean you’re trying to shove a flute up the ass of an ogre or trying to capture a duck from a ship. Anything could and will happen.

Although our characters are D&D based we play by the rule of cool on stage, we don’t roll for everything and we don’t have HP but we’re here to tell a story, engage the audience and make them feel part of the world we build on stage.

Our sessions doing more traditional sit down games are a great way to see more depth in our characters coming up against all sorts of difficulties and character growth, it also is in a way a slower experience as we have more time to react and think about things. On stage you got to keep the pace and energy up!

I like how SessionZero have adapted the game, it is fun seeing how different people play D&D and what I can learn from them to make my own personal games more fun an engaging. D&D has exploded in popularity in recent years. What got you interested in D&D originally? And why do you think D&D has experience such growth when not too long

ago it was considered a niche hobby?

I always wanted to play TTRPGs but was too shy to join in, I thought the rules sounded overwhelming and maybe I’d be embarrassed about the roleplay, or I wasn’t nerdy enough to fit in... As I got older and found true nerdy friends who I felt at home with I finally played my first games and I have never looked back.

The general rise of “nerd culture” has definitely helped the previously niche hobby. From Stranger Things to TikTok trends there’s been almost a rebellion from people to break out of normal hobbies and into something more creative and freeing.

It is great to see video games and nerd culture growing and getting positive recognition! And speaking of positive recognition, congratulations on being invited to Insomnia 71 with Session Zero! Whether you’re attending as an official Creator for the event or just as yourself, do you think it is important for aspiring creators looking to grow to be at these events?

Thank you! Insomnia was the first event which saw what Session Zero was all about and decided to give us a shot, needless to say we NAILED IT!

Events are only as useful as you make them, if you spend your time not meeting new people and not pushing yourself it could be considered a waste. Go say hi to brands working on stands, introduce yourself to other creators and companies, put yourself out there.

Not only does putting a face to a name and having some IRL interaction help your footing in the industry, but it could open up so many doors just through a simple conversation, even about your dog, or what you’ve been up to or what the brand are working on this year.

Agreed, definitely put yourself out there. Networking is a key part of growing and getting opportunities to work on cool things with brands. Are there any events, anywhere in the world, you would love to attend either as an official creator or normal attendee?

I’ve never been to Gamescom, watching it from home and seeing everyone’s photos made me super FOMO but one day I’ll be there! I would say E3 but that unfortunately is no longer a thing. I once travelled in a van across Europe to go to Dreamhack in Sweden it was incredible! I’d love to travel to conventions overseas including USA etc as they go BIG! Also never attended a Magic The Gathering event so that’s on my list too!

If your D&D group goal manifestation is anything to go by, we’ll see you at those events very soon! So what would a standard day in the life of BillieTrixx be like? Are you currently a one-person content creating machine from start to finish?

I feel like I am about to break some false perception people have of creators. I am a 30-year-old who works a job and has a lot of responsibilities. But I am okay with keeping it real!

I spend my standard weekdays working hard for a gaming social media agency, luckily my job also transfers super well into content creation, and visa versa! Most evenings I am either creating TikToks, streaming on Twitch, recording for YouTube, posting on my Ko-Fi.

Work life balance is difficult, and I don’t subscribe to the “hustle” culture but ultimately it takes a lot of passion and hard work to be “ON” all the time on socials, videos etc.

Your content and growth are evidence of the passion and hard work you put in. People often overlook how much effort it takes to produce good content. For you, what do you think are the essentials that you can’t create content without?

My phone, sounds obvious and I definitely spend way too much time on it but it is my main access to creation. Secondly another obvious one my PC, although I really need to get more storage, and this has reminded me!

Something less obvious I couldn’t live without is time away from it all, touching grass is really helpful for giving your brain the space to create. And I couldn’t do anything without the support of my community and friends who cheer me on every step of the way.

Time away from it all is a fantastic one! Sounds counterproductive at first but like you said, giving your brain the space to create will ultimately help you produce better quality content. Away from your content creation life, what do you do in your spare time?

Spare time?! OH! The content creator urges to turn EVERYTHING into content is so strong but a few things that I do keep to myself are: Firstly, I go to the gym 3 times a week, I want to be built like Karlach ready to throw anyone over my shoulder.

