PC Gaming

Age of Empires IV is going through some major changes as we start 2022 with the game’s first update coming soon. Pivoting away from traditional seasons, like summer, spring, winter, and fall, the game is now moving to a season-based numbering release schedule, which means that updates will make sense for those in all corners of the globe now. Curious what updates Age of Empires IV Season One will bring? Keep reading for more.

With Steam Deck reservations open and delivery slated for later this year right now, you might be wondering what titles will be compatible with the portable gaming system. While we took a look a few weeks ago at the fact that under 100 titles will be “compatible” with the portable computer, we now have easier ways to check what games work and what ones don’t. Keep reading to find out which Steam games you own are compatible, somewhat compatible, and which flat out won’t work.

Cheating in Call of Duty Warzone has, at times, been at levels that not many other games have achieved at scale. After developing the RICOCHET Anti-Cheat kernel-level driver for Warzone and launching it, the game saw a drastic decrease in in-game cheat reporting, according to the company’s internal data. In fact, cheating in Warzone was at an all-time low during the holiday break. However, some cheat developers have gotten around RICOCHET, so the team has implemented and is testing a new feature called Damage Shield that does real-time anti-cheat as games are going on. What all does Damage Shield do, and can it affect non-cheating players? Let’s take a look.

Sea of Thieves is getting its first-ever narrative-driven Adventure, dubbed Shrouded Islands. It’s only available from today through March 3, so you’ll need to play during the limited timeframe in order to meet Belle and “investigate the mysterious fog covering Golden Sands Outpost.” What does Shrouded Islands bring to the shores of Sea of Thieves? Let’s take a closer look below.

No Man’s Sky originally released in August of 2016, which is almost six years ago. The game, which launched to many problems and was ridiculed by the community, has since redeemed itself through numerous updates, all at no cost to gamers who own the game. Well, the infamous space exploration title just got updated yet again, this time with a total overhaul of the weapons system, new lore and stories, new Sentinels, and…the ability to reprogram and adopt your own friendly AI drone? There’s a lot to unpack here, so keep reading to find out all the details for the No Man’s Sky Sentinel update.

Today, CORSAIR introduced an all-new mid-tower case with the iCUE 5000T RGB. The 5000T RGB case is also joined by LC100 case accent lighting panels that are also launching today, delivering a fully customizable experience for your PC gaming setup. The case itself has a “unique contoured design” and offers 208 individually addressable RGB LEDs built-in, making it the “most integrated lighting ever built into a CORSAIR case.” You’ll also find high-airflow mesh panels, room for two 360mm radiators, and more here.

Over the weekend, Call of Duty released a community update as a “Warzone special briefing for our players.” Today marks the launch of Season Two for Call of Duty Vanguard and the current Warzone, so we’ll also take a look at that as well. However, we’re going to focus on the upcoming Call of Duty and Warzone launch slated for later this year, which Infinity Ward is leading the helm of development. So, what all can we expect from the 2022 release of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2? Well, let’s break down the latest blog post to find out.

Today, CORSAIR introduced an all-new expansion to its best-selling K70 series, the K70 RGB PRO. With the stylings that we’re used to with the K70 lineup, including Cherry MX switches, per-key RGB backlighting, and an aluminum frame, the K70 RGB PRO takes things to the next level with all-new AXON technology and a tournament switch. The AXON tech allows for up to eight times faster processing and delivers “a new level of performance.” What else has changed? Let’s take a closer look.

Today, Elgato is launching its latest streaming upgrade in one of its more miniature packages yet. Enter the new Key Light Mini, a new addition to the Elgato stable with 800 lumens of LED light output, Wi-Fi control, and a battery-powered design that can be magnetically mounted nearly anywhere. Now available for purchase, all of the details on what to expect are down below.

Today, Microsoft announced that it doesn’t plan to make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive and plans to keep the game on PlayStation past the existing agreement and “into the future.” This comes on the heels of Vanguard and Warzone’s Season Two announcement yesterday and the news last week of the upcoming Call of Duty game being made by Infinity Ward. There’s a lot to unpack here, so without further ado, let’s dive in.

