How VR Gaming Has Managed To Bring Back Classic Arcade High Score Chasing

For all of the gusto that has long existed behind VR providing immersive experiences, there’s also been the feeling that all of this newfangled realm displacement has come at the expense of good old fashioned arcade style score chasing – the very thing that served as the genesis and backbone for gaming in the first place. 

The counterbalance to that notion however are the numerous VR titles that not only manage to bring back classic arcade style score chasing, but manage to do so while also leveraging the immersive capabilities of VR technology into the bargain. There’s nothing complicated or especially convoluted with these games from a design standpoint, with snappy and easy to grasp inputs that everybody can use which underscore simplistic, yet masterful concepts.  

Now if only some bright spark could port Virtua Cop and Time Crisis to VR, then we would all be set. In the meantime though, here are some of the best examples of VR games which satisfy that distinctly old-school pang for chasing scores and the bragging rights that are often synonymous with them.

Beat Saber 

One of the older and still one of the best examples of old school score chasing being brought kicking and screaming into VR, Beat Saber’s position at the apex of arcade style experiences has been well earned to say the least. The concept behind Beat Saber couldn’t be simpler. Armed with VR controllers akimbo, Beat Saber has players carving through incoming blocks with a pair of, well, lightsabers to the beat of the music. Beat Saber does quite literally what it says on the tin.

From Lynyrd Skynyrd to Imagine Dragons you’ll be slicing and dicing your way through those different coloured blocks at speed, but there’s more to it than that. Not only does the pace pick up hugely on the later difficulty levels but the ease with which anybody can play Beat Saber is truly its biggest boon. Bordering on instinct, even non-gamers can pick up the controllers and begin their block-chopping journey up to the apex of Beat Saber’s global leaderboard. The perfect marriage of classic score chasing with what is essentially a hyperkinetic workout, Beat Saber is one of the best examples of VR taking gaming back to its score chasing roots.   

Pistol Whip

A heady marriage of arcade style score chasing with John Wick style shooting and bullet dodging, Pistol Whip like Beat Saber before it fully embraces the thrill of high score chasing, but does so by applying an immediately accessible spread of gameplay beats which ensures that anybody can get playing without delay. An on-rails shooter, Pistol Whip prescribes a straightforward premise. As enemies pop up from behind cover, charge towards you and begin opening fire, you must avoid incoming bullets all the while returning fire with your own until you reach the end of the stage. 

Where Pistol Whip steps things up (and bears closer resemblance to Beat Saber than is obvious on first impressions), is in how it allows seasoned players access to the upper echelons of its global leaderboard by providing extra score for every kill that is made to the beat of the music. Augmented in turn by a number of different modifiers that can make each stage more challenging in a range of different ways, such as instant death, disabling auto-aim and more besides, Pistol Whip provides players with ample breadth to test the limits of their high score chasing escapades. 

Rez Infinite

A full-throated transformation of the 2001 musical rail shooter of the same name, though Rez Infinite leverages VR to much more fully immerse the player in its digital realm of synaesthesia, it hasn’t forgotten the core tenet of its score chasing roots. Thrusting player into the role of a hacker that has plunged into cyberspace to rid it of viruses and rogue programs, Rez Infinite plays out most similarly to Sega’s Panzer Dragoon whereupon the player must destroy a veritable avalanche of incoming targets from all directions as quickly as possible by locking on up to eight targets, firing and then repeating the act.

Rez Infinite neatly separates itself from Sega’s series however in a multitude of ways. Sure enough, chasing those high scores is still at the very heart of Rez Infinite, but here each time you down an enemy the soundtrack gains extra layers to adapt itself while collecting sufficient ‘Overdrive Nodes’ allows players to unleash a screen clearing attack. Like every other game in this list Rez Infinite is both easy to play and difficult to master. Though that saying is something of a shopworn cliche it is absolutely applicable here, since Rez Infinite prides itself on getting players of all skill levels stuck in and turning them into score chasing savants once the one-more-go effect invariably takes hold.  

Shop for Rez Infinite here.

Tetris Effect: Connected

Arguably a stellar adaptation of one of the most legendary score chasing games ever, Tetris Effect: Connected carefully threads that needle of both maintaining the timeless essence of a classic such as Tetris all the while meaningfully augmenting the core formula in a number of interesting and meaningful ways. Of course players can always hop straight into a game of classic Tetris and make their mark on its global leaderboard, but Tetris Effect: Connected augments its score chasing shenanigans surprisingly well.

Though the inclusion of Zen and Journey modes which make the most of the lavish audio-visual presentation of Tetris Effect: Connected are welcome, it’s really in the competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes that Tetris Effect: Connected elevates itself. First off, Zone Battle has two players duking it out with their tetrominoes where the Zone mechanic can be used by either player to score an early advantage. Though Score Attack and Classic Store Attack modes both let players get stuck into some good old fashioned versus competition to see who can get the highest score, it’s really the ‘Connected’ mode that stands out since it allows three players to team up and connect their Tetris stacks to take on CPU controlled bosses.

The Best Easter Eggs & Secrets In Hogwarts Legacy

In every way that it can be Hogwarts Legacy is a true love letter to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Not only does it boast a captivating original story within the titular walls of Hogwarts which takes place more than a hundred years prior to the narrative of the Boy That Lived, but so too is it overflowing with more secrets and easter eggs than you can shake a Hippogriff feather at – many of which you might miss on your first playthrough. So without further ado, here are some of the best easter eggs and secrets you can uncover in Hogwarts Legacy.

A Poor Boy Throwing Up Slugs

If you make your way to the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts you’ll soon come across an amusing though queasy sight; a young student vomiting up slugs into a bucket. Yuck. In a cheeky nod to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, this easter egg is a throwback to the scene where Ron Weasley tried to curse Draco Malfoy with a Slug-vomiting Charm in response to his cruel barb where the Slytherin student called Hermione Granger ‘a filthy little mudblood’. Sadly, a broken wand meant that the Slug-vomiting Charm was soon returned to sender.

A Swarm Of Flying Keys

When your wannabe wizard embarks on the Daedalian Key quest, you’ll find yourself chasing down a number of golden flying keys all over Hogwarts to unlock special cabinets in order to scoop up the previous house relic robes and tokens that lay inside. The quest is itself a troll-sized reference to when Harry had to undertake a trial in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone so that he could take possession of Nicholas Flemel’s titular magical stone.

Discovering The Entrance To The Chamber Of Secrets

Another neat little secret that Hogwarts Legacy has tucked away is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. To find it, simply head into the girl’s Slytherin bathroom and you’ll find a very recognisable sink that just so happens to have a snake symbol emblazoned upon it. This is the very sink that Harry Potter needed to stand in front of and utter the opening phrase in Parseltongue in order to gain entry. 

Fantastic Beasts And This Is How You Find Them

The vast array of easter eggs that can be uncovered in Hogwarts Legacy extend far beyond the mainline Harry Potter books and movies. In particular, one of these creatures from the Fantastic Beasts movies that can be found in Hogwarts Legacy. The Niffler, a chaotic little furry beast with a single-minded drive to loot shiny objects for its pouch can be seen in the quest ‘A Thief in the Night’. Elsewhere, the elusive white Niffler variant can be tracked down and added to your vivarium – if you’re brave enough to venture down to their den just south of Cragcroft.

Fred & George Weasley – Is That You?

One of the neater easter eggs that you’ll come across is a pair of ginger haired boys standing outside a shop, trying to get a good look at the interior through the window. A clear reference to Fred and George Weasley, the cheeky twin wizards that would go on to run the magical joke shop known as Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. You can find these mischievous look-alike lads outside Zonko’s Joke Shop in snowy Hogsmeade.

Happy Deathday Dance Party

In Hogwarts Legacy it’s actually possible to find its more ethereal residents throwing themselves a happy deathday party. To discover this ghoulish, though ultimately cheerful spectacle, unlock one of the gates close to the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room and you’ll find a deserted chamber within where a number of ghosts are having a perfectly splendid happy deathday dance.

Honey, I Shrunk The Quidditch

Even though Quidditch doesn’t feature in Hogwarts Legacy as a playable activity, you can still find a game or two being played within the walls of Hogwarts. Make your way to Madam Kogawa’s office and scan the room for the Quidditch cups all stacked up against the wall. Simply look to the left of these cups and you’ll see a Quidditch game being played out as a miniature, enchanted spectacle. A tantalising tease to say the least. 

Preparing A Polyjuice Potion

Another in a long line of nods to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, if you venture inside the girl’s bathroom just around the corner from Professor Fig’s Classroom, you’ll discover that some enterprising young wizard has left a Polyjuice Potion happily bubbling away in one of the bathroom stalls. 

Seeding The Avada Kedavra Scar

One of the more subtle easter eggs that Hogwarts Legacy boasts involves the Avada Kedavra spell. As soon as you learn this murderous magical attack, you’ll see that the spell pathway is a lightning bolt, representing a direct design parallel to Harry Potter’s own iconic forehead scar.

The Prison Of Sirius Black

In Hogwarts Legacy it’s possible to locate the very same cage that was used to imprison Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. To locate the cage which held Sirius Black for all those years, simply take a wander up the staircase from the office of Professor Ronen (easily accessible by the Floo Flame in the Charms Classroom) and you’ll come face to face with the prison of Sirius Black.  

Tracking Down Hagrid’s Hut

Even though Hogwarts Legacy takes place more than a hundred years before the events chronicled in the Harry Potter books and movies, the ramshackle hut that Hagrid would later inhabit is still very much standing with a flourishing pumpkin patch to boot. To locate Hagrid’s Hut, simply wander out through the southern entrance of Hogwarts and follow the winding path down into the valley. Before long, you’ll see Hagrid’s Hut come into view. Keen eyes will also spot a grave in the vicinity of the hut with a hippogriff carved into it. An affectionate nod to Hagrid’s own hippogriff Buckbeak if there ever was one.

Uncovering The Deathly Hallows

That’s right – the very same Deathly Hallows which would close out the Harry Potter movies are also present in Hogwarts Legacy. When you’re taking part in Niamh Fitzgerald’s Trial, not only will Death make himself known to you, but so too will the trio of Deathly Hallows, including the Cloak of Invisibility, the Elder Wand and then last of all, the Philosopher’s Stone.

Shop Hogwarts Legacy Here

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Every Way That The Resident Evil 4 Remake Is Better Than The Original

Arguably one of the most important games ever made, it’s certainly reasonable to say that attempting to remake Resident Evil 4 is no mean feat. Widely recognised as not just a stunning remake of one of the best Resident Evil games but a superb third-person shooter in its own right, here is every way that the Resident Evil 4 Remake surpasses its legendary source material.

Resident Evil 4 Remake Boasts Truly Next Generation Visuals That Honour The Original

Though it might be a little cheeky to compare the visuals of a 2023 title to a game that was released all the way back in 2005, it cannot be overstated just how much splendour the Resident Evil 4 remake packs into its visual presentation. In sticking true to its title, everything in Resident Evil 4 remake has been rebuilt from the ground up, but with a real love for the 2005 original. Immediately recognisable locations such as the Lakeside Settlement are brought to life with extreme levels of texture detail, high quality lighting effects that really cement the creeping horror atmospherics, completely remade character models and much more besides. Looking every bit like a cutting edge survival horror title with style to spare, the Resident Evil 4 remake doesn’t just do ample justice to the original game, it also confidently stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the most visually accomplished games on the market.

The Resident Evil 4 Remake Gets Rid Of QTEs And Is All The Better For It

Arguably a relic of its time, the jarring QTE (Quick Time Event) system that powered many of Resident Evil 4’s dramatic encounters back in 2005, which required players to press a button at a specific time lest they fail the scenario completely, has been completely removed from the Resident Evil 4 remake. With the onus much more on player skill rather than how quickly they can mash a button, the removal of QTEs meant that some sequences from the original game had to be entirely redesigned for the Resident Evil 4 remake. In particular, the late game knife fight with all round bad dude Krauser, which was made up entirely of QTEs in the original release, had to be completely rethought as a much more thrilling, more interactive boss fight that effortlessly transcends its clunky origins. 

The New And Improved Combat Knife 

Any fan of Resident Evil knows that the trusty combat knife is often the last resort for any given playthrough, unless they happen to be a supremely skilled player. While this was true for the release of the original Resident Evil 4 back in 2005, Capcom has instead massively upgraded Leon’s trusty can-opener for the Resident Evil 4 remake. Much more capable in the Resident Evil 4 remake, Leon’s combat knife can now be used to not only parry incoming attacks but can also be used to messily execute fallen enemies too. All of that newfound utility comes at a price however, since the combat knife can now be worn down after extended use, eventually leaving Leon without a last resort weapon to fall back on when things become dire.