Secondly, I have a few D&D sessions I do in private, and lastly spending time with friends and family playing board games, going for walks, I am a big lover of experiences over things so anytime I get to go experience something with someone I am IN!

What is something that no one who watches your channel/content knows about you?

When I was younger, I did ballet, tried violin, and used to be a horse girl, none of them stuck for one reason or another. Because I consider myself a slight chaos goblin, I also have a huge secret to reveal… Whenever I would visit my parents house, I would move everything in their bathroom 1 cm to the left. I don’t know why, but I always thought it was funny.

That is hilarious and ever so slightly mean, but I love it! Billie’s parents, if you’re reading this, you’re not going crazy you just have a lovingly chaotic child. With over half of 2023 behind us, what are your goals for the end of the year?

I cringed a bit realising “half of 2023 behind us” where has the time gone? I’ve yet to do a charity stream this year but I have one planned for October, so I am excited to use my platform to raise some money for a good cause.

For personal goals I am aiming to finally try being a DM for the first time and expand my D&D knowledge. As for content creation I am working hard on getting some more collaborations, hosting more community events, showcasing even more easter eggs in games and continuing to create higher quality content for all my platforms.

It has felt like the time has just flown by. We look forward to your charity stream, and no doubt that you’ll smash these goals! What have been your favourite moments being a content creator so far?

I have to say being invited to movie premieres in London. How could I not? Getting invited to be part of the hype of the D&D movie was incredible and Rege Jean Page was mere metres away from me!

Some incredible moments for me have been the influence I’ve had on people, I’ve had so many messages over the years about how I have boosted their confidence, helped them be brave to try new things and how happy it made people to feel included and seen.

I’ve travelled to Ghent in Belgium for Baldur’s Gate 3 and received some of the coolest PR packages and I am so grateful to every opportunity I get, often feels unreal, imposter syndrome does like to pipe up sometimes!

Some absolutely amazing experiences there, I’m very jealous and also super happy for you! Definitely well deserved and I’m sure there will be even bigger and more exciting things coming your way! Finally, what are you currently working on that you’d like our readers to know about/check out?

I have some incredible projects coming up behind closed doors. What I CAN talk about is my next appearance at events! I will be at EGX next where I’ll be there as a creator and performing on stage as Sorceress Trixx!

I’m working on a new cosplay, got plans to upgrade my gaming/creator setup, got a huge backlog of new things to record for YouTube, the gamer garden is returning soon on TikTok and so much more!

And that’s it! Thank you very much again for taking the time to have this interview with us, it’s been an absolute pleasure. We wish you all the best in the future!

If you would like to check out BillieTrixx on any of their socials, you can do so on the next page!

Be sure to check out BillieTrixx’s Twitch channel and other social media platforms!

Discord – discord.com/MDZYnpC

Instagram - @billietrixx

TikTok - @billietrixx

Threads - @billietrixx

Twitch – @billietrixx

Twitter (X) – @billietrixxx

YouTube – @billietrixx

EMZY LEIGH

Emma, better known as “Emzy Leigh”, is a streamer, content creator, and Ubisoft Partner hailing from Yorkshire, UK! Emzy Leigh’s content focuses on Rhythm games like Just Dance, amazing body painting cosplays, unboxings, and hosting! You can find Emzy Leigh live streaming on Twitch or catch her content on TikTok and Instagram!

Hey Emzy Leigh! First of all, we would like to thank you for taking the time to have a chat with us. How have you been and what have you been up to recently?

I have been great but it has been very busy lately! I have been getting excited for the Just Dance 2024 launch and I have been working with Samsung SSD which has been super fun!

Just Dance 2024 is shaping up to be pretty exciting, and being able to work with Samsung SSD is amazing! We love to see creators getting these opportunities to work with brands! Let’s start from the beginning, tell us a little bit about your streaming and content creation life? How long have you been streaming/creating content? And what made you want to start?

I have been streaming for almost three years now. My streamaversary is very soon. I actually got into creating via TikTok just before covid lockdown started. I was just posting for fun then started going live on TikTok to try and help with feeling lonely during the lockdown. I mentioned one day that I love gaming and was asked if I streamed on Twitch. Now here we are!

Lockdown was a tough time and we’re glad that you were able to look after your own wellbeing through streaming and content creation. It is a great space filled with some awesome people. Also, hopefully we don’t miss it, but just in case… Happy streamaversary! We see you have a focus on rhythm games like Just Dance. What influenced your decision to make content for this game/genre?

