Where You Buy Your Computer Cases?

[Administrator]

Are you a member of Gen Z, a committed TikTok user, with an Instagram feed full of fashion content? Do you know what 'slay' now means? Have you been living a Brat summer? If you answered yes to any of those questions, chances are you're already familiar with the dress-up game currently taking over the internet. But if all those words sounded alarmingly unfamiliar… allow me to introduce you to Dress to Impress.
A Roblox game that first released in November last year, Dress to Impress has become enormously popular over the last few months, with high-profile influencers, streamers and YouTubers all jumping on the fashion bandwagon. The premise of DTI is relatively simple: you are given a theme, access to a room full of clothes, and a time limit. You can interpret this theme any way you choose, and you'll need to channel all your creativity to craft a unique and surprising outfit. Each round is frenetic, requiring players to dash between mannequins and makeup stations to achieve their perfect look. Once time is up, players walk down the catwalk to show off their outfits, and everyone rates each other's fashion choices using a 1-5 star system.
It's a simple yet brilliant idea, and one that has clearly found an audience. At the time of writing, Dress to Impress has a concurrent player count of 334k, making it the most popular title on the Roblox platform. It has been visited by players over 2.3 billion times. Variety streamers such as Kai Cenat, CaseOh and Pokimane have all put their fashion sensibilities to the test, and there are now entire YouTube channels dedicated to covering the game. It's become such a phenomenon that Charli XCX — currently one of the biggest pop artists on the planet — has collaborated with Dress to Impress to introduce an update themed around her latest album. Dress to Impress has obviously hit on something here, managing to cement itself firmly within the Gen Z cultural zeitgeist. But given the number of dress-up games out there that haven't achieved this level of popularity, why has this one blown up?
Read more


More...

[Administrator]

The volunteer team behind the fantastic Silent Hill 2 PC Enhanced Edition has dropped its 10th - and final - update.
Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition is a "project of enhancement packages" that makes the original PC version of Silent Hill 2 "compatible with modern hardware and playable in widescreen aspect ratios, while improving visuals, audio, and bugs".
Made by a collaborative team of programmers, modders, and artists, the team says the project "provides a definitive Silent Hill 2 (2001) HD experience".
Read more


More...

[Administrator]

Steam's next fest wants to take you out of this world.
Steam Space Exploration Fest will go live on Monday 2nd September, offering discounts and demos "by the spaceship-full" until the fest closes a week later on 9th September.
You can get a taste of what's included in the sale in the teaser below:
Read more


More...

[Administrator]

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was Digital Foundry's choice for 2023's best graphics of the year and so it was with some degree of excitement that we received review code for Star Wars Outlaws. Ubisoft Massive's high-tech Snowdrop Engine has returned, once again delivering some of the best visuals we've seen. The key technological foundations remain: RT global illumination for diffuse lighting and reflections, volumetric fog, clouds and sky, and extreme quality detail and texture work. On top of that, PC users can take visuals to the next level with RTX Direct Illumination, making every light and shadow ray-traced. There are flaws and issues that need improvement, but there's no doubt that this is another key showcase title for the PC format.


Looking at the key Snowdrop features though, there are some interesting changes - if not in the core technology itself then in the execution. I would argue that the ray-traced lighting in particular gets more opportunity to shine due to the diversity of the worlds you visit and the plethora of industrially-produced surfaces. In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, man-made interiors were perhaps the least impressive parts of that game's visual make up, with outdoor areas looking so much better. In Star Wars Outlaws, there's a similar dynamic time of day to Avatar and other open world games, but by necessity, a great chunk of the game takes place in areas that are built up, like industrial areas, habitations, and mining complexes.


You can find yourself sneaking around high tech interiors with smooth curvy lines and polished surfaces, or you can find yourself in grungy low-tech areas that are overcrowded and have poor access to daylight. With dynamic lighting, indoor environments, or areas that are heavily sheltered from direct sunlighting, are harder to illuminate convincingly as all objects occluding light make it harder to rely upon typical rasterisation techniques. Ubisoft Massive's usage of ray-traced global illumination and reflections in Star Wars Outlaws makes the game scenes' architecture actually work from a lighting perspective without looking awkward - and it enables viable playspaces that are rare to see in games using traditional rasterised lighting techniques.

Read more


More...

[Administrator]

Annapurna Interactive says there's "been a glitch in the time loop", and the PS5 physical edition of its Outer Wilds: Archaeologist Edition has been printed with "the wrong version of the game".
As the Echoes of the Eye expansion was unknowingly not included on the disc, Annapurna invites players to contact iam8bit's customer support team with proof of purchase to receive a DLC voucher code.
"Unfortunately, for the PS5 physical edition of Outer Wilds: Archaeologist Edition, the wrong version of the game made it into manufacturing," the team explained via a statement posted to X/Twitter.
Read more


More...

[Administrator]

Dragon's Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno is leaving Capcom after "30 years and five months".
Itsuno - who's best known for his work on Dragon's Dogma and Devil May Cry - says he's leaving to "start developing a new game in a new environment", with hopes his new projects will be "even more memorable than the ones [he has] created so far".
Itsuno did not confirm at this time if he was leaving to join another studio, or if he planned to establish his own.
Read more


More...

[Administrator]

Concord is estimated to have sold just 25,000 copies.
According to IGN, analyst Simon Carless estimates that Concord’s sales equate to around 10,000 units on Steam and around 15,000 on PlayStation.
Whilst we can't track the real-time player numbers on PlayStation, right now there are just 71 players online on Steam. Its highest concurrent player count in the last 24 hours is 151.
Read more


More...

