PC Gaming

It was the #1 most-played game yesterday evening, and it’s #1 again right now, as player counts for both it and Counter-Strike dip from their daily peaks of over 800,000 concurrents. As Polygon explains, not everyone’s clicking the banana continuously — you only need to click once every few hours. Guess I wasted 1335 clicks!

Screenshots for posterity:

For months, players have struggled to resolve the “high rent” notification popping up inside their cities. But now, developers say they fixed the issue by eliminating “virtual landlords,” who’ve apparently been driving up prices behind the scenes. Instead, rent is now equally paid by all renters, and they’ll automatically move out if it gets too high.

To prepare us for Shadow of the Erdtree FromSoftware has released a “The Journey So Far” video. The company has also announced that Elden Ring itself has sold 25 million copies. But honestly, considering that in order to even access Shadow you need to beat Shardbearer Mohg — a feat only 38% of Steam players have achieved — FromSoftware would have been better off releasing a “How to beat Mohg” video.

Banana currently has more PC players than Apex Legends, Naraka Bladepoint, Rust and GTA V — and it’s closing in on PUBG. Two weeks ago, it was #47; it rose from #8 to #4 over the weekend.

How the heck? Polygon has a great writeup:

Mini Maker wasn’t on our transparent gadget radar, but I’m fixing that now! The Turbo Mini X looks incredibly svelte for something with a 65W Intel desktop chip inside, and there’s a companion eGPU with direct PCIe connection that’s allegedly faster than Thunderbolt. It’s not just vapor: Tom’s Hardware saw one.

Summer Game Fest is nearly over, but not until Ubisoft has its say. The publisher’s keynote kicks off at 3PM ET, and you can expect more details on its big upcoming releases: Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Diablo IV’s next major expansion, Vessel of Hatred, now has a release date: it’s launching on October 8th. And naturally, we have a dark and gruesome cinematic trailer to go with the news.

Retold, which serves as a definitive edition of the classic RTS, finally has a release date: it’ll be hitting PC and Xbox on September 4th.

Microsoft announced that the MMO’s next expansion — which is called The War Within and kicks off a major new arc for the game — will launch on August 26th. In the meantime, here’s a classic Blizzard cinematic.

Critical Hit Games’ Nobody Wants to Die got its first gameplay trailer during the Summer Game Fest’s Future Games Show.

A neo-noir, time-controlling detective story, Nobody looks like a slick. moody blend of Bioshock, Blade Runner, and maybe even The Fifth Element. So I’ll be buying it, no matter what reviewers say. It’s out July 17th on Steam, Xbox Series X / S, and PS5.

Just a week after revealing a fresh gameplay trailer at Sony’s State of Play, Capcom showed off some more of the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds in a much more dramatic clip. Unfortunately, MonHun fans are going to have to wait a while, as the game isn’t launching until 2025.

Geometric Future’s Model 0 Flamingo folds over a mini-ITX motherboard with the help of a few magnets and pins. It’s too small for a graphics card, and I’m not sure how it would stand up over time, but I appreciate the creativity. Sort of reminds me of that one Teenage Engineering case.

Sonic Generations was a good-ass game and I’m excited for its darker, edgier sequel Sonic x Shadow Generations. Just in time for the Sonic 3 movie, Sonic x Shadow Generations adds a gaggle of new levels to play as Shadow the Hedgehog — but let’s not get our hopes up that Keanu Reeves will make an appearance in this one. Sonic X Shadow Generations launches on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation October 25th.

Remedy is finally detailing the first add-on for Alan Wake 2, which it has been teasing since last month. It’s called Night Springs, features three episodes, and launches tomorrow. Even better: the game is finally getting a physical edition later this fall.

Ash called it “an unexpected triumph of tactics and friendship.” If you haven’t picked up the XCOM-and-Fire-Emblem-meets-Marvel superheroes game yet, there’s no better time than now — it’s free, no strings attached, at EGS through June 13th.

Originally I was just excited for LPCAMM2 modular laptop memory, but low-profile desktop RAM too? Hells yes.

More pics and info in MSI’s full tweets.

ASRock just traveled back in time from a distant future where USB-A is dead. Here’s its new Taichi Aqua motherboard as proof (via VideoCardz).