I have always loved dancing. I did classes growing up and I love Music and Dance

because it’s universal. One day during my early streaming days I was introduced to a Just Dance Streamer, I was playing horror games at the time, and I loved the energy and community behind it.

I started to meet more of the incredible community and then decided this was what I was meant to do. I always wanted to dance on stage and perform and I think this is just another way of getting to do it.

Your love for dancing definitely shines through whenever we see you on stream or at events! Having seen it firsthand at events we can say without a shadow of a doubt that the Just Dance community is absolutely top-tier – always great vibes. There are so many great songs in the Just Dance universe; we personally enjoy a bit of Uno by Little Big or Rock N Roll by Skrillex. What would be your go-to top 3 songs?

Uno is for sure a classic! A top 3 is very hard but here we go!

1) Thinking About Things - This is my feel good song!

2) Telephone by Lady Gaga - The map and story are amazing

3) Toy by Netta - This is for all those sassy moments

They are also beginner friendly so if you haven’t played before these are great starters!

Fantastic choices there, totally forgot about Thinking About Things, such a great song. Here are some great suggestions for all of you out there thinking about trying Just Dance!

Streamers and content creators bring a lot of energy when they are live, but for the most part they wouldn’t be dancing for hours like yourself. How do you keep up the high energy? Is this something you prepare for beforehand? Have you ever felt like you’re just not in the right state, mentally and/or physically, but pushed through with a dancing stream?

It is definitely easier some days then others to keep the energy up. I do prepare alot. I have a little pre-stream routine where I do some stretching and a couple of my favourite songs and make sure I have water ready. I also have some little games in my stream to give me a chance to rest when it’s needed.

I have had days where I just have not been in the best place to be dancing. When it’s a mental block I push through, get dancing and it always lifts my spirits. The physical side I take a lot of care over, If I get injured I can’t stream! I will always advise chat if certain routines are not possible and if needed I will take days away to rest.

Many rhythm games are based around songs - some original to the game, whilst others are licensed. Have you encountered any challenges when streaming on Twitch and/or creating content for TikTok, Instagram etc.?

It is always a challenge especially with DMCA rules being different across all the platforms. Tiktok and Instagram a great for it because you can add the sound from their libraries. Twitch has always been pretty kind with it. I have been streaming Just Dance for a long time and haven’t received any strikes as Twitch muted portions it detects as potential copyright. Youtube is where I find the biggest struggle as most of what I produce cannot be monetised due to the music being used. It’s what has led to me not having much of a presence on them away from shorts.

Along with rhythm games we see you also enjoy a side of horror and mystery. Rhythm games excluded, what would be your top 3 horror/mystery games?

I do love Horror and Mystery, they are the games

I grew up on! Top 3 for me are the Nancy Drew series, such great games for those looking for a set of great mysteries with fun overarching characters. Then it has to be FNAF (Five Nights at Freddies) the lore with the scare level is 10/10. Last but not least is the Sherlock Holmes Games by Frogwares. They are mystery games but one or two in the series really are quite scary!

I’m terrible with scary games; tried FNAF and it was all sorts of NOPE, barely made it past night one! We’ve seen some amazing body painting/ cosplays from yourself, like your Angie cosplay at i70. What got you into wanting to be a body painter and cosplayer? What was your very first body paint/cosplay character?

I look back and I think I was cosplaying long before I knew what cosplay is. I had created a Lara Croft and Black Swan look but didn’t realise it was cosplay.

I then made friends when I came into streaming and mentioned I had always wanted to try it properly. Thanks to my community I got pieces together to do a Poison Ivy look and I really enjoyed it. It was also Ivy who led me to Bodypainting because I didn’t like that I had done her but she wasn’t green like the comics. So I redid the look with the full paint and makeup and it was so fun and therapeutic. Now Bodypainting for cosplays is my favourite part!

Your Poison Ivy bodypainting cosplay was amazing; we were very impressed! For your body paint cosplays, how long would it usually take from start to finish? Are there any challenges you face when you do a body paint cosplay at events?

It varies a lot! A brand new paint I have never tried can take up to 8 hours but for ones I have practised I can get them completed in about half that time. Wearing paint as events has been a steep learning curb and some points have not been fun. A Lot of the issue is just getting the paint to last and stay perfect all day. I now realise that skin prep is really important. If you ever want to try it be sure to moisturise under the paint, powder on top of the paint and find a good setting spray.