[Administrator]

"Bite-size" is one of those terms that gets a bad rap. This may be because it conjures memories of cramming for GCSEs with the help of the Beeb, or because, when deployed in the world of cuisine, it often translates to: "slightly less than you paid for." But in games, bite-size can be a wonderful size. WarioWare is bite-sized: the entire history of interaction delivered in four-second gulps. Into the Breach is bite-sized: a dizzying well of strategy that you can dip into in the time it takes to send an email.
And Arco? Arco is bite-sized. It takes this stuff seriously. It's bite-sized in the art, in which tiny pixelated heroes and villains can easily disappear behind a typical mouse pointer. It's there in the way the narrative of this wonderfully weird Western unfolds, in bursts of chewy, iMessage scrolling. And it's there in the combat, which pitches you right into the middle of complex dust-ups that can obligingly burn themselves out in just a handful of terms. This is the Into the Breach take on bite-size games, and it rules.
This is particularly cheering since Arco's early review code was rather unstable. Having now had a chance to properly engage with the game on PC as well as Switch, it's a happy thing to report that you can dive in without worries of crashing. And what a game you'll be diving into.
Read more


More...

[Administrator]

As Dame Shirley Bassey once famously bellowed, "It's all just a little bit of history repeating". And so it is with this week's Epic Games Store giveaway of the Fallout Classic Collection, which Tim Sweeney previously wafted at storeshop visitors in December 2022 and February this year.


For those who didn't grab it previously, the good news is there's some neato stuff in the Fallout Classic Collection. You get, for instance, the game that started it all - Black Isle Studios' original 1997 post-apocalyptic RPG, Fallout - plus its 1998 sequel. Both, of course, are bona fide classics, and Eurogamer sang their praises as part of a retrospective back in 2011.


"From the unrelentingly bleak, darkly ironic tone to the novelty of the open-world, post-apocalyptic setting," Keza MacDonald wrote, "from the inspired, cerebral turn-based combat system to the immense degree of variety and personality in the character-customisation, the superbly-written quests and characters and the gallows humour that underpins the games without lessening their emotional impact, even the well-placed, gritty violence; there's very little about the games that doesn't command as much respect now as they did a decade ago."

Read more


More...

[Administrator]

Nintendo has released another trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, giving us our first look at the princess embracing her inner-Link, and wielding a sword and shield.
On the game's release, Zelda will find a mysterious sword hidden within the lands of Hyrule, which will allow her to transform into her sword fighting form. She will be able to fend off enemies and clear obstacles that block her path. However, while certainly handy, this form isn't permanent, and Zelda will need to replenish the sword by collecting energy for it from the Still World.
And, what is the Still World? I hear you ask! Well, this is the world found within those strange, purple aura rifts that now litter the kingdom. The land in this world is "distorted", and Zelda must work with Echoes of Wisdom's companion Tri to negotiate the many twists, turns and dungeons within.
Read more


More...

[Administrator]

Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus - the gorgeous 2.5D platformer with Metroidvania elements based on Japanese folklore - released earlier this year across PC and consoles. However, soon after its debut, its publisher Humble Games faced "restructuring" at the company, resulting in layoffs. (Eurogamer and Humble Games share a parent compamy, IGN Entertainment.)
This had a knock-on effect for the game's developer Squid Shock. Soon after news broke about layoffs at Humble, Squid Shock assured its community it remained committed to Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, but the changes at the publisher could result in delays for updates, particularly on consoles.
"We are now in a difficult situation when it comes to updating the console ports, as both Porting and QA Support was tied into our deal with Humble," Squid Shock wrote in July. "We are actively pursuing all available avenues to allow us to roll out updates to console versions, but we regret to say this may take some time to put in place."
Read more


More...

[Administrator]

Rumours of a PlayStation exclusivity deal for Black Myth: Wukong have arisen, causing confusion around its forthcoming Xbox release.
Black Myth: Wukong released earlier this month across PC and PlayStation 5, with an Xbox version still awaiting a launch date. Back in June, developer Game Science stated it was "optimising" the Xbox Series X/S version of the game "to meet our quality standards".
As such, Black Myth: Wukong was not released on Xbox simultaneously with PC and PlayStation. "We apologise for the delay and aim to minimise the wait for Xbox users. We will announce the release date as soon as it meets our quality standards," Game Science said at that time.
Read more


More...

[Administrator]

Sonic was probably my first love. The Master System game was the first I got really into, and from there it was Sonic the Comic collections, Sonic sketches, Sonic stories, Sonic clothing. Ever since, I've always had a soft spot for the blue blur.


But, after playing a good chunk of Sonic x Shadow Generations, I think I can finally admit it: Shadow is better than Sonic.


That's not to say Shadow hasn't always been a great character. He was introduced in Sonic Adventure 2 as an edgy counterpart to the titular hedgehog, epitomising that dark sense of Y2K cool as gaming grew up. He's got the speed of Sonic, but he's aloof, mysterious, and powerful. In his own game, Shadow rides a motorbike. In the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film, he's voiced by Keanu Reeves.

Read more


More...

[Administrator]

Last night, Final Fantasy 16 appeared as part of Sony's PS Plus subscription, but has since been removed.


Images of the game's store listing were shared on social media, indicating its availability as part of the PS Plus game catalogue.


All references to PS Plus have since been removed, suggesting this was simply an error. However, it's got fans speculating an official inclusion could be on the way.

Read more


More...

[Administrator]

An annual report into the use of minerals sourced from conflict zones by major technology companies has praised Microsoft and Nintendo for their efforts to improve over the past year.


But the same report - compiled by former GamesIndustry.biz writer Brendan Sinclair, now at Unlosing Writer - also highlighted how Sony had regressed.


The use of minerals in hardware manufacturing - most commonly tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold - is tracked by US and EU legislation to ensure companies disclose the countries and specific mines where their resources originate in a bid to ensure these operations aren't funding human rights abuses.

Read more


More...