Developers offer frustrated Codders a peek under the hood I’ve always been convinced there’s a way to speed up a multiplayer matchmaking system that’s appeared to stall. Back in the Xbox 360 era, my friends and I held the X button one time and miraculously found a game in Gears Of War, having waited for ages. We grew superstitious. Later in ourCall Of Dutysessions we’d hit matchmaking with reverse psychological techniques, saying stuff like “I bet we WON’T find a match”, to in fact, find a match....

Need a hint for Connections? Read our guide for help with Connections #233 This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out theConnections hint and answers for Thursday 12th December! Want a hint for Connections today?Piggybacking off the monumental success of daily puzzle gameWordle, the New York Times has another fantastically popular word game out now. It’s calledConnections, and if you haven’t played it before, now’s the time to start....

Here are the island names you need to know in Palworld Looking for all the Palworld island names?As I’m sure you know by now, the Palpagos Islands are vast and filled with named locations aplenty. ButPalworlddoesn’t necessarily make it easy to figure out where all those locations are. In this quick guide, we’ll walk you through all the major island names inPalworld, as well as the names of all the various respawn points and fast travel locations, and where to find them....

Find the Pal spawn levels for each region with our Palworld level map Looking for a map of the recommended levels of different areas in Palworld?ThePalworldmap is dauntingly large, and it often takes players many hours to even get out of their starting islands. But for those who venture far into the unknown, you may soon find yourself up against far more dangerous Pals than you’re prepared to take on....

Persona-ly, not my cup of tea On the 23rd of May, I strode out of the exam hall with my head held high. Not only had we cleared out the 42nd floor of the cursed extra-dimensional horror house that was our school’s midnight alter-ego, I’d also just aced my midterms. I spent the afternoon helping my french foreign exchange friend sew a kimono for his estranged uncle, then killed some time before bed by consoling the small child I’d been hanging out with lately about her parent’s divorce....

This case gets exceptional reviews for temperatures, looks and ease of use. Front I/O is also good, with two full-size USB-A ports, one USB-C and separate 3.5mm headphone and microphone ports. Almost every side features a ventilated mesh design, allowing easy access to fresh air for every component in your system, and these are also easily removeable to make that initial build or post-build maintenance easier. Overall, this is a great value case at $65 and well worth considering against Mini ITX alternatives - especially as its footprint is barely larger than many Mini ITX cases and you get access to significantly cheaper (and sometimes more full-featured) Micro ATX motherboards....

Owners can “still download and play” Third-person shooterSpec Ops: The Linehas been removed from sale from Steam due to expiring “partnership licenses”, according to a representative for 2K Games. Before the official reasoning was given, speculation surrounding the delisting had focused on the game’s soundtrack and the possibility that music license have expired. The soundtrack features songs by Jimi Hendrix, Alice In Chains, and Björk, among others. At the time of writing, Spec Ops remains available fromGOGandHumble, but given the mention of “online storefronts” rather than simply Steam in the statement, I suspect it won’t last on either store for long....

Better eyes, they say Starfield’s “largest update to date” is out now. It includes dozens of bug fixes across the game alongside “lighting improvements”. The update had previously been available on PC via a beta branch on Steam for a couple of weeks. “Our latest update has moved out of Steam Beta and is now available for allStarfieldplayers. The patch notes have remained the same as previously released during the beta except for a version number change and one additional PC crash fix noted below,” begins thefull patch notes....

After time on GOG Blizzard tend to do a good job maintaining even their oldest games, releasing patches sometimes decades after their original release. I therefore assumed that 1994’s Warcraft: Orcs And Humans and 1997’sDiablowere available via the studio’s store and launcher, Battle.net. Not so, it turns out, because Blizzard have just announced they’ve added them today, and with working multiplayer for both. Ablog post detailing the Warcraft releaseexplains that it features, alongside the singleplayer campaign, 21 bonus maps to play in skirmishes against the computer, and a two-player versus mode....

A great price for the overclocked Gigabyte Gaming OC 16GB model. AMD’s best value graphics card is the RX 7800 XT - stop me if you’veheard this one before. Today American customers have a great chance to pick up a powerful Gigabyte Gaming OC model of this card for just $480 thanks to a discount code at Newegg. For the reduced price useBYJDN2823at the checkout. As well as the graphics card, you’ll also pick up a complimentary copy ofAvatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which is nice too....

Stuck on the Wordle word for January 30? Read our hint or find the answer below! This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out theWordle hint and answer for Thursday 12th December! Need a hint for today’s Wordle answer?We have you covered with a group of clues followed by the word if you need it, to help keep your streak firmly in place. Every day,Wordlepresents its legions of players with a deviously simple quandary: can you guess the right five-letter word within just six guesses?...

Abigail Thorn, aka Philosophy Tube, says “the goal is liberation, not celebrity”. I boughtBaldur’s Gate 3shortly after its release as a need than a want, when I was a year-and-half into my gender transition and hormone replacement therapy. Gender transition is not just an arduous journey of self-discovery, but also a profound and constant engagement with one’s own reality. I was desperate for some escapism, and Larian Studios’ much-anticipated new entry into the Baldur’s Gate fantasyRPGfranchise offered the perfect rabbit hole to fall down....

Here are our picks for the best Pals for Generating Electricity in Palworld Want to know which Pals in Palworld are best at Generating Electricity?As you progress inPalworld, you’ll slowly unlock more structures in your base which require electricity. These begin with the Power Generator, which becomes available at Level 26, and’ll soon find yourself capable of building Production Assembly Lines and Electric Medicine Workbenches. Basically, if you want to turn your rustic base into a fully-powered factory capable of churning out the weapons and gear you need, electricity becomes extremely important....