Some great advice there! Which leads nicely on to the next question. What advice would you give to someone who is looking to try body painting for the first time?

Don’t be scared to have fun and do things your own way. I think it’s so easy to see tutorials and videos online and feel like that’s what you should be doing. We all start somewhere and we also all find different techniques and like different characters. Pick a character you love and get creative!

Congratulations on being invited to Insomnia 71 as an official creator! In your opinion, whether you’re attending as an official Creator for the event or attending just as yourself, how important (if at all) is it to attending events such as Insomnia, and why?

I think it’s so important to attend events like i71. First of all it’s a great way to connect with other creators and brands and feel more a part of the creator space. Most importantly though for me is seeing the amazing community around the games you love. I have never felt so happy seeing so many Just Dance Players in one space dancing together like at Insomnia. I had been dancing in my room on my own not realising how many people love the same thing as me and seeing it really helps keep my passion for what I do alive.

Agreed! And as mentioned before the Just Dance community is amazing and it is always such a joy to see everyone getting involved with the dancing! Are there any events, anywhere in the world, you would love to attend either as an official creator or normal attendee?

I would love to go to Gamescom. I know they always have incredible cosplayers and free play Just Dance spaces. I always hear such good things about it so I would love to experience it myself.

Gamescom is definitely on my list as well! Hopefully we’ll cross paths there one day! Are you currently a one-person content creating machine from start to finish? Or is there someone you would like to give a special mention to that keeps the machine well-oiled behind the scenes?

I am currently a one person show. I am hoping to expand a little and get some help when Just Dance 2024 drops but for now I am a one woman team.

You’re doing a fantastic job as a one woman team; we would love to see how you will flourish with some resources to support you. For you, what do you think are the essentials that you can’t create content without?

For sure my phone and my Samsung SSD. I think anyone can create and I think it can all be achieved with so little. If you have a phone you can do so much and that’s how I use to make all my content. The SSD is great because it makes the content more easily transferable between devices. Content creation does not need a lot of fancy tech!

Sometimes people do overlook how capable phones are with content creation. Although we all do love a bit of fancy tech! Away from your content creation life, what do you do in your spare time?

I have 2 cats who take up quite a bit of my time. They are called Gizmo and Jet and I love them so much. Aside from that I love Disney so I watch a lot of Disney movies and regularly go to Walt Disney World with one of my best friends. I actually really want to see Disney on Ice over Christmas!

Cats are amazing, we are cat lovers at TGG; mischievous little things but we can’t help but love them! What is something that no one who watches your channel/content knows about you?

Fun fact about me is I actually grew up on a chicken farm and lived there from age 4 to 16. I actually really want to retire back to a farm one day.

Think of all the space for Just Dance content you can have on a farm! With over half of 2023 behind us, what are your goals for the end of the year?

My goal right now is to try and push into the presenting/interviewing space. I recently did an amazing interview with the Just Dance Team

about accessibility in the game and have been doing a series of Guest Star content with other Just Dancers to get to know them. I would love to start presenting Just Dance at more events in the UK too. I have really developed a passion for it all.

We would love to see that from you! We wish you all the best with achieving your goal! What have been your favourite moments being a content creator so far?

One of my recent favourites was taking part in my stream team Centre Stages Dance-a-thon for St Judes Play Live. It was an incredible experience and seeing so many dancers coming together over so many days is amazing.

I also loved receiving my first PR parcel which was from Just Dance for 2023. I had never received anything like it and to get it from a game you love so much it was one of the best

moments.

Finally, what are you currently working on that you’d like our readers to know about/check out?

I have a few secret things coming up so keep an eye out for that! In the meantime, I am getting excited and putting together some fun ideas and interviews around the Just Dance 2024 release in October.

We look forward seeing what those secret things will be! Again, thank you very much for having this interview with us, it’s been an absolute pleasure. We wish you all the best in the future!

If you would like to check out Emzy Leigh on any of their socials, you can do so on the next below!

Be sure to check out Emzy Leigh on their Twitch channel and other social media platforms!

Instagram - @emzy_leigh

TikTok - @emzy_leigh

Threads - @emzy_leigh

Twitch - @emzy_leigh

Twitter (X) - @emzy_leigh