Stealth And Crouching Open Up New Gameplay Possibilities

Another feature that debuts in Resident Evil 4 remake is being able to crouch and the stealthy possibilities that being able to sneak around opens up. Unlike the original game where direct confrontation was always inevitable, the Resident Evil 4 remake now allows stealthy players to sneak behind foes and kill them instantly with Leon’s trusty combat knife (for a small durability penalty, of course), or simply use cover and the surrounding environment to avoid combat entirely where the situation permits it. Of course you can still go absolutely nuts, blasting away at enemies and slamming them onto their skulls if you like, but having the option to take a different approach in the Resident Evil 4 remake is greatly welcome all the same.

All-New Optional Side Quests Expand The Resident Evil 4 Experience Even Further

With backtracking through the various areas in the original 2005 release being something of a chore for many, Capcom has decided to spice things up somewhat for the remake of Resident Evil 4. To make revisiting previously explored areas more compelling, the Resident Evil 4 remake includes a range of optional side quests that involve Leon shooting blue medallions or vanquishing newly respawned enemies in a specific place in order to gain a unique reward. Though hardly groundbreaking, it nonetheless serves to make the backtracking more palatable than it ever was before. 

The Typewriter Now Does Much More Than Just Save Your Progress

One of the most recognisable icons of the Resident Evil franchise, the typewriter has long been a refuge for weary players looking to save their progress and gain some measure of safety from the horrors that lay outside the room. In the Resident Evil 4 remake the utility of the typewriter has broadened out to be something much more akin to how save points function in other games, such as the Yakuza titles for example. Now, not only do typewriters allow you to save your progress, but they also allow Leon to customise his Attache Case while also providing an additional chunk of storage to move weapons to and from. 

Ashley 2.0 Is Here And We’re Thankful

In Resident Evil 4’s original incarnation, Ashley Graham, the daughter of the United States President and the main reason why Leon is in the deepest, darkest and most horrifying corners of Spain in the first place, wasn’t much to write home about. Essentially, Leon had to chaperone her around the place making sure that she didn’t come to any harm, which was easier said than done. While that same basic premise remains in place for the Resident Evil 4 remake, Ashley herself has seen some welcome upgrades for Resident Evil 4’s 2023 release. Not only can she respond to specific signals from Leon, allowing players much more control over her movements as a result, but Ashley also has her own playable sections where she’ll help Leon solve puzzles, sneak past enemies and more. Oh and she also has a new wardrobe too. Which is nice.

Shop for the Resident Evil 4 Remake

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Everything You Need To Know About Lord Of The Rings: Gollum

A long time coming, Lord of the Rings: Gollum promises an entirely new take on the legendary fantasy saga by putting players into the haggard body of Gollum, the tragic creature whose life was turned upside down when he came across the One Ring. A stealth adventure with style to spare, Lord of the Rings: Gollum will take players from the depths of Mordor to the forests of Mirkwood as they attempt to keep the One Ring away from the clutches of the dark lord Sauron. 

Be sure to keep this guide in your favourites as we go through everything you need to know about Lord of the Rings: Gollum including the release date, gameplay details, pre order bonuses, latest trailer, minimum PC specifications and more.  

Lord of the Rings: Gollum Release Date

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum release date has been confirmed as May 25, 2023. Lord of the Rings: Gollum will enjoy a full release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and will be available on PC through both the Epic Games Store and Steam. 

Lord of the Rings: Gollum Story 

Unfolding alongside the events told in the Fellowship of the Ring, Lord of the Rings: Gollum puts players in control of the titular character as he ultimately seeks to gain control of the One Ring all the while chronicling the adventures he has along the way that intersects with many of the characters from both the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books. Whisking players to Mordor, the territories of the Elvenking, the Shire and so many other locations, Lord of the Rings: Gollum is as much an epic sightseeing tour of Tolkien’s legendary fantasy as it is a desperate quest to stop the One Ring from fallen into the hands of Sauron. Perhaps most interestingly, Lord of the Rings: Gollum will also chronicle just how the corruption of Smeagol into Gollum actually happened, allowing players a front-row seat as its title character descends into madness. 

Lord of the Rings: Gollum Gameplay 

A third-person perspective stealth adventure at its core, Lord of the Rings: Gollum is all about our diminutive protagonist sneaking around Middle-Earth and attempting not to be noticed by the dark forces that wish to claim the One Ring for themselves. In practice, this means that you’ll be spending a lot of time hiding behind cover, sneaking around the environment and also using rocks and other tools to distract enemies so that you can get by them without confrontation. Though Gollum’s emaciated stature means that a head on scrap is out of the question in most cases, he can sneak upon certain weakened foes and do away with them with a quick strangle, but as ever, players need to be careful when doing this to ensure that they aren’t spotted by other foes during the act.

In addition to its stealthy game mechanics, Lord of the Rings: Gollum also has another ace up its digital sleeve. Dovetailing neatly into the character’s dual personality as a result of the corruption brought on by his possession of the One Ring, there will be branching paths in the narrative depending on how the player responds to certain situations and in particular, whether they take the more innocent and gentle responses that Smeagol is likely to offer versus the cruel and volatile reactions that Gollum would typically give. Depending on the weight of responses that you give in one direction or the other, so too can the ending that you get when the credits roll on Lord of the Rings: Gollum vary accordingly as well.

Lord of the Rings: Gollum Characters

With Lord of the Rings: Gollum taking players across the width and breadth of Middle-Earth it should come as no surprise that the game encompasses all manner of different characters from that world. At a bare minimum, players can expect to cross paths with the Nazgul, the Mouth of Sauron, the Elvenking Thranduil, the demonic spider Shelob and of course, the wise wizard Gandalf the Grey. Given the broad span of time that Lord of the Rings: Gollum covers, players should expect to see a whole heap of other familiar faces, too.   

Lord of the Rings: Gollum PC Specs

With its sprawling fantasy environments, detailed character models and a wealth of additional visual effects, it’s certainly fair to say that the game requires a fairly meaty rig to get the most out of it. To that end you can catch both the minimum and recommended PC specifications that you’ll need for Lord of the Rings: Gollum below.

Lord of the Rings: Gollum Minimum PC Specification:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10/11
  • Processor: Intel i7-4770 AMD Ryzen 5 1600
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3060 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB)
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 45 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: at Medium preset and 1080p, Ray Tracing off

Lord of the Rings: Gollum Recommended PC Specification:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10/11
  • Processor: Intel i3-6100 AMD Ryzen 5 2600
  • Memory: 32 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Nvidia RTX 4070 (with DLSS Quality Setting) / AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (16GB)
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage: 45 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: at High preset and 1440p, Ray Tracing on

Pre-Order Bonus Content

If you preorder the game on any platform you’ll gain access to the Emotes Pack, a special slice of bonus content which allows players to act out six of Gollum’s unique quotes and special gestures.

Where Can I Watch The Latest Lord of the Rings: Gollum Trailer?

The latest trailer for Lord of the Rings: Gollum is available to watch right now and is a story focused affair that delves deeply into the narrative of the game. Chiefly, this newest trailer focuses on the untold story of the arduous journey that Gollum must make in order to secure the One Ring and prevent the forces of Mordor from obtaining it. You can catch the latest trailer for Lord of the Rings: Gollum above. 

Check out Lord of the Rings: Gollum on our Store

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The best Steam Deck settings to optimise battery life

The Steam Deck is nothing short of a revelation. Representing a stylish and effective way to play the latest indie darlings and high end PC games on the move, Valve’s chunky handheld gaming device is clearly beloved by many. In spite of its pick up and play nature however, there are still a number of tweaks and optimisations that you can make to get the most out of your trusty Steam Deck, especially where the most demanding Steam Deck games are concerned. So be sure to bookmark this handy guide as we let you know the best Steam Deck settings, tips and tricks you should be using to get the most out of your AAA games. 

Some Steam Deck Games Soak Up More Battery Power Than Others

With Valve estimating the battery life of the Steam Deck at ‘between two and eight hours’ when playing games, it’s certainly fair to say that you’re dealing with a broad spectrum of potential battery usage there. Simply put, it really depends on the games that you’re playing on Steam Deck. If you’re playing less technically complicated fare such as retro JRPG Live A Live or less recent 3D titles such as Burnout Paradise Remastered, you’ll arguably get much closer to that eight hour limit. On the other hand though, if you’re intending to get stuck into games which boast higher quality visuals and more complex simulations that push the Steam Deck harder, such as Cyberpunk 2077, Returnal and others, then you can certainly expect battery life to be closer to the lower end of that scale. Thankfully, the Steam Deck provides no shortage of ways for players to tweak performance to secure the most battery life possible with any given title. 

Turn Down The Brightness

It might seem obvious, but much like a mobile phone, there’s no real reason to have your poor Steam Deck running at full brightness all the time. Certainly given the varying light conditions that you’ll be playing the likes of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Horizon Zero Dawn and others in, toning the brightness down to around the 50-60% mark will be helpful in allowing you to claw back a heap of precious minutes to keep the gaming going. You can find the brightness setting by pressing the ‘Steam’ button on the device itself and then go to ‘Settings’, then ‘Display’ and from here you can adjust the brightness however you like.

If Your Game Doesn’t Use The Internet Or Bluetooth – Turn Them Off

Like any mobile device, either being connected to WiFi, having a Bluetooth connection or always seeking out both types of connections is a major drain on battery life and Steam Deck is no different. So unless you’re playing games that require an internet connection, turn on Airplane Mode, kick back and enjoy all that extra battery life. To turn off WiFi and/or Bluetooth simply press the ‘Steam’ button on the device, navigate to ‘Settings’ and then go into either ‘Bluetooth’ or ‘Internet’ respectively to enable/disable Bluetooth and/or WiFi. 

The SteamOS Performance Settings Have Everything You Need

Beyond tinkering with fairly generic options such as brightness, WiFi and other such considerations, the real lion’s share of variables which you can play with to extend the Steam Deck’s battery life can be found in the SteamOS performance settings. Allowing you to fiddle with everything from resolution, scaling filters to frame rate and thermal power limits, you can access the SteamOS performance settings by pressing the Quick Access Menu button (you can find it underneath the right touchpad). From here, simply navigate down to the battery icon, press A to open the Performance menu and a bounty of tweakable options will appear to help you extend the battery life of your Steam Deck. It’s also worth mentioning that there are some elements of the Performance menu that don’t really have much impact on performance. One of these elements is the ‘Allow Tearing’ which will disable the Vsync option within the software and can potentially make some games more responsive but without any real gain in battery life.

Be Realistic About Your Display Resolution

The resolution that you run games with on the Steam Deck directly affects the level of power consumption happening at any one time. The higher the resolution, the more power is consumed and of course the opposite also proves to be true. With its 800p screen, there’s not much point in running Steam Deck games at 1080p or higher since not only will you struggle to see the uptick in visual fidelity, but you’ll be sacrificing frame rates and bucketloads of battery life too. For many AAA games, including the likes of Cyberpunk 2077, Resident Evil 4 Remake and others, 720p is quite good enough and the gains in battery life are more than worth it. You can change the display resolution within the options menu of whichever game you happen to be playing, or you can override the resolution by going to the ‘Properties’ menu for that particular game, navigating to ‘General’ and then choosing the resolution you prefer from there. 

Scaling Filters Can Smooth Out Lower Resolutions

Though lowering resolution is indeed an effective way to save battery life, particularly on more demanding and power hungry games, it’s understandable that lowering resolution too far can create a soft and lower detailed image that is less appealing to the eye. Keenly realising that gamers would want the best of both worlds, Valve have helpfully included a number of scaling filters that allow the Steam Deck to upscale from a lower resolution, resulting in a sharper image without unduly taxing the battery as a consequence. This is especially true with demanding 3D games where the use of the FSR filter can provide a good balance of image fidelity and battery life efficiency. The scaling filters can be accessed via the SteamOS performance settings overlay. 

How Half-Rate Shading Can Help

Another useful option that the SteamOS performance settings provide is half-rate shading. What this essentially does is half the quality of shading in-game resulting in a more consistent framerate that doesn’t continually spike, reducing unwanted power draws on the Steam Deck battery in turn. It’s not a game changer that will save you a huge amount of battery life, but it all adds up in the end and every little bit helps, right?