Today, NZXT is announcing an updated H1 mITX PC case with a slew of refreshed features and new additions. Originally launched in February 2020, the NZXT H1 is a tower-style case that resembles Microsoft’s latest console. However, over the past two years, the H1 has fell victim to several problems, including faulty PCIe riser cables, poor airflow, and a slightly underpowered PSU. However, that all changes with the 2022 model of the case launching today.

With Apex Legends Defiance launching tomorrow, it’s time to take a more in-depth look at the changes we’ll see around Olympus as well as what to expect from the battle pass this season. Olympus will have an all-new look thanks to Mad Maggie, who’s responsible for the “sudden drop in altitude” for the normally airborne city. So, what all has changed in Olympus? Let’s take a closer look.

It’s that time of year again. The current Call of Duty is a few months old, and it’s now time to set our eyes on what’s to come at the end of the year. Truth be told, Call of Duty Vanguard hasn’t been a well-loved title by the community. In fact, in Activision’s fourth quarter earnings report, they started that both console and PC sales have declined year-over-year, showing lower “premium” sales of Vanguard verses Black Ops Cold War, which launched the year prior. Also, lower engagement in Warzone needs to be addressed. To combat this, Activision, which is being purchased by Microsoft, has once again turned to the Infinity Ward team to see if they can turn things around for the next Call of Duty installment.

Today, Western Digital announced its all-new WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe Solid-State Drive designed for gaming and content creation PCs. Designed as an update to its SN700-series lineup of mid-range storage drives, the SN770 packs some solid upgrades across the board from the previous-generation SN750 and SN750 SE models. With a starting price of $59, the WD_BLACK SN770 will be perfect for all budgets. Sound like it could be a good fit for your desktop? Keep reading to find out more.

The RTX 3060 was released just over a year ago as the company’s then most budget-friendly GPU on the market. This card was touted as a replacement for the incumbent GTX 1060 and 1660, both of which are powerhouse GPUs that dominate the Steam user analytics page year after year. So, after being out for a year, does the RTX 3060 live up to the hype? Head below for our hands-on review with NVIDIA’s best “bang for the buck” graphics card from PNY, alongside other PC upgrades to make your desktop a solid gaming system, and see if the RTX 3060 is still worth it a year later.

While we saw the latest Apex Legends season, Defiance, teased twice last week, we finally have detailed information on the new Control LTM as well as what Mad Maggie’s abilities will be. Control looks to be a very unique game mode that’s 9v9 and has infinite respawns. Mad Maggie is poised to be an interesting addition to the Apex Games as well, with some pretty powerful abilities. Curious to learn more? Head below to find out all the details we have on the upcoming Apex Legends Defiance season.

Now that PCIe 5.0 computers are starting to gain a bit of traction with the latest Intel processor release, it’s time to start looking into compatible peripherals. TeamGroup is among the first brands to launch a PCIe 5.0 NVMe solid-state drive, and on paper, it offers impressive specs. While general consumers might not reap the benefits of PCIe 5.0 for years to come, we’re finally getting to a place where storage devices outpace processors and other PC components, which is something the gaming and content creation industry has desired for many years. What all does the TeamGroup PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD bring to the table, and how is this new technology going to change computers as we know it? Let’s take a closer look below.

Announced earlier this week, Apex Legends Defiance is launching on February 8 with mad Maggie. We only really got a bit of backstory on why Mad Maggie was being sent to the Apex Games, but not a whole lot of information besides that. The Defiance launch trailer is finally here and it’s nearly three minutes long, filled with glimpses of Olympus, some peeks at what Mad Maggie’s abilities could be, and fun quips between the characters. Let’s take a closer look below.