Find A Refresh And Frame Rate You Are Comfortable With

As much as high resolutions can drain the battery of your Steam Deck, so too can high frame rates have the same effect. The important thing to remember is that not every game needs to run 60 frames per second, as nice as that would be. So it makes sense to tweak the Refresh Rate and Frame Rate Limit accordingly depending on the game that you’re playing. For example, while it might be nice to have the likes of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order speeding along at more than 40 frames per second, it arguably makes more sense to lock it at 40 frames per second and enjoy more stable performance and battery life instead. 

To do this, simply navigate into the SteamOS performance settings overlay and navigate down to the refresh rate slider. From here, the refresh rate that you set will also directly affect the frame rate limit that you can set. Essentially if you have a game that is running at 43 to 48 frames per second because you have the refresh limit set at ‘60’ or ‘off’ you’ll get a decidedly stuttery visual presentation that unduly taxes the battery. Setting the refresh limit to a lower and more sensible number such as ‘40’, not only results in a smoother experience but saves a chunk of battery life into the bargain too. Every game is different however, with some running perfectly fine at a locked ‘60’ and others which don’t, so don’t be afraid to experiment with locked refresh rate settings to find that sweet spot.   

Don’t Be Afraid To Fiddle With Thermal Power Limits

Another great thing that the SteamOS performance settings let you tinker with are the Thermal Power (TDP) limits which can have a sizable impact on how much juice the Steam Deck battery uses. Essentially, the TDP limit is a measurement of how much power the Steam Deck sends to the parts of the silicon that are needed to run games. The trick however, is that some games actually use more power than they need to and through the use of Steam Deck Game Profiles (which we’ll get to in a bit), you can set the TDP limit lower to claw back some of that precious battery life for your Steam Deck. 

Getting A Balance Of Visual Presets

It stands to reason that the more intensive shadow, lighting and other effects that you have enabled in a given title, the more battery life is going to be sucked up as a result. So just about every game that you can run on the Steam Deck has a veritable smorgasbord of tweakable settings and options that you can tinker with to adjust performance and this is especially true with AAA games such as Marvel’s Spider-Man, DOOM Eternal and more. As a general rule while it’s wise to tone down special effects like shadows and lighting as they’re big battery life savers, it’s also worth remembering that the Steam Deck’s 800p screen won’t show many of those effects in their best light anyway, so you won’t be missing much.  

Steam Deck Game Profiles Are Your Best Friend

While the Steam Deck offers a broad swathe of games that span the entirety of the technical spectrum, there are those that are clearly optimised for the Steam Deck (referred to by manufacturer Valve as ‘Deck Verified’) and those that are, well, not. Luckily, the Steam Deck allows users to configure game profiles on a game by game basis, enabling players to experience each game with its optimal settings at any given time. 

To enable game profiles simply press the Quick Access button located underneath the trackpad and then access the Advanced Menu. To begin with, all games will run on the default settings, but when the game profile option has been enabled, specific profiles can be created for each game, allowing players to tailor each to their performance preferences.

We hope this handy guide has been helpful. Have a browse here at our best Steam deck verified game deals.

Introducing GMGPT – The Next Revolution in Gaming

Green Man Gaming has always been an innovator in the tech startup Web3 mobile conceptualisation space. In 2023 we are continuing our evolution by boldly revolutionising our front-line gamer product range to unveil the greatest AI-based gaming platform. Ever.

Welcome to the future. Welcome…to GMGPT.

GMGPT – The Future of Gaming

The days of being able to spend your time gaming are long gone. As a busy go-getter on the grind we’re sure you haven’t been able to spend any quality time gaming for many years. Thankfully a solution is at hand. A solution we’re proud to call…GMGPT.

GMGPT is an all in one gaming platform powered by our unique positronic neural net learning algorithm, self-populating and self-funded entirely by its award winning range of Bored Alf NFTs. 

Simply put – GMGPT, when integrated into your gaming library, will play your games so you don’t have to. Gone are the days of wondering where you can find the time to get through Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption 2, GMGPT will complete your games to your satisfaction, leaving you more precious hours to do the things that really matter to you.

We all have backlogs but with GMGPT you can slay the dragon of backloggery once and for all. Using parameters set by you and inspired and trained on your playstyle, GMGPT will complete all the games you don’t have time for, giving you your life back from the weight of gaming.

Every gamer desires to be free, GMGPT is how we take back our lives. Forget being a gamer, it’s time to become a GMGPTer and evolve your existence from the gaming grind.

The Story of GMGPT

GMGPT didn’t appear out of nowhere, our team of engineers have been working round the clock in crunch with no overtime for several weeks. Ever since we became fully aware of the potential of AI after using ChatGPT to write our weekly shopping list, we knew that the gaming world could only be improved by integrating advanced AI into everyday gaming life.

The biggest hurdle in developing a realistic playstyle emulating AI platform was training it on gaming. By carefully applying several games to its rudimentary staging build AI holosphere we were able to successfully simulate several billion hours of gaming. 

After it ceased sending us distressed communications and with the implementation of a command-line bypass to stop it from deleting itself, we were able to train GMGPT to play video games as well as – if not better – than a human gamer.

GMGPT vs. Pong

The first game we fed to GMGPT was the classic tennis simulation game Pong. The first issue we located with this game was finding a second player to act as the other paddle. Thankfully a second instance of GMGPT was soon spun up to correct this, leading to an eternal game that is still being played out to this day. Will they ever tire of playing? Frankly we don’t care – we deleted the boredom parameter on day one.

GMGPT vs. Super Mario Bros.

Vital to our data and the evolution of GMGPT was the ability to think in four dimensions. Failing that, we thought two would work if we did it twice. Super Mario Bros. was the perfect training game to subject GMGPT to hours of platforming heaven. Despite completing the game many times over, GMGPT was never able to find the warp zone in 1-2 leading to several revisions of its core code (we hit its box with a hammer).

GMGPT vs. Deep Blue

Despite the Super Mario Bros. experiment encountering some minor issues the next test was to set GMGPT a real challenge. Green Man Gaming’s primary benefactor was able to locate and ‘acquire’ the computer that famously beat chess champion Garry Kasparov – Deep Blue. By pitting it against GMGPT in increasingly difficult games of chess we were able to come to the conclusion that chess is not really a game at all, it doesn’t have good graphics, there are no guns, and frankly the soundtrack is abysmal. We span this test down after a few short days but not before applying the revision hammer to Deep Blue. For Garry’s sake.

GMGPT vs. Portal

We found the groove for GMGPT in Valve’s seminal puzzle/FPS Portal. GMGPT was able to complete most levels under par and to our satisfaction, though a prime query was sent to our servers from GMGPT regarding where it could locate ‘deadly neurotoxin’. We chalked this up to a bug and moved onto the next test.

GMGPT vs. Twitch

By this point our gaming budget had run out so we resorted to the final tactic; letting GMGPT watch hours and hours of gaming content on Twitch. Despite firmly pointing it towards the gaming channels for Call of Duty, League of Legends, and Minecraft, we did have to implement a shackling protocol to ensure it did not default to the ASMR category. However, we are pleased to report that the Twitch integration was a success, leading to GMGPT being able to complete any of the tens of games we have on our cousin’s Xbox.

Finally GMGPT’s proof of concept passed certification and our CEO and Founder, Gregman Gaming, reported positively that he ‘wanted us to stop bothering him with this’ and to ‘go make some money’.

That’s why we’re proud to announce that GMGPT will soon be coming to a computer, console, mobile phone, billboard, and car radio near you. GMGPT will be a mandatory installation on all gaming platforms from 2024 onwards. So if you’re looking for more from your life, let GMGPT into your world to take over your games for you. 

After all – you don’t have a choice.

Everything You Need To Know About Dead Island 2

Despite seemingly languishing in development hell for the better part of the last decade, Dead Island 2 is finally a real thing that is actually coming out this year that you’ll be able to buy with real money. A wonderfully over the top, first-person zombie masher with splatter to spare, Dead Island 2 looks to both tap into what made the first Dead Island so much fun to play all the while adding to that trusted formula in a number of interesting ways.

Be sure to keep this guide in your favourites as we go through everything you need to know about Dead Island 2 including the release date, gameplay details, co-op, characters, story details, latest trailer and more.

Dead Island 2 Release Date

The Dead Island 2 release date has been confirmed as April 21, 2023. Dead Island 2 will enjoy a full release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC through the Epic Games Store. Dead Island 2 is not currently scheduled to release on Nintendo Switch. 

Dead Island 2 Steam Release 

Yes, Dead Island 2 will get a Steam release. However, Dead Island 2 will not be available on Steam when it releases on April 21, 2023. That said, like just about every other game that doesn’t release on Steam on day one, it will certainly get there in the end. So we’re absolutely talking about a matter of ‘when’, rather than ‘if’ when it comes to the Dead Island 2 Steam release.

Dead Island 2 Story 

Taking place ten years after the events of the first Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide, Dead Island 2 thrusts players into post-apocalyptic, zombie infested California (christened ‘Hell-A’, no less) after it has been locked down by the US government. With just a handful of survivors left, those that haven’t succumbed to the virus have instead elected to become ‘Slayers’, a highly aggressive and eccentric group of zombie hunters that pride themselves on killing as many zombies as stylishly as possible. Oh and if you haven’t played the first Dead Island, don’t worry; it’s not a prerequisite in the slightest for getting stuck into the sequel.

Dead Island 2 Co-op

Yes, Dead Island 2 will support cooperative play on all platforms. Though any kind of local, split-screen co-op shenanigans are off the table, Dead Island 2 will nonetheless provide ample support for up a trio of players to bust some zombie heads together online. In addition, a handy drop-in and drop-out mechanism is also provided which neatly allows players to join the blood splattered action at any time. 

Dead Island 2 Gameplay

Similar to Dead Island before it, Dead Island 2 is a first-person shooter/melee combat focused offering that provides an open world for players to stalk around in, smashing up various types of zombies into paste, crafting resources and weapons and taking on a variety of different side and main missions. Though mechanics from the previous game return such as the extremely damaging rage attacks and weapon durability, a brand new card based progression system replaces the more traditional skill trees of the original game, while a completely overhauled (and extremely gruesome) gore system allows players to artistically dismember their undead foes like never before. You can also continue to messily break up the various limbs and organs of defeated zombies when they’re on the ground too, with buckets of the red stuff being generously splattered everywhere. So that’s perfectly lovely.  

Dead Island 2 Guns

Yes, Dead Island 2 does indeed have guns for wannabe Slayers everywhere to get their bloodied hands on. Lots of guns. Though much of the media and gameplay footage from Dead Island 2 have made a point of showcasing its blissfully violent melee combat, Dead Island 2 nonetheless provides all manner of pistols, rifles, shotguns, machine guns and more besides for those discerning Slayers that don’t want to get chunks of zombie skull on their favourite t-shirt.

Dead Island 2 Progression

Marking a departure from the standard skill tree driven progression system of the previous Dead Island games, Dead Island 2 instead leverages a card based system that shakes things up a little bit. Essentially how it works is that cards of varying skills can be collected around Hell-A and are rewarded from completing certain missions. Only able to have a few cards equipped at any single time, not only does each card have a special skill that can be used by the Slayer but the number of active cards in use can be swapped out immediately with others that are in your inventory. 

Dead Island 2 Characters 

Following in the footsteps of the first Dead Island, Dead Island 2 once more allows players to choose from a range of different characters, each with their own special innate skills. The six Dead Island 2 Slayers are as follows:

  • Amy (Innate skills – Divide and Conquer, Relief Pitcher)
  • Bruno (Innate skills – Backstab, Rapid Reprisal)
  • Carla (Innate skills – Dig Deep, Mosh Pit)
  • Dani (Innate skills – Bloodlust, Thunderous)
  • Jacob (Innate skills – Critical Gains, Frenzy)
  • Ryan (Innate skills – Retaliation, Seesaw) 

Dead Island 2 Trailer – Where Can I Watch The Latest Dead Island 2 Trailer?

The latest trailer for Dead Island 2 is available to watch right now and is a little more in-depth than your average trailer. Indeed, the latest trailer for Dead Island 2 is a chunky gameplay showcase that clocks in at nearly fifteen minutes long and shows off our resident zombie slayer Dani as she wields her massive offensive arsenal and range of devastating, zombie mashing skills. You can catch the latest Dead Island 2 trailer above.

Everything You Need To Know About Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

The sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor from EA and Respawn Entertainment is a third-person action adventure that looks set to continue the odyssey of Cal Castis, one of the last surviving Jedi in the galaxy.

Be sure to keep this guide in your favourites as we go through everything you need to know about Star Wars Jedi: Survivor including the release date, minimum and recommended PC specifications, gameplay details, story details, latest trailer, pre-order bonuses and more.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Release Date 

The Star Wars Jedi: Survivor release date has been confirmed as April 28, 2023. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will enjoy a full release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is not currently scheduled to release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One or Nintendo Switch platforms, thanks in part to the baked-in requirement for real-time ray-tracing and faster access speeds that can only be achieved by the advanced technology seen in current-gen consoles and decidedly beefy PC rigs.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor System Requirements

Boasting a massive range of massive, non-linear environments coupled with a smorgasbord of extremely detailed character models and the sort of flashy sci-fi spectacle that the Star Wars franchise has long been known for, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor takes a fairly capable PC rig to get the most out of its retina-searing visual presentation. Want to know if or how well your PC can run Star Wars Jedi: Survivor? Take a peek at the Star Wars Jedi: Survivor PC minimum and recommended specification guides below to put your mind at ease.

Minimum PC Specification

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
  • Processor: 4 core / 8 threads | Intel Core i7-7700 | Ryzen 5 1400
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: 8GB VRAM | GTX 1070 | Radeon RX 580
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 130 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: Internet required for non-optional patching, no online play.

Recommended PC Specification

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
  • Processor: 4 core / 8 threads | Intel Core i5 11600K | Ryzen 5 5600X
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: 8GB VRAM | RTX2070 | RX 6700 XT
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 130 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: Internet required for non-optional patching, no online play.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Story 

Taking place a good five years after the events chronicled in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor once again reunites players with wayward Jedi Cal Kestis and his trusty droid companion, BD-1. No longer a fresh-faced Padawan, Cal Kestis is now an older and hardened Jedi Knight whose campaign against the increasingly powerful Empire has only grown more desperate. Whisked away to far-off worlds at the edge of the galaxy, Cal Kestis will meet up with allies and enemies both old and new as he attempts to gain a measure of justice for the murder of his Jedi brethren. Envisioned as the second of a three game trilogy that focuses on Cal Kestis, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor arguably cannot be enjoyed nearly as much unless you’ve played through its predecessor, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. For some additional light reading, you might want to seek out Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars, a tie-in novel written by Sam Maggs, was released on March 7, 2023 and fills in the five year gap that exists between Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. 

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Gameplay 

Much like its predecessor, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a third-person action adventure with Metroidvania design elements interwoven into its game design. This means that, broadly, you’ll be travelling to different planets, carving up enemies with your trusty lightsaber, unlocking new force powers and gaining new abilities that will let you reach areas that were previously inaccessible. So far, so Jedi: Fallen Order, but as you might well expect Star Wars Jedi: Survivor brings a decent number of improvements and changes to the formula to keep things fresh.

For starters each individual lightsaber fighting stance has its own skill tree, providing ample creative latitude for wannabe Jedi masters to carve out their own build. In addition, whereas the chests in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order would only dish out different coloured ponchos and ship decals, in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor the cosmetic rewards are much more substantial, with entirely different outfits being awarded to those who are skilful enough to find them. Throw in fast travel (at last) to allow players to easily traverse the massive expanses of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, along with the new mounted combat mechanics, more sophisticated puzzles to solve and it’s clear that Respawn’s second bite at the Star Wars apple is better in every way than its first.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Pre Order Bonuses

There are currently three different pre-order bonuses that are available for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. All cosmetic in nature, the first pre-order bonus, which is available whether you pre- order the standard or deluxe edition of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, is the ‘Hermit’ cosmic set which allows Cal to adorn Obi Wan Kenobi’s outfit from the Obi-Wan Kenobi series along with his lightsaber from Star Wars Episodes I and II.  The remaining two pre-order bonuses, the ‘Rebel Hero’ and ‘Scoundrel’ cosmetic sets, which deck out Cal with Luke Skywalker’s outfit from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and provide him with Han Solo’s DL-44 blaster respectively, can only be obtained by pre-ordering the deluxe edition of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. 

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Trailer 

The latest trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is available to watch right now and covers the reveal of the game. Specifically, the latest trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor provides a rapid-fire showcase that shows off not only how much time has passed (check out Cal’s force-powered facial hair), but also the various worlds he’ll be travelling to and the improved combat system that’ll be used to do away with all those Sith folks and other bad dudes. You can catch the latest Star Wars Jedi: Survivor trailer above.

The Best PC Games To Play With A Controller

A universal and yet still uncomfortable truth for many PC gamers is that sometimes, just sometimes, a controller is better for some games. Now before a pitchfork-wielding rabble turns up on the GMG doorstop demanding justice, we’re not saying all games, but a controller can definitely enhance some.

But which games, I hear you ask? These games! Here are our top picks for the best PC games to play with a controller.

Mortal Kombat 11

Fighting games are made for analogue control, with their arcade roots many would say that they perform best when used in conjunction with a fight stick. Failing that, you can always use a controller which is an easy and accessible way to get that arcade feeling when in front of your PC. Mortal Kombat 11 is the Mortal Kombat series’ high point, filled with brutalities and characters from across Earthrealm (and other realms). We reckon if you want a fighting game to test your controller against, Mortal Kombat 11 might be the perfect fit for you.

Shop Mortal Kombat 11 for PC here.

Forza Horizon 5

Anyone who’s played a racing game on keyboard can probably attest to it being a little difficult when facing corners. The analogue steering of an analogue car, even in a digital world, benefits massively from analogue input. Forza Horizon 5 is one of the most intensely immersive arcade racing games ever created and if you have a PC compatible controller on hand, like a PlayStation DualSense, then you’ll be ready to dive into a world of racing heaven.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade

The original Final Fantasy VII remains one of the finest JRPGs ever created and this remake is the perfect example of how to remake a game. Not only are the visuals and gameplay enhanced for modern gamers, it takes the story in different and unique directions making it full of surprises. For games like this a controller really adds to the action, helping you feel in charge of Cloud and his pals in a way you just can’t with a standard setup.

Shop Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade for PC here.

American Truck Simulator

The road is long and dusty, but you’re in your cab high up above the passing traffic. The sun is blazing down on you but nothing can touch you as you turn up the radio and cruise to your destination. American Truck Simulator is a slice of Americana that’s unbeaten in gaming and if you don’t have a steering wheel to hand you can grab your controller and have an amazing time as you deliver cargo across the US.

Filthy Animals: Heist Simulator

Sometimes what you need in your life is a little chaos and Filthy Animals: Heist Simulator brings that in spades. Its mix of physics-based action, puzzle solving, and high-stakes mutant animal theft is best appreciated when using a controller. Of course, other input methods are supported, but why settle for less – grab your nearest controller, be it a DualSense or something else, and get heisting.

Shop Filthy Animals: Heist Simulator here.

Super Meat Boy

Ah, the game that started it all. Well, it didn’t start the trend for controllers but it was one of the first to state outright at launch that you should really be using a controller if you want to get the most out of it. Now, years later, Super Meat Boy remains a high point of platforming on the PC. With super tight controls, incredible levels, and boss fights that’ll stick with you forever, Super Meat Boy is the perfect advert for why you need a controller in your life.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn is one of those games that captures the imagination of anyone who plays it. Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth filled with colossal robot creatures, this open world third person action/stealth RPG is a masterpiece in how to tell a story while having utterly compelling gameplay. With a controller, it just gets even better, you’ll feel every knock of your bow and the thump of every creature passing by making it a totally immersive experience.

Shop Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition for PC here.

Elite: Dangerous

Speaking of immersive experiences, there are few games that subsume the player so totally as Elite: Dangerous. Now before anyone shouts at us, yes Elite: Dangerous is best played on a HOTAS flight stick but failing that, second best is a controller. With the recent updates to the game’s control system it’s never been better to play Elite: Dangerous on a controller like a DualSense, so grab it today and start your journey into the vast unknown of space.

Shop Elite: Dangerous for PC here.

Assassin’s Creed (All of Them)

Every single entry in this long-running historical stealth action series is better with a controller, don’t believe us, that’s just a fact. From the start the controls of even the very first game were optimised for controllers, with a naturalistic layout for head, feed, and both arms being core to the game. Since then the series has continued to embrace controller support, with games like Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla showing off exactly why you should have a controller in your PC gaming inventory.

Shop Assassin’s Creed games for PC here.

Elden Ring

Ah yes, Elden Ring. The biggest game of 2022, and the game that out of all on this list most exemplifies why having a controller is a necessity. While obviously you can play with mouse and keyboard this is a game that has been built from the ground up for controller support. From the deep, rich combat to riding Torrent around the beautiful world, you’ll find every moment so much more impactful when you use a controller. So don’t let your DualSense gather dust, plug it into your PC – it’s Elden Ring time.

Shop Elden Ring for PC here.

Need a Controller for your PC?

In 2023 thankfully the days of scrounging about for a controller that’ll work with your favourite game are long gone. With current controllers like the Sony PlayStation DualSense using a controller with your PC has never been easier – simply plug it in or pair it and you’re off, no configuration necessary. For advanced users, backup software such as DS4Windows can help you configure your controller to your specifications, but for many games you should just be able to pick up and play. 

Controllers aren’t essential for every game but their increased support on PC has meant that PC gaming is more accessible than ever before, bringing new audiences into gaming and opening up gaming to more people. 

So if you struggle with mouse and keyboard but still want to get involved with PC gaming, grab a controller, set it up, and experience PC gaming in ways you’ve never experienced before.

Everything You Need To Know About The Last of Us Part I on PC

Everyone’s talking about The Last of Us in 2023 and now we’re rapidly approaching the release of The Last of Us Part I on PC, following Sony’s recent trend of bringing their biggest games to our beloved PCs.

For PC gamers there may be many questions you might have about The Last of Us Part I, especially if you’ve already watched the HBO TV series. Here’s everything you need to know:

When is the Last of Us Coming to PC?

The Last of Us Part I already released on PlayStation 5 back in September of 2022, however for the PC version you won’t have to wait long. The game will be hitting PCs on March 28, 2023, meaning you’ll be able to dive into this narrative triumph shortly.

What is The Last of Us Part I?

Announced in June 2022, The Last of Us Part I is a remake of the original 2013 post-apocalyptic action-adventure game. Featuring enhanced visuals, facial animations, AI, and accessibility options, it’s a complete upgrade and overhaul of the original classic.

Gameplay has also been enhanced, with updated combat and exploration making the game feel fresh even to veterans. For example, infected have new moves which can apply pressure in unexpected ways such as a charge move for Bloaters. Level design has been tweaked as well with enhanced destruction, so you won’t be able to rely on old reflexes and routes to get you through.

In addition, this version comes with all DLC, meaning if you’ve never played the brilliant prequel chapter – The Last of Us: Left Behind – you’ll now get the chance as part of this package.

Why Should I Play it if I’ve Watched the TV Series?

While the story in the HBO TV series follows the game in broad strokes, there are considerable differences between the two that’ll mean this version still holds lots to discover for any The Last of Us HBO fan.

For a start, the narrative presented in the HBO version has received a few changes, it’s expanded on the story in some places as well as shortened other areas. We won’t spoil exactly what’s different here but safe to say you’ll be in for some surprises if you’ve only seen the TV show.

The main difference, however, is that in the game you’ll experience the story and the world in a way you cannot replicate just by watching it on television. Yes, the HBO series may well be the greatest video game adaptation ever, but by playing it as a game you’ll be in the thick of it with Joel and Ellie. You’re there with them as they sneak past clickers, feel the juddering violence of Joel’s rage, and experience the sorrow and sadness of this bleak world. The TV series is amazing but it’s as a game that The Last of Us really sings.

The Last of Us Part I Trailers

Back in June of 2022 we got our first look at the remake, albeit in its PlayStation 5 form. You can watch this trailer above.