Crysis is a franchise for the ages. Back in April 2020, we got our first glimpse at Crysis Remastered, a complete reimagining of the fabled title that originally was released 15 years ago. However, Crysis Remastered didn’t truly bring any new content, instead, it just refreshed what already was. The Crytek team is ready to change that up though, as a Crysis 4 is now under development. The current title is still a work-in-progress, but at the same time, it would remain in line with the other games that have been released. What all do we know about Crysis 4? Head below for more details.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order is probably one of the best story-based games released in the fictional universe in the past few years. I’ve enjoyed plenty of play time in the title, but it’s time for the next story to be worked on. Announced today, Respawn, the same team behind Jedi Fallen Order, is working on the next game in the franchise. On top of that, the team is also designing a Star Wars FPS as well as a strategy game – that’s three titles from a fan-favorite Respawn development team in partnership with EA and Lucasfilm. While we don’t know everything that these games will be, we have more details on today’s announcements below.

It’s that time again. February will introduce a new season in Apex Legends, this time dubbed Defiance. “Madness takes control” is the tagline here, and that madness comes in the form of Mad Maggie. We’ve heard Mad Maggie’s voice lines throughout the Apex Games before, but it’s time for her to finally make a debut as a playable character. In addition to Mad Maggie, we’re also getting a new limited-time mode and refreshed Olympus map. What else is in store? Let’s take a closer look.

The Steam Deck portable PC gaming system launches next month, and Valve is currently in the process of reviewing essentially every title on Steam for compatibility. A few days ago, some games were being updated with a “Steam Deck Compatibility” score ranging from one to four to determine whether the game is unpayable, barely playable, playable, or verified to work well. Some games like Death Stranding are verified, while others like Subnautica are just listed as “playable.” In all, SteamDB shows under 100 titles with this tag so far, but what does this mean for the Steam Deck?

After being initially announced in 2019, and then delayed indefinitely on April 5 of last year, we finally have an official release date for LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. The game will make its way to all Xbox One and newer platforms, PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch, and PC on April 5 of 2022. What all can we expect from the latest LEGO Star Wars release? Let’s take a closer look below.

It’s 2022 and both AMD and NVIDIA are still releasing graphics cards, even though it’s nearly impossible to score a GPU at MSRP from any retailer. AMD’s latest release, the Radeon RX 6500 XT, has a few…tricks up its sleeve. To start, the 6500 XT has a measly 4GB of RAM. But, even with its limitations, AMD claims that its latest graphics card can game at over 60FPS in Call of Duty: Vanguard, nearly 80FPS in Halo Infinite, and over 100FPS in Fortnite. Should this graphics card even exist at this point? Let’s take a closer look below.

Like many other console gamers through the past few years, the allure of switching over to a PC finally got the best of me. There’s just the problem of actually making the jump, considering just how hard things are with the ongoing stock shortages. Detailing the entire experience of building a PC for the first time, down below you can follow along as I go through all the components in my first rig and my thoughts on why I should have just gone for a pre-built in the first place.

For the first time in 20 years, we’re getting a new Dune RTS game. Based around Frank Herbert’s Dune universe, Dune Spice Wars will be a real-time strategy game that has 4X elements. While we don’t know the exact pricing yet, nor the release date, the developers released an FAQ over the weekend to answer some questions that the community posed after the title was announced last month. So, what will Dune Spice Wars be? Let’s take a closer look.

The HITMAN Trilogy is finally complete, and the team now wants everyone to have many different ways to explore the World of Assassination. The collection includes all three games in a single package, which makes it easier than ever before to become Agent 47. While the game is launching on PlayStation, the real ticket here is the fact that HITMAN Trilogy is coming to Xbox and PC through Game Pass, which means existing subscribers will be able to play without any additional purchases. What all does the HITMAN Trilogy include? Let’s take a closer look.

Forever Skies is an all-new first-person sci-fi action survival game from a team of ex AAA developers with “survival not guaranteed.” The team consists of 20 or more developers and the title has been secretly worked on for the past two years. In Forever Skies, you play as a scientist who returns to Earth after it was destroyed by a global ecological disaster, flying in a high-tech airship as you seek to expand, rebuild, and repair it. What else will you be doing in Forever Skies? Let’s take a closer look below.

Today, NVIDIA announced another new graphics card, the RTX 3080. Wait, that doesn’t sound right. But, you read that statement correctly. NVIDIA’s latest RTX 3080 sports 12GB of VRAM and features an updated spec sheet all around. Why did NVIDIA refresh the RTX 3080, and can you even get your hands on one? Let’s take a closer look below.

Earlier this week, Microsoft and Ubisoft teamed up to announce the game studio’s first major release of 2022, Rainbow Six Extraction, would be launching day one for Xbox Game Pass subscribers on console, PC, and the cloud. On top of this unprecedented launch, Ubisoft is also releasing its Ubisoft+ subscription on Xbox as a separate service which offers many of the company’s famed titles. What all does this launch include, and could it be hinting at a bigger partnership in the future? Let’s take a closer look

When we first saw the Steam Deck in July of 2021, it was mind-boggling that we could achieve console-level performance with PC games in a handheld system. Well, AyaNeo is aiming to take on the Steam Deck with its own NEXT Advance gaming handheld, launched at CES 2022 this year. The AyaNeo NEXT Advance isn’t waiting around for AMD’s 6000-series APUs to drop later this year, but instead leveraging the current-generation Ryzen 7 5800U processor with up to 16GB of RAM and 2TB of internal storage. Those are impressive specs for this little device, given that the Steam Deck is still slated to use a Zen 2 processor, and not Zen 3. What else does the AyaNeo deliver? Let’s take a closer look below.

As part of its CES announcements this week, GIGABYTE announced two new updated lineups of laptops with the AORUS models gearing toward gaming and AERO for creative professionals. Sporting Intel’s just-released 12th Generation mobile processors as well as NVIDIA’s latest RTX 30-series mobile graphics cards, these laptops also offer other high-end features like DDR5, 1080p360, 1440p165, or 4K120 displays, miniLED and AMOLED screen options, and more. What else do GIGABYTE’s latest laptops deliver? Let’s take a closer look.

Update 4/29 @ 7:59 AM: Razer’s latest 2022 Blade 14 with RTX 3080 Ti is now available to order for $3,499.99 at Amazon.

Now that CES 2022 is fully underway, Razer has made its first major announcement at the annual show. Launching its latest lineup of 2022 Razer Blade gaming laptops, all three sizes are being updated with more powerful graphics cards, DDR5 memory, and faster next-generation processors. This includes offering up to RTX 3080 Ti GPUs from NVIDIA with ray tracing 16GB of GDDR6 memory as well as RAM with speeds of up to 4800MHz, these laptops are ready to handle anything you throw their way.

As CES 2022 is now fully under way, Dell announced several PC gaming-focused products and concepts to give your setup solid upgrades all around. You’ll find information about Dell’s new Concept Nyx, gaming headset, Quantum Dot OLED UltraWide monitor, and computers here. There’s plenty to explore, so without further ado, let’s take a look at Dell’s CES 2022 announcements.

It’s time for some CES SSD action. SK hynix – the “world’s second largest memory maker” – is taking its brand-new PCIe NVMe Gen 4.0 SSD to the Consumer Electronics Show this year. Hot off the presses, the new SK hynix Platinum P41 is the latest addition to its already popular and comparatively affordable lineup of Gold P31 and Gold S31 solid state solutions, both of which will remain part of the available lineup. With an “industry-leading” endurance rating alongside some additional spec benchmarks for the brand, the 2022 CES SSD unveils just got a little bit more interesting with the new SK hynix Platinum P41. Head below for a closer look. 

Warframe is getting its latest cinematic expansion, The New War. The entirety of the Origin System will “be forever scarred by the coming conflict.” You’ll find the Sentients, a “sinister race of relentlessly-evolving machines”, are at the center of this all-out war of extinction. So, what all does the battle consist of and how will it change the Origin System? Let’s take a closer look.