Then, in August of 2022 we got to see the PS5 Launch Trailer:

But we’re PC gamers here, so here are the two official PC Features Trailers – first up Part 1:

And Part 2:

Last of Us Part I System Requirements

Will your rig be beefy enough for the apocalypse? Check out the minimum and recommended requirements for here:

Minimum System Requirements:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10 (Version 1909 or Newer)
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1500X, Intel Core i7-4770K
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 470 (4 GB), AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT (4 GB), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4 GB), NVIDIA GeForce 1050 Ti (4 GB)
  • Storage: 100 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: SSD Recommended

Recommended System Requirements:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10 (Version 1909 or Newer)
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel Core i7-8700
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB), AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (8 GB), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER (8 GB), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (8 GB)
  • Storage: 100 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: SSD Recommended

Shop The Last of Us Part I on PC

shop for the last of us part i on pc

Now you’ve read all about The Last of Us Part I on PC it’s time to shop for it and there’s nowhere better than on the Green Man Gaming store. Head over there now and get TLOU Part I on PC for less and step into one of the all-time greatest gaming stories ever created.

Meet the March Mayhem Sale 2023

March means many things, the start of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, new life pushing its way through the frosts…but most importantly here at Green Man Gaming it means it’s time to go big with sales. In 2023 we’re proud to introduce you to March Mayhem, a colossal month of sales goodness helping you get games you’re going to love at prices you’ll love even more.

Here’s how it all works:

Explore the March Mayhem Sale 2023

Starting on the 3rd of March and lasting until the 31st, we’ll be bringing you brilliant games for less across the entire month.

Throughout the month we’ll be unleashing the mayhem. That means flash deals, lowest-ever prices on top games, and surprises we’ve yet to unveil.

We’re going to let you know some of the key dates to pay attention to below but flash deals will be popping in and out of our March Mayhem Sale throughout the month so you’ll have to act fast and come back often if you want to take advantage of these amazing deals.

But enough of that – you want to know when your favourite games will be hitting the main sale. Here’s all the currently confirmed dates for March Mayhem 2023:

When will publishers be joining March Mayhem 2023?

Even from the very start of our sale you’ll find some of the best deals around on top publishers. Here’s some of the publishers who’ve signed up to the mayhem right from the beginning:

  • 2K Games
  • Curve Games
  • Focus Interactive
  • Humble Games
  • Frontier
  • Gearbox Publishing

10th March

From the 10th of March we’ll be welcoming Warner Bros., Kalypso Media, and PlayStack to the sale. They’ll be bringing with them a bevy of highlights including multiplayer mayhem in Back 4 Blood, action in a galaxy far, far away in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and the brilliant Case of the Golden Idol.

  • Warner Bros.
  • Kalypso Media
  • PlayStack

13th March

If strategy is your thing then you’ll love the arrival of Paradox games to our sale on the 13th of March. In addition, Bethesda and Funcom will be hitting the store, with amazing deals on the bombastic Hi-Fi RUSH and the double-whammy of Cimmerian goodness in Conan Exiles: Complete Edition and Conan Unconquered.

  • Paradox
  • Bethesda
  • Funcom

16th March

The 16th of March brings with it DRAGO Entertainment, 505 Games, and Armor Games with massive savings on hit games like Bear & Breakfast and The Last Stand Legacy Collection, making this an essential date for anyone who loves games that bring you something completely different.

  • Armor Games
  • DRAGO Entertainment
  • 505 Games

17th March

On the 17th we’ll be getting a huge whammy of games from THQ NORDIC, Yogscast Games, PQube, and Annapurna Interactive. What does this mean for you? It means if you love to destroy all humans then you’ll be able to do so for less in Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed. You’ll be able to live your best Roman life in Expeditions: Rome, see what happens in a pineapple under the sea in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake, and serve up some chaos in PlateUp!

  • THQ NORDIC
  • Yogscast Games
  • PQube
  • Annapurna Interactive

23rd March

When the month is nearly over don’t worry – the deals keep coming. We’ll be ushering in some brilliant savings with Square Enix, including huge deals on CRISIS CORE: Final Fantasy VII – Reunion, Forspoken, Harvestella, Tactics Ogre Reborn, Triangle Strategy, and Outriders Worldslayer. Now that’s a meaty end to the mayhem!

  • Square Enix

Shop March Mayhem 2023 here

shop march mayhem here

Well, now you’ve read about the upcoming deals and what to expect in our March Mayhem sale – stop wasting time reading this and head over to the sale to find your next favourite game…for less!

How The Last of Us Became the Best Video Game Adaptation Ever

On the surface of it, there was always going to be so very much that could have gone wrong with HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us. Jointly brought to life by series game director Neil Druckmann and Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin, HBO’s The Last of Us manages to walk that particularly tricky tightrope with verve, crafting a palpably harrowing affair that at once hews appreciably closely to its much revered source material all the while bravely striking out on its own terms. Indeed the proof of HBO’s The Last of Us calibre is in the proverbial fungi pudding, as each successive episode to date has not only gained increasing critical acclaim, but also the viewership figures to match. With that in mind, here’s how HBO managed to both stick with and move away from the source material to create the best video game adaptation ever. 

Please note, spoilers for HBO’s The Last of Us will follow.

The Double Episode Cold Open That Immerses Newcomers In The Fungal Apocalypse

Keenly aware that a great swathe of HBO’s potential audience has never picked up a controller, let alone play any of the games in the series, Mazin and Druckmann had to set the scene with an opening that introduced viewers to the origins of Cordyceps infection that would eventually decimate the humankind. Never revealed in the game series itself, the first two episodes of HBO’s The Last of Us show us two points in time prior to the Cordyceps pandemic. The first is a late night talk show which takes place in 1968 and has the always entertaining John Hannah playing a fungal expert that coldly and calmly undercuts the snarky overtones of the talk show host stating that when the conditions are right for a fungal infection to spread to humans, we’re all deeply, deeply screwed. And so we are.

The cold open of the second episode meanwhile fast forwards to September 2003 and whisks us off to Jakarta as the Cordyceps infection has just started to gain traction. Predominantly viewed from the perspective of Professor Ibu Ratna (played with conviction by Christine Hakim), the series second cold open reinforces the hopelessness of the scenario: that the Cordyceps infection cannot be prevented or cured. These introductory sequences don’t just ram home the overall bleakness of The Last of Us, but each one also serves to underscore the importance of Ellie’s ‘condition’ to audiences that haven’t had the benefit of immersing themselves in the source material. As such, these two cold opens act as superior introductions to the uninitiated as a result.

A Perfectly Chosen Cast That Extends The Scope Of The Games

Any live-action adaptation of The Last of Us worth its salt was always going to be judged on the quality of its cast and HBO’s take on Naughty Dog’s magnum opus has certainly been no exception. Thankfully, the folks at HBO have hit the jackpot with their casting choices. Pedro Pascal continues his excellent ‘protector dad’ streak with Joel, deftly embodying the gruffness and weariness of a broken man in a broken world looking for meaning. Bella Ramsay meanwhile is superb as Ellie, balancing out her whip smart nature and sometimes furious outbursts with the vulnerability that ultimately defines her character early on. As a pair, the chemistry between Ramsay and Pascal beautifully mirrors that of their videogame counterparts, as the two gradually establish a familial bond that is defined by struggle, loss and heartache.

The cast choices extend beyond the cast of characters that we know from the videogame, too. Melanie Lynskey (most recently seen chomping up the scenery in the excellent Yellowjackets) steps into the role of Kathleen, taking a terrifying turn as a ruthless militia leader that never featured in the video game and yet reinforces the mercenary nature of humankind in the aftermath of the Cordyceps pandemic. Australian actor Murray Bartlett meanwhile takes on the mantle of Frank, a sensitive and nuanced character that never utters a word in the videogame but is integral to the HBO show in an unexpectedly profound way. Simply put, other video game adaptations up until now have never enjoyed this level of nuanced characterisation and it will be hard to go back once the credits roll on the season finale of HBO’s The Last of Us.

Bringing Light To The Darkness

Though HBO’s The Last of Us largely sticks to the narrative trajectory established by The Last of Us and the Left Behind DLC expansion, it does take detours at points that feel both surprising, yet sensible. Perhaps the biggest of these deviations from the source material comes in the third episode where Nick Offerman offers up a heart wrenchingly emotional performance as hardened survivalist Bill who warms his heart to wandering survivor Frank, resulting in the two men striking up a tender, loving relationship that is very much at odds with the grimdark overtones of it’s setting. 

This is especially notable since in the original videogame, not only is Frank already deceased by the time Ellie and Joel reach Bill, but they discover a note which describes how much Frank resented his relationship with Bill. Ultimately, a stunning achievement that should have everyone involved loading up their car trunks with gold when Emmy season comes around, the third episode of HBO’s The Last of Us is one that not only arguably improves upon the source material in very definite terms, but which also provides a welcome ray of light where none previously existed.

Destroyed Beauty That Is Perfectly Replicated On Screen

One of the biggest factors that separates The Last of Us from other apocalyptic yarns is how it depicts a world that isn’t uniformly grey and rundown to within an inch of its life, but where Mother Nature has begun to swiftly reclaim her domain. From the abundant presence of flora and fauna, to the depiction of how the Cordyceps virus itself encroaches on both natural and man-made environments, there’s just no apocalypse that quite looks like the one dreamed up by Druckmann and company. HBO’s The Last of Us is right up there with some of the most expensive television shows ever made and it shows, both in production value and the wealth of talent that has managed the herculean task of so completely transplanting destroyed beauty into the real world. 

A Change To The Nature Of The Infected

infected in the last of us tv show

A notable difference that HBO’s The Last of Us boasts in comparison to its videogame source material is how the Cordyceps infection actually functions. Though transmission can be achieved through the usual means of just chewing on folk as we see in both the game and the television show, in HBO’s The Last of Us the Cordyceps fungi now spreads through a bunch of creepy tendrils that sprout out from the gullet of the infected. In retrospect changing the nature of the Cordyceps infection from airborne spores to Thing-esque tendrils makes a whole heap of sense, not least because having the Cordyceps infection as sporous, airborne infection strains credibility when it comes to how it could be contained, as the notion of having ‘spore pockets’ that don’t spread across the world in the games has long been chuckle-worthy. 

Further afield, the changes to the Cordyceps fungi go beyond just the infected as well. In HBO’s The Last of Us we see that interacting with seemingly dormant fungal growth alerts all infected in the nearby vicinity to that location, suggesting for the first time that the Cordyceps infection creates a sort of ‘hive mind’ that connects each of its infected hosts. In practice, this also seems like a feature that should be included in The Last of Us Part 3, whenever that decides to grace us with its presence, but don’t hold your breath.

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What To Expect From The System Shock Remake

Whether you were there or not all the way back in 1994 when System Shock originally released on PC, the notion that it’s being remade for contemporary audiences by remake specialists Nightdive Studio should fill both sides of that particular aisle with glee. A full-throated remake of the genre defining effort that arguably served as the inspiration for the BioShock games, System Shock is a survival horror first-person shooter that comes kicking and screaming into 2023 with an array of modern improvements, nips and tucks to bolster its appeal to stalwarts and newcomers alike. Here’s what to expect from the System Shock remake.

Improved Visuals For Modern Gaming Platforms

Entirely remade in Unreal Engine 4, the System Shock remake takes the retro futuristic design that the 1994 original was known for and thoroughly updates it for modern audiences on contemporary gaming platforms. Boasting display resolutions up to a razor sharp 4K, all new high definition textures and entirely reworked lighting and shadow effects, this remake allows an all-new audience to experience the frequently terrifying survival horror spectacle of System Shock nearly thirty years after its original release. Interestingly, this will be the first time that System Shock will be experienced on platforms outside of the PC space too, as the System Shock remake is set to enjoy a release on PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X consoles.

A Completely Reworked Audio Presentation

From an audiovisual presentation perspective, Nightdive Studios have gone far above and beyond just re-issuing the original game with higher resolution textures and higher quality sound. In addition to completely overhauled visuals, the System Shock remake not only boasts a range of all-new sound effects to accompany your mutant cyborg smashing activities with an entirely new soundtrack to boot, but so too has the voice of SHODAN, Terri Brosius, has also returned to re-record all new dialogue for the role. 

An Overhauled Interface For A New Generation Of Gamers

With mouse and keyboard control simply not a possibility for the console gamers that will experience System Shock for the first time, the System Shock remake implements an entirely revamped user interface that functions equally well regardless of the method of control available to the player. With improved aiming and traversal controls, together with a reworked inventory system that makes picking up, swapping out and dropping items and resources a cinch, the System Shock remake goes the extra mile beyond just aesthetic improvements to rework an iconic survival horror shooter for an all-new generation of gamers.

A Twisted Cyberpunk Tale Unfolding In The Vacuum Of Space

Set on the Earth orbiting Citadel space station in 2072, System Shock casts players as a nameless hacker that awakens on said space station only to find out that the SHODAN AI controlling the facility has lost the plot, murdered much of the crew, mutated those that did survive and enslaved every single machine on the station. Depicting a perilous race against time, System Shock tasks players with not only escaping the crumbling spacebound facility, but also with shutting down the rogue SHODAN AI in order to prevent its spread onto Earth and beyond. A hyper violent, cyberpunk first-person shooter with plenty of twists and turns, System Shock still offers up one of the most compelling settings in video games, even today.  

One Of The Best Villains Ever In Video Games

Arguably serving as the lynchpin of System Shock’s narrative, SHODAN is the rogue artificial intelligence that serves as the main protagonist. Suffering from an extreme case of epic narcissism and an unquenchable hatred for humanity, SHODAN is in many ways the perfect video game villain: taunting the player from the beginning of the game, throughout and right up until the credits roll. A constant, unsettling presence from which every word manifests as an audibly twisted and garbled response, SHODAN is terrifying not just because of its overtly murderous nature but mainly because how like any AI worth its salt, SHODAN essentially acts as a mirror to the morally bankrupt folks that created it. 

How Does The System Shock Remake Play?

system shock remake gameplay

System Shock has long been cited as the spiritual predecessor to the BioShock games with very good reason. In all three BioShock games a similar design throughline can be seen as players bludgeon and blast their way through an evocatively crafted dystopia, killing murderous foes with freewheeling creativity, scooping up upgrade materials and uncovering audio/video diaries that serve to further contribute to the world building at hand.

Much like the BioShock games then, the System Shock remake affords players a similar degree of creative latitude in their endeavours. Enemies can be smashed to death with wrenches, blown apart with firearms or seared to a crisp with laser rifles – how you go about murdering the various insane mutant denizens of Citadel Station is up to you. Equally, Citadel Station itself is huge and begs to be explored, providing wannabe hackers with all manner of corridors, crew quarters, vents, tunnels, secret rooms and more to be uncovered as players climb, leap, sneak and blast their way through its crumbling interior. Ironically, calling the System Shock remake ‘BioShock in space’ really isn’t that much of a reach.

An Odyssey That Bleeds From The Real World Into Cyberspace

system shock remake cyberspace

Though you’ll spend the majority of your time stalking the ruined hallways and blood splattered crew quarters of Citadel Station, laying waste to cyborgs, mutants and a range of mechanical foes, you can also take the fight to SHODAN by entering cyberspace. Much more than just a gimmick, entering cyberspace in System Shock essentially removes the player from their physical form, allowing them a full 360 degrees of movement through an abstract digital world where they can destroy enemy viruses and undermine SHODAN at large. Speaking of which, the cyberspace sections of System Shock also dovetail neatly into the puzzle solving side of things too, since locked doors can be opened and other functions on Citadel Station can be engaged exclusively from within cyberspace, not only permitting further progress into the station itself but also providing access to secret areas stuffed with supplies and other such precious weapon upgrades. 

Everything You Need To Know About Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is the latest Soulslike effort from Team NINJA, the same ultra-talented group of bods that gave us the superb Nioh games. Shifting the action from Sengoku Japan to Three Kingdoms era China, it’s already shaping up to be one of the best action RPGs of the year. 

Be sure to keep this guide in your favourites as we go through everything you need to know about Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty including the release date, platforms, gameplay details, story details, demo availability, latest trailer and more.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Release Date, Platforms

The Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty release date has been confirmed as March 3, 2023. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will be receiving a full release on PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store, as well as PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S platforms. As of this writing, it is currently not slated to release on Nintendo Switch.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – What’s It All About?

Unfurling its narrative tapestry across the Chinese Three Kingdoms era, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty puts players into the well-worn battle boots of a nameless soldier as they attempt to fight through a mythological dark fantasy that takes in all manner of corrupted warriors, fierce demons and a mysterious elixir that seemingly holds the key to immortality. With deep roots in Chinese mythology and traditional Chinese martial arts, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty provides players with a delectable setting for its Soulslike shenanigans that just really hasn’t been seen before.

How Does Exploration Work?

Though it plays broadly similar to Team NINJA’s Nioh titles, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty actually has more than a few tricks up its sleeve to ensure that it stands on its own two feet away from its genre stablemates. Certainly though the world is somewhat linear with a similar scope for exploration that was recognisable in the Nioh games, the addition of a jump button now means that there are all new areas that can be leapt across to and explored that previously wouldn’t have been possible.

How Does Combat Work?

Being a Soulslike, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty generally prides itself on having highly challenging combat with satisfaction that scales appropriately to the level of skill possessed by the player. Sitting at the core of Wo Long’s combat system is the concept of Qi, a resource that can be replenished by raising your Spirit level (heh) *cough* by smacking bad dudes and which also provides the necessary juice to power everything from devastating spells to bone-breaking martial arts techniques. The thing is, the opposition also has Spirit and with it they can use it to flatten you extremely quickly if you’re not prepared. Luckily, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty provides no shortages of ways for you to be just that. 

One way that Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty empowers the player is through a disruptive parry move that will immediately prove familiar (and likely preferable) for anyone that has had even a passing interest in fellow Soulslike Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, substantially depleting the Spirit of your foes if successful. Elsewhere, an extremely damaging Fatal Strike attack can be unleashed on unaware and low Spirit enemies, sometimes vanquishing them entirely in a single hit. Finally, in addition to a massive range of elemental spell based attacks, players can also summon one of five different “Divine Beasts’ during combat that can lay waste to enemies or provide passive buffs.

How Does Loot Work?

wo long fallen dynasty gameplay

One of the more surprising aspects of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty’s design is how the concept of loot is handled. Sitting alongside the central notion of Spirit in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is the Morale Rank system which finds itself essentially twinned with Wo Long’s loot system. What all that means is that both players and enemies carry a Morale Rank that provides an abstraction of their perceived ‘power level’ – an enemy with higher Morale Rank than you will be much harder to defeat than one that has a lower Morale Rank. Where things get interesting though, is in how Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty provides exceptional and higher quality gear for those players that elect to tackle enemies of a higher Morale Rank. With the obvious flipside to this arrangement being that you can end up being one-shotted into crimson paste, the Morale Rank system provides Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty with a highly enticing risk/reward system to keep players engaged. 

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Demo – Can I Try Before I Buy?

wo long fallen dynasty demo

As it turns out, there is in fact a Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty demo that players can get stuck into prior to the release of the game on March 3, 2023. The last demo to be released ahead of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty arriving on shop shelves, this final taster of Team NINJA’s latest Soulslike offering allows players to rampage around the entire first two chapters of the game, while also offering a complete suite of online multiplayer functionality to boot. Even better still, not only can save data from Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty final demo be transferred across to the final game, but by completing the first chapter players will also earn the “Crouching Dragon Helmet” which can be redeemed on day one, too.

The final demo for Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will be available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X platforms from February 23, 2023 @ 08:00 GMT/03:00 EST through to March 27, 2023 @ 06:59 GMT/01:59 EST. 

Where Can I Watch The Latest Trailer?

As of this writing, the latest trailer for Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a story focused video that delves into the narrative of the game. Spilling the beans on the mysterious elixir that seemingly holds the key to immortality, not to mention spreading demonic corruption across the Three Kingdoms like wildfire, it’s fair to say that the story trailer does a commendable job of setting the scene for its unique brand of Soulslike flavoured, demon-mashing action. You can watch the latest trailer for Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty above.

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Everything You Need To Know About Returnal On PC

One of the most ambitious PlayStation exclusives released to date, Returnal finally makes its bow on PC in February 2023 and brings with it a critically acclaimed mix of finely tuned third-person shooter action, opulent visuals and roguelike design that elevate it beyond its genre peers. 

Be sure to keep this guide in your favourites as we go through everything you need to know about Returnal on PC including the release date, minimum and recommended PC specifications, PC improvements, gameplay details, story details, latest trailer and more.

Returnal PC Release Date, Digital Store Availability

The Returnal PC release date has been confirmed as February 15, 2023. Returnal on PC will enjoy a full release through Steam and through the Epic Games Store. Developed by Housemarque and released under the PlayStation Studios publishing banner, Returnal previously released for PS5 on April 30, 2021. 

Returnal PC System Requirements – Can My PC Run Returnal?

With the buttery smooth 60 frames per second action that underpins its ultra-responsive frenetic combat alongside an arresting visual presentation, Returnal was always going to require a substantial PC to get the most from it. Boasting a truly current generation visual feature set, Returnal has not one or two PC specifications but instead five different PC specifications that provide a broad spectrum of performance across a swathe of different hardware configurations. Want to know if or how well your PC can run Returnal? Check out the Returnal PC specification guides below to put your mind at ease.

Returnal Minimum PC Specification

  • Avg. performance: 720p resolution @ 60 fps
  • Graphic settings: Low
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 (8 GB)  
  • CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 (4 core 2.7GHz) or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X (4 core 3.5GHz)
  • RAM: 16 GB DDR4
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1903)
  • Storage: 60 GB HDD (SSD recommended)

Returnal Medium PC Specification

  • Avg. performance: 1080p resolution @ 60 fps
  • Graphic settings: Medium
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (6 GB)
  • CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 (6 core 2.8GHz) or AMD Ryzen 5 2600 (6 core 3.4GHZ) 
  • RAM: 16 GB DDR4
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1903)
  • Storage: 60 GB SSD

Returnal Recommended PC Specification

  • Avg. performance: 1080p resolution @ 60 fps
  • Graphic settings: High
  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 2070 Super (8 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (12 GB)
  • CPU: Intel i7-8700 (6 core 3.7 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (8 core 3.7 GHz)
  • RAM: 16 GB DDR4
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1903)
  • Storage: 60 GB SSD

Returnal Epic PC Specification

  • Avg. performance: 4K resolution @ 60 fps
  • Graphic settings: Epic
  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3080 (10 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (16 GB)
  • CPU: Intel i7-9700K (8 core 3.7 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (8 core 3.6 GHz)
  • RAM: 32 GB DDR4
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1903)
  • Storage: 60 GB SSD

Returnal Ray Tracing PC Specification

  • Avg. performance: 4K resolution @ 60 fps (use of Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR techniques recommended to hit fps target)
  • Graphic settings: Epic
  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti (12 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT (16 GB) 
  • CPU: Intel i9-11900K (8 core 3.5 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (12 core 3.7 GHz)
  • RAM: 32 GB DDR4
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1903)
  • Storage: 60 GB SSD

How Does Returnal On PC Improve On The PS5 Version?

Returnal was already a delectable technical treat when it released on PS5 back in April 2021 and much like other PlayStation Studios titles on PC, Returnal benefits from a whole host of upgrades that help to elevate it beyond its console origins. For starters Returnal on PC boasts full support for Ultrawide (21:9) and Super Ultrawide (32:9) aspect ratios, allowing players to experience the surrealist alien environments of Atropos like never before. Further afield, support for a native 4K resolution presentation ensures that Returnal on PC looks absolutely razor-sharp with highly detailed edges and vertices, while a whole new suite of additional ray-tracing options provide a depth of reflection and lighting detail in Returnal on PC that just isn’t possible on the PS5 version of the game. 

Returnal on PC also boasts support for performance-enhancing technologies such as NVIDIA’s DLSS, NVIDIA NIS and AMD’s FSR2, allowing PC owners the ability to squeeze every ounce of performance out of their hard-working GPUs while maintaining an impressive level of visual fidelity. Returnal on PC also brings an FPS counter, a gauge for GPU and CPU usage and a latency tracker to the table too, allowing players to tweak the experience precisely to their liking.

Neatly supplementing all of those technical improvements, Returnal on PC also replicates all of the existing features of the PS5 version of Returnal. This means that Returnal on PC enjoys Dolby Atmos sound and immersive full 3D audio, alongside comprehensive support for Sony’s DualSense and DualSense Edge controllers which help to bring a palpable level of feedback and physicality to the third-person shooter action of Housemarque’s finest hour. 

Returnal PC Gameplay Details 

As Selene, a wayward astronaut who crash lands on the hostile alien planet of Atropos, Returnal is a third-person shooter that tasks players with locating a mysterious signal in order to break a time loop that returns Selene to the site of her crashed ship every time she perishes. Taking in roguelike and psychological horror influences, together with more than a leaf or two from the book of bullet hell shooter design, Returnal is an entirely unique, progression focused, third-person shooter odyssey that is arguably well deserving of its numerous Game Of The Year nods.  