Having a second display can be a real timesaver when referencing data or for keeping a few apps visible and easily accessible at all times. Since lugging around a traditional monitor is less than ideal, the new ASUS ZenScreen is here to bolster mobile productivity. It provides a 15.6-inch anti-glare display that is powered using a single USB-C cable. It even supports automatic rotation when plugged into a Windows PC. Other notable features include being flicker-free and having reduced levels of blue light. Continue reading to learn more.

The game development company Ubisoft is well-known for its Splinter Cell franchise that launched 19 years ago. It was one of the company’s first forays into the world of stealth-action shooters, and it all but defined a generation of gaming. Personally, I vastly prefer the stealth genre that Splinter Cell ushered in over the fast-paced run, die, respawn of some modern titles. Well, Ubisoft Toronto just began rebuilding the game from the ground up. That’s right, Splinter Cell is being remade, though it’ll be a bit different from the remaster. So, what all can we expect, and more importantly when can we expect it? Let’s take a closer look at the Splinter Cell remake.

Today, Razer introduced an all-new limited-edition Boba Fett wireless Xbox controller and charging stand. This remote offers a unique design themed around the galaxy’s most notorious bounty hunter, Boba Fett. The design is inspired by Boba Fett’s helmet and is officially certified by Microsoft for use with Xbox and Windows. What more does it include? Let’s take a closer look.

Now that Christmas is just under two weeks away, each day that goes by will make it increasingly difficult to secure the perfect gift for everyone on your list. Last-minute shopping becomes even more problematic when factoring in any potential shipping delays. Technology is arguably one of the hardest-hit sectors, making it even more difficult to shop for this type of gear. Fear not, however, because this tech gift guide provides six suggestions that will be a pleasant surprise for just about any gadget lover out there. Continue reading to find a list of gear priced as low as $12.

PUBG: Battlegrounds really kickstarted the popularity of the battle royale genre back in 2017 when it launched. Bringing realistic gunplay and “non-stop action” to the community was what made PUBG famous in those early months. With a large player base, the game ultimately remained paid and other titles, like Fortnite and Apex Legends, began to rise. Well, starting January 12, 2022, PUBG: Battlegrounds joins the free-to-play ranks and will reach the “broadest possible audience” finally. What does this mean for those who have already purchased the game? Let’s take a closer look.

SCUF recently announced the “first high-performance controller” created for the PlayStation 5. Designed to provide a suitable replacement for the stock DualSense, the SCUF Reflex offers some high-end features for FPS gamers who “prefer a competitive playstyle,” according to the company. The Reflex brings all of SCUF’s traditional features to Sony’s latest console while also offering some industry-firsts. So, what all does the SCUF Reflex for PlayStation 5 bring to the table? Let’s take a closer look.

While we got our first glimpse at the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection in September, we now finally have an official PlayStation 5 release date: January 28, 2022. Not only that, but the Collection is also coming to PC after the PlayStation 5 release. Delivering a single-player experience from the award-winning Uncharted 4 game, there’s plenty to love here. What does the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection include? Let’s take a closer look.

With modern mobile graphics cards providing more than enough power to game on the go, it’s only fitting that monitor companies are starting to release mobile-focused displays that have features we used to only find in desktop setups. ViewSonic’s latest VX1755 portable 144Hz gaming monitor is made specifically for gaming on-the-go with a dual USB-C connection, 1080p resolution, and 144Hz refresh rate – all of this comes in a large 17.2-inch form-factor, which is sure to upgrade any mobile gaming setup. What is this monitor capable of, how much does it cost, and how can it make you a better on-the-go gamer? Let’s take a closer look below.

We have spotted some interesting and official new Discord mechanical keyboards with 100% of proceeds going directly to charity. The folks over at Discord are teaming up with Kono for the latest release in its merchandise line, the Snowsgiving 2021 Discord TKL Mechanical Keyboard. Now available for pre-order in a dark or light theme, with your choice of mechanical switches, some interesting add-on novelty keycaps, and more, head below for a closer look and more details.