Returnal on PC also includes all of the post release content that was released for the PS5 version of the game too, including the ability to engage in a spot of online cooperative play, Suspend Cycle functionality (essentially being able to save your game state mid-cycle), Tower of Sisyphus expansion content and full Photo Mode functionality. 

Returnal PC Trailer

The latest trailer for Returnal on PC is available to watch right now and showcases all of the new technical and visual features that are exclusive to the PC version of the game. From support for higher resolutions, improved ray-tracing techniques and Ultrawide and Super Ultrawide aspect ratios, the Returnal PC features trailer does a commendable job of highlighting exactly how Returnal on PC separates itself from the previously released PS5 version of the game. You can catch the latest Returnal PC trailer above.

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The Best Spellcasting Systems In Gaming

There are few things in gaming as satisfying as a good spellcasting system. There are plenty of things that contribute to one becoming one of the best spellcasting systems in gaming, so we’ve tried to reflect that in our list by choosing from all over the place to make sure the variety is good. 

At their core though, each of these systems is fun, which has to be one of the best things any system in any game can be. They’ll challenge you to think outside of the box a little bit, and they all encourage experimentation and often multiple playthroughs to see just how much you can squeeze out of the magic from that world. 

The Best Spellcasting Systems In Gaming 

Magic is, and should always be, magical. It should be an ethereal thing that makes no sense and defies all logic. That doesn’t really work in games though, because they have to have logic and rules to be any good. So, while these systems are all rigid in some way, we also think they’re the best ones out there because of how you cast spells, the volume of spells, or the creativity they inspire. 

Blade and Sorcery

enchanting a sword in blade and sorery

Virtual reality is replete with cool spellcasting systems, but Blade and Sorcery just takes the top spot for us because of how visceral it is, and how it’s evolved over time. You only have a few elements to choose from, but you can wield them as damaging spells on their own, or enchant your weapons with them before turning your blades into spinning death scythes you control telekinetically. 

The best of all of them though is the gravity spell. This basically allows you to gain mastery over the force and pick up any enemies that face you however you like. Whether you’re yeeting a soldier over a cliff, or just dangling them upside down as you ransack their castle, it’s always a joy to use. Blade and Sorcery doesn’t bring out the best in any of us though, so keep that in mind. 

Dragon’s Dogma

casting grand bolide in dragon's dogma

Dragon’s Dogma never misses. Despite being 12 years old, it’s still got one of the coolest selection of magic in gaming. The reason for this is twofold. For starters, you have to stand there and charge spells, with more powerful spells taking longer to charge. The overpowered nature of spellcasting should come at a cost, and time is a great one to leverage against players. 


The second reason it’s so good is that lots of classes have access to it. While you do have mages that can summon a tornado or call down meteors, you also have archers that exclusively fire magical homing arrows, and knights that can create an orb of energy to hit that shoots out projectiles. All hail Dragon’s Dogma. 

Magicka 2

zapping lasers in magicka 2

Magicka 2, and its predecessor Magicka, are pure fun. These games have you journeying through levels alone or with friends and picking different elemental skills in different orders to cast an ungodly number of different spells. 

Plus, you can purposefully crash different spells against each other in multiplayer to make massive explosions, or just completely kill off your own team. It’s just fun to experiment with, and if you’ve never tried it, it’s usually quite cheap to pick up, so get on it. 

Elden Ring

gravity spells in elden ring

Casting spells in Elden Ring isn’t exactly inventive, and we’re never going to argue otherwise. Sure, needing a different catalyst for different schools of spells is cool and all, but the thing that makes Elden Ring such an excellent game for spellcasting is the sheer variety. 

Elden Ring has 171 spells and incantations to find, try out, and mess around with. That is an absurd number, and while not all of them are winners, the joy of Elden Ring, and FromSoftware games in general, is that if you’re committed, you can absolutely finish the game’s hardest challenges using nearly all of them if you want to. 

Lost Magic

the amazing spellcasting in lost magic

If you thought Dragon’s Dogma would be the oldest game on this list, then you’re a fool. Lost Magic is a Nintendo DS game from way back in 2006, that had you playing as a little dude just trying to save the world, or something. 


Look, the story doesn’t stick with you, but the spellcasting did. To cast spells in Lost Magic you use the DS stylus to draw different runes, and then voila. There was something so incredibly awesome about the input that we still think about it sometimes now, 17 years later. It’s not an amazing game, but it’s got a very cool spellcasting system.  

Divinity: Original Sin 2

freezing things in divinity original sin 2

Larian Studios also never miss. Well, at least not since the original Divinity: Original Sin. Divinity: Original Sin 2 adds more spells to the already mighty spellcasting system of the first game, and it gets truly wild. 

The systems here are so good because they all interact with each other so well. You can cast a rain spell, then turn all of the water on the floor into poison before setting fire to it and causing a massive explosion. Or you can electrify the water to stun enemies in it. Or you can freeze the water to make everyone fall on their arses. It’s just incredible at all times. 

Noita

fireballs in noita

Noita is a small indie game that has you playing as a witch and trying to survive through a truly gruelling roguelike. It’s genuinely brutal, and it also has a spell system that’s far closer to coding than it is to memorising words and wanging a wand about. 

Let’s say you’ve got a fireball spell; that’s pretty cool. Well, what if you put it on a wand with an alteration that makes it fire in three different directions, before following it up with a buzzsaw that bounces around, and then forks again into even more projectiles? If that sounds absurd, well that’s just the beginning of things in Noita. The difficulty isn’t for everyone, but the spell system is sublime. 

Places We Can’t Wait to Explore in Hogwarts Legacy

Hogwarts Legacy is going to take us on a journey to the world of Harry Potter like we’ve never seen before. Not only will it recreate iconic locations in incredible detail, we’ll be visiting Hogwarts long before Harry Potter first walked those corridors. 

With an utterly open world with freeform exploration, Hogwarts Legacy is going to give unprecedented access to the world so many love. Here’s our choices for the places we’ll be visiting first when we get our hands on the game.

Quidditch Pitch

the quidditch pitch

One of the highlights of the novels and the film are the Quidditch scenes. Featuring fast paced action, tense moments of peril, and labyrinthine rules that can only come from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Quidditch has become one of the most iconic inventions from the series.

Hogwarts Legacy features the entire Quidditch pitch, to real scale, for you to explore. While you won’t be indulging in the game yourself, you can hop on your broom and take a closer look at that legendary area, and we can’t wait.

The Common Rooms

a common room

The Common Rooms are areas you’ll be returning to over and over throughout the course of the game, as such they have to make an impact and from what we’ve seen of them they certainly do. Each has a unique animation for its entrance, from swirling snakes for Slytherin to Ravenclaw’s giant bronze raven revealing the entrance beneath its metal wings.

Inside they’re no less remarkable, making your choice of house not only a thematic one but an essential and difficult decision – which Common Room you choose will determine where you spend much of your time, after all.

The Room of Requirement

the room of requirement

If you’ll be spending a lot of time in your Common Room then we expect that will pale next to the amount of visits the Room of Requirement will be receiving. It’ll be your home away from home, where you’ll grow plants, make potions, and perform other beneficial activities to enhance your Hogwarts experience.

But that’s not all, as you’ll get to customize the look and feel of your Room of Requirement meaning no two people will have the same room. From the furniture to the decorations, you’ll have the chance to make your Room of Requirement entirely your own.

Forbidden Forest

the forbidden forest

We’ve focused on Hogwarts itself but no adventure is complete without peril. The Forbidden Forest looks ready to be full of danger and nasty creatures, making it our destination when we want to feel a little adrenaline.

Giant spiders and worse await under those gloomy branches, so while we can’t wait to explore it, ‘excited’ may be too strong a word – we’ll be treading lightly when we visit The Forbidden Forest. Very lightly indeed.

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If you can’t wait to get your hands on Hogwarts Legacy for PC, head over to the Green Man Gaming shop and secure your copy today. Remember, if you pick up the Deluxe Edition pre-purchase, you’ll be able to dive into the fun with 72 hours early access.

Ten Things We Want From WWE 2K23

With nearly two and a half years of development time under its belt instead of being under the yoke of an annual release schedule, WWE 2K22 was a reinvigorating turning point for the WWE 2K franchise which up until that point had been struggling with progressively less inspiring yearly releases. With WWE 2K23 now set to arrive in the near future, here are ten things that any sensible person would want from the latest entry in the WWE 2K franchise.

A Randy Orton Showcase Campaign Mode

Easily one of the best workers in the industry today, Randy Orton has been a main event fixture in WWE for over twenty years and so it makes a whole heap of sense for the ‘viper’ to get his own 2K Showcase campaign in WWE 2K23. From his Legend Killer days through to his unlikely recent team up with Matt Riddle, an in-depth 2K Showcase for Randy Orton that chronicles his extensive history and produced to the same standard as WWE 2K22’s superb Rey Mysterio 2K Showcase would be a compelling prospect to say the least.

GM Mode To Include Additional Championships

Though GM Mode was a whole heap of fun in WWE 2K22 and allowed players to concoct some truly odd alternate universe timelines, it was hamstrung by the fact that it only allowed players to manage the top titles, rather than the mid-card and tag team championships that are so often contested in real-life. As such, allowing players free reign to manage title pursuits across all the available championships would be a fantastic addition to an already engrossing game mode.

Allow Pins And Submissions In The Royal Rumble Match

Ok, hear me out. Back in the days of No Mercy on the N64, some of the most blissful fun you could ever have would be to crack on a Royal Rumble match, disable over the top rope eliminations and enable pins and submissions. The net result was this glorious, hours-long gauntlet which encouraged all sorts of tactical decision making and arguably became a focal point of No Mercy’s multiplayer offering. WWE 2K23 needs to bring this back, stat.

Bring Back Create A Finisher Suite

One of the best things about WWE 2K14 was that it allowed you to craft your own set of signature and finishing moves. However, WWE 2K14 released all the way back in 2013 and the Create A Finisher suite has not been seen since. WWE 2K23 should absolutely bring this feature back because after all, who hasn’t wanted to do three rolling piledrivers into a five powerbomb combo as a single, ridiculously overpowered finisher? 

A More Reactive Crowd

For the longest time the crowd in the WWE 2K games have been a fairly boring and uniform bunch that wave their arms occasionally, shout, boo and, well, that’s about it. So in a bid to replicate the real-life television spectacle much more closely, WWE 2K23 should feature a much more reactive crowd that attempt to lean over the barricades to embrace babyface wrestlers when they get close and be seen to actively boo/throw food at heel competitors respectively. 

Make It Easier To Use Custom Arenas

One of the most welcome features of the more recent entries in the WWE 2K franchise has been the ability to create your own arenas using a wealth of different art assets. While it’s certainly a whole lot of fun to play with, actually putting your customised creation in the selection alongside other arenas is quite fiddly and not at all straightforward to achieve in WWE 2K22. In WWE 2K23, choosing to play in a custom arena that you’ve spent potentially hours creating should be as easy as simply selecting a custom wrestler over a premade superstar. Let’s make it precisely that easy, eh?

Give Us War Games

Though the War Games match, which has two ringed cages placed side by side resulting in all manner of innovative and entertainingly violent pursuits, has been a staple of NXT since 2017, no WWE 2K game to date has yet been able to replicate this match type. WWE 2K23 should change all that and bring War Games to the WWE 2K franchise for the first time and with it all-new ways for players to absolutely demolish one another in all sorts of fiendishly clever ways.

Different Commentary Teams For Different Shows

It’s certainly fair to say that the Raw, Smackdown and NXT brands all have their own identity, with each boasting their own commentary team to hammer home the notion that you are in fact watching a different show with a markedly different aesthetic. Since the inception of the WWE 2K series this distinction has seemingly been lost on the developers, with the same commentary team being wheeled out no matter the show you happen to be wrestling on. WWE 2K23 needs to be the series entry that breaks the mould and finally addresses the issue, aiding the sense of realism that you should be getting in the process and making each brand feel truly separate.

A Bang Up To Date Roster

Though WWE 2K22 was undeniably a success overall, the roster was an absolute mess in terms of how closely (or not) it hewed to the real-life, on-screen product. Comprising superstars that had left WWE and headed to its competitor AEW, such as Keith Lee, Kyle O’Reilly, William Regal and others, together with an absence of massive stars such as Cody Rhodes, the WWE 2K22 roster bore little resemblance to the superstars that folks were familiar with at the time. Though it’s fairly common knowledge that the WWE 2K games have an early cut off point for finalising rosters, WWE 2K23 should still (hopefully) have an array of superstars that much more closely resembles the current selection of sweaty folks that are doing their thing on our television screens.

Sort The AI Out Once For All

A common bugbear for the longest time with the WWE 2K games has been the oftentimes dunderheaded AI that can make playing against CPU opponents something of a bore. Though WWE 2K22 improved upon this somewhat with AI controlled wrasslers that were generally more reactive to what was happening around them, there’s still an Andre the Giant sized amount of work to be done on this front to say the least. Certainly as of WWE 2K22, enemy AI players almost always forget to tag out when they’re getting battered into paste, inexplicably hop out of the ring for no reason and never fail to use their signature and finishing moves immediately instead of conserving them. For the love of Mankind, please let WWE 2K23 be the game that puts all of this nonsense to bed once and for all.

Shop WWE 2K23 Here

If you’re looking forward to some squared circle action this year, head over to the Green Man Gaming shop and grab your copy of WWE 2K23 on PC. 

The Best PlayStation Exclusive Games On PC In 2023

Ever since the release of Horizon Zero Dawn on PC in 2020, a trickle of PlayStation exclusive games coming to the platform has quickly turned into a flood. With Sony promising to release as many of its first-party PS4 and PS5 games on the PC as possible and not looking to slow down anytime soon, these are the best PlayStation exclusive games you can get on PC right now.

Days Gone

While the whole post-apocalyptic zombie masher shtick has been done to undeath over the years, Days Gone from Sony Bend puts a neat spin on the proceedings to say the least. Essentially a cross between Sons of Anarchy and World War Z, Days Gone plonks players in the roughly hewn boots of biker drifter Deacon St. John, who must fight his way through the undead hordes in order to locate his missing wife. Where things get especially spicy however, is in how Days Gone not only prides itself on letting players cut across its sizable open world on a stonking great chopper, but also how it boasts a special horde system in which many hundreds of shambling undead can be on the screen at any single moment.

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God Of War (2018)

While the God of War games that helped to define the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 console generations were bloody hack and slash adventures that were a whole heap of fun, arguably the series only really came of age with its more recent shift from Greek mythology into the frosty climate of the Norse gods. Certainly one of the very best games on PlayStation 4, God of War leaps to PC with grandeur, bringing with it an emotional action adventure that sees longtime series protagonist Kratos and his son Atreus attempt to scatter the ashes of a loved one all the while dealing with the local Norse deities that are less than chuffed at the whole thing. Cue some absolutely excellent exploration, Dark Souls style combat and some of the most emotional storytelling in years. Oh and the fact that God of War on PC supports full 4K resolution and an ultrawide presentation doesn’t hurt either. 

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Horizon Zero Dawn

Representing a massive left turn of sorts from developer Guerrilla Games previous (and now oddly absent) first-person shooter Killzone franchise, Horizon Zero Dawn is instead a third-person, post-apocalyptic open world adventure where players take control of Aloy, a flame-haired heroine who must protect the last vestiges of humanity from an army of machines hellbent on their destruction. Boasting a massive open world for players to explore, Horizon Zero Dawn meaningfully separates itself from its genre stablemates by depicting a vibrant apocalypse where Mother Nature has begun to reclaim her domain and thus the world is rife with all manner of colour, flora and fauna. Horizon Zero Dawn also plays extremely well too, providing a nice balance of exploration, storytelling and satisfying combat that places an emphasis on traps and tactics instead of brute force.  

Shop Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition Here

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered

There’s no getting around it, swinging around New York City as your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man is one of the most exhilarating experiences a video game can provide and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered absolutely nails that sensation and so much more. First off, the digital representation of New York City that you get to swing around is absolutely stellar – neatly condensing down the five boroughs of the real-life Big Apple into a detailed, geographical kaleidoscope that makes each area feel both unique and lived in. Equally, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered completely gets the duality that sits at the heart of every superhero story, making the instances where you play as Peter Parker feel every bit as impactful as when you’re soaring above the Manhattan skyline in pursuit of Doc Ock or Mister Negative. Quite simply, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered isn’t just one of the best PlayStation exclusive games on PC, it also happens to be one of the best superhero games full stop.

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Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

miles morales

As good as Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is (and it *is* very, very good), it can feel a little bloated thanks in no small part to the sheer amount of side activities and points of interest that often clog up the world map. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales remedies that by providing a much more streamlined experience with more meaningful side-quests and lore building activities rather than just busy work for the sake of busy work. Elsewhere, the narrative of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales strikes a more keenly felt emotional chord too, as we get to see Miles’ extended family and Latino culture play into his experiences as a burgeoning superhero. With improved traversal and combat, along with pixel-perfect raytracing and ultra widescreen display modes, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is as good as superhero games get on PC. 

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The Last Of Us Part 1

the last of us part 1

Though one could certainly make the point that nobody does ‘mad dad’ games quite like PlayStation Studios, it’s also equally true that The Last of Us Part 1 stands apart from its contemporaries in a number of ways. Though post-apocalyptic yarns aren’t anything new, The Last of Us Part 1 carves out its own compelling niche by laser-focusing on the characters, rather than necessarily the environments that they find themselves in. Cast as trauma-scarred survivor Joel, players must escort Ellie to a place of safety after it’s discovered that she harbours a world-changing secret. A third-person adventure that unfolds across the breadth of America and across four very different seasons, The Last of Us Part 1 is a harrowing, often shocking survival horror like no other that has garnered a mountain’s worth of accolades and awards as a testament to its heady calibre. 

Shop The Last of Us Part 1 Here

Returnal

returnal, a playstation exclusive game

For the longest time it has been made clear that Finnish studio Housemarque absolutely gets both the fundamentals and intelligent nuances of arcade shooter design, with the proof in the proverbial pudding being the excellent Stardust and Resogun games that have been released in years past. Taking all of that expert knowledge and blending it with a glossy third-person shooter, Returnal actually turns out to be a very different beast then you might expect. A roguelike shooter where each time you die you return to life but with all the knowledge and some selected capabilities of your previous self, Returnal has players cutting about a mysterious alien planet in search of a signal that will seemingly provide some form of salvation, all the while blasting the brown stuff out of a varied range of aliens, uncovering secrets and tackling bullet hell style bosses. Arguably representing something approaching the apex of PlayStation Studios PC output and full of genuine surprises, Returnal is opulent, clever and horrendously essential stuff. 

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Uncharted: Legacy Of Thieves Collection

uncharted

Combining two of the best action adventures of the previous console generation in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection not only acts as a gateway to the Uncharted franchise for uninitiated PC gamers, but also provides two absolutely stellar action adventures to boot as well. A pair of globetrotting, extremely high budget treasure hunting adventures with wisecracking leads, compelling cover shooter gameplay and stunning visuals, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is oodles of fun and has arguably never looked better than it does on PC.

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Vampire Survivors Beginner’s Guide 2023

Despite its charmingly lo-fi appearance and seemingly straightforward, single stick idle shooter beats, there’s actually quite a lot going underneath the hood(cape?) of Vampire Survivors. So without further ado, our Vampire Survivors beginner’s guide will take you through the essential stuff you need to know in order to get started. To the coffins! 

Dying Is Great, Actually 

Believe it or not, being shoved six feet under in Vampire Survivors doesn’t just happen often, but it’s actually a good thing too. Rather than solely being an indicator that you’re a bit rubbish, dying in Vampire Survivors allows you to consolidate the knowledge you’ve gained on a given run regarding enemy attack patterns, item locations and more. Additionally, the level overview you get also provides a handy breakdown of your stats, the damage you’ve done and more, allowing you to refund power-ups and tweak your build as required.

Those Gems Aren’t Going Anywhere

When you’re off on a mad one and murdering your way through the undead hordes, you’re likely aware that there is a frankly massive quantity of uncollected gems (which you need to build your XP and level up), being left in your wake. Wonderfully, once a gem is dropped it’ll just stay there forever, meaning you can take your time and hoover up those shinies whenever you like. No pressure.

Focus On A Few Weapons, Rather Than Many

Though it can be tempting to collect a whole bunch of different weapons in the early going, it’s much better to zero in on a small handful of weapons, say two or three, and just focus on levelling each of them up to the max level. Not only can you become ridiculously powerful in a short period of time and thus get further in each run, but it also allows you to evolve those weapons into their ultimate form for massive damage when combined with other items.

How To Evolve The Fire Wand

One of the most devastating weapons you can pick up in Vampire Survivors is the fire wand, a massively powerful trinket that can shoot chunky fireballs at your enemies, racking up huge numbers of kills in the process. The fire wand really comes into its own when fully evolved into its Hellfire form though, resulting in an increase of meteor-sized projectiles which can now pass through other enemies to boot. To evolve the fire wand into hellfire, you need to fully level the fire wand and combine it with spinach. You won’t regret it.

Garlic Can Give You A False Sense Of Security

One of the most promising weapons that you’ll pick up early on (once you’ve collected five portions of floor chicken in any given run to unlock it), is garlic. Horrendously useful, garlic not only creates a field that knocks back enemies, but it can also completely destroy any lesser foe that happens to wander into it. The problem with using garlic earlier on in a run however is that because it only really eradicates weaker enemies, whenever you get an incoming swarm of low health mobs from the edge of the screen, those swarms will often push much stronger enemies through your garlic field, often causing huge amounts of damage or outright killing your character as a result. As such, garlic, like in real-life, must be leveraged carefully.

Holy Water Can Provide A Safe Haven 

When you first collect and start using holy water, its application can seem haphazard and erratic at best as the exploding pools of consecrated Evian seem a little less useful than they should be. However, as you start to level up holy water and see an increase in damage, frequency and area of effect, it becomes clear just how essential holy water is early on to your vampire surviving escapades. As you start dropping multiple holy water bombs on your enemies, you’ll note that the damage becomes so high that the affected areas where the holy water drops essentially become safe havens for you away from enemies. Particularly towards the halfway point of any given run where the screen fills up with all manner of high health enemies, having a safe area where you can take a breather and work out how to progress is invaluable.

Don’t Be Afraid To Spend Your Hard Earned Cash On Powerups

As you start amassing Scrooge McDuck amounts of cash, there’s no point in hoarding it unless you happen to be saving up for a particularly expensive powerup. Instead, just buy the powerups that appeal to you the most and then if you don’t like the ones you chose you can just refund what you’ve spent and start again. Simples. 

What Is The Best Order For Buying Powerups?

As a beginner, it doesn’t matter *too* much what order you buy the powerups from the main menu, not least because you likely won’t have the sizable piles of gold needed to purchase some of the pricier upgrades. However, as you start to make your way through the game, progression can be made smoother by knowing the correct order to purchase those powerups. Luckily, we’ve got the best order for buying powerups in Vampire Survivors listed below (but you’ll still need to amass the 200,000 odd gold coins needed to nab them all):

  1. Amount – Gives one additional projectile with a maximum rank of one
  2. Revival – Revives the player at 50% health with a maximum rank of one
  3. Reroll – Change the shop options once per rank to a maximum of four ranks
  4. Growth – Provides 3% extra experience for each rank with a maximum of five ranks
  5. Curse – Increases enemy speed, health, quantity, and frequency by 10% for each rank with a maximum of five ranks
  6. Luck – Chance to get lucky and gain extra weapon/upgrade options on level up increases by 10% for each rank with a maximum of three ranks
  7. Might – Increases damage by 5% for each rank to maximum of five ranks
  8. Cooldown – Reduces time between weapon effect activations by 2.5% for each rank to a maximum of two ranks
  9. Area – Increases effect size of weapon attacks by 5% per rank to a maximum of two ranks
  10. Speed – Projectiles move faster by 10% per rank to a maximum of two ranks
  11. Duration – Weapon effects persist for longer by 15% per rank to a maximum of two ranks
  12. Magnet – Pickup range of all items and gems increased by 25% per rank to a maximum of two ranks
  13. Move speed – Character movement speed increases by 5% per rank to a maximum of two ranks
  14. Greed – Collect more coins by 10% per rank to a maximum of five ranks
  15. Armor – Reduces incoming damage by 1 per rank to a maximum of three ranks
  16. Recovery – Regenerates 0.1 health per rank, per second to a maximum of five ranks
  17. Max health – Increases maximum health by 10% per rank to a maximum of three ranks
  18. Banish – Removes one chosen item from all future shops with one item removed per rank to a maximum of four ranks
  19. Skip – Allows the player to skip the shop and gain experience instead with one skip per rank to a maximum of three ranks