Paws and effects Stray doesn’t have that many graphics settings, so this’ll be a relatively quick guide to tuning performance. In fact, if you’ve got one of thebest graphics cards– or any fairly recent, mid-range or above rig – you may not need to lower any settings at all at 1080p and 1440p. High framerates at 4K and ultrawide resolutions are doable too, and while developers BlueTwelve Studio tell me Stray uses a “subset” ofray tracing, you don’t need specific, RT-capable GPUs get the best lighting and reflections....

Lap it up Cats are masters of their domain. As an owner of two tortoiseshells myself, they’ve unlocked routes in our house I never knew existed, using the tiny lip of our fridge as a gateway to the top of our kitchen cupboards, bed frames as launch pads to the middle bar of our sash windows (not even the actual window sill, those daft beasts), and don’t even get me started on how they managed to get onto the top of our 2cm wide shower rail that one time....

Plus an early access release date of August 30th Well, this is a pleasant surprise. When Ifirst sampledthe tower defence deckbuilding delights ofORXa couple of months ago, I’d assumed that we’d be playing as the demo’s medieval castle builders throughout. Today, however, devs Johnbell have announced a brand-new faction for the game, the sand-loving Dune Reavers. Even more intriguing, though, is that the Dune Reavers aren’t actually big fans of building, you know,towers, favouring instead the brute force approach of their large armies....

“Video games companies and platforms must do more” The UK government has called for games companies to take greater responsibility in protecting children and young people from harm linked to loot boxes, including mental health issues and gambling problems. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said that games companies and platforms needed to ensure parental purchase controls and age restrictions were in place to let kids play without the risk of harm, and to put parents’ minds at ease....

Hints and the answer to today’s Wordle word In this guide, you’ll find three handy hints that will help you figure out today’s Wordle answer. If you aren’t in the mood for a puzzle and would rather skip straight to the answer, you can find that by scrolling further down. Wrong day? Check out theWordle hint and answer for Thursday 12th Decemberinstead! Wordle July 19 hints Today’s Wordle answer might be tricky, but there’s no need to struggle through it alone....

It’s also relabelling body types to be less gender specific Dataminers mucking about with the alpha build ofWorld Of Warcraft’s next expansion,Dragonflight, have happened across some indicators that the option to choose your character’s pronouns could feature in the game. It looks as though character body types will lose their gendered terminology too. Watch the cinematic trailer for Dragonflight below. Although removed in the latest Dragonflight alpha build, as noted byWowhead, strings datamined from previous versions seem to include she/her, he/him and they/them options....

Today’s Wordle answer (Monday 18 July) While finding those green tiles is incredibly satisfying, sometimes it isn’t so easy. If you’re struggling with today’s Wordle answer, then you’re in the right place, as we have three helpful clues that should nudge you in the right direction. If you just want to learn today’s Wordle answer without any of the guesswork, then keep scrolling to find it below our clues. Looking for today’s solution?...

After several delays Halo Infinite’s many modes and features have been trickling out piecemeal, and next up is the scifi shooter’s co-op campaign. Eight months after the game first launched, co-op is now in public beta testing for those who have been signed up to the Halo Insider program for at least three months and who have an Insider XP level of 5 or higher. The co-op test is available to players who own the game or who play via Xbox Game Pass, as well as to those who own the game via Steam....

Bungie say they’ll continue to make multi-platform games Sony have completed their purchase of Destiny developers Bungie. The $3.6 billion acquisition wasfirst announced back in January, and Bungie tweeted yesterday that they were “proud to officially join the icnredible team at PlayStation.” We are proud to officially join the incredible team at PlayStation, we are excited for the future of our company, and we are inspired to bring together players from all over the world to form lasting friendships and memories....

Announced during today’s TennoCon stream A trademark listing for Soulframe was spotted back in May and noted onReddit, but this is the first confirmation that it really exists and is a discrete thing of its own that isn’t part of Warframe. On the reveal, Soulframe Creative Director Geoff Crookes said: Digital Extremes are undergoing something of a reshuffle to accommodate growing their stable of games. Director of community and live operations Rebecca Ford will become new creative director on Warframe, taking over the reins from Steve Sinclair....

Including support for aromantic and asexual Sims The next free update forThe Sims 4will add options which let you define the sexual orientation of your Sims. That includes support for straight, gay and bi Sims, as well as those who are asexual or aromantic. In a blog post about the feature, design lead Jessica Croft also detailed the system’s limitations and said they consider it “a version 1.0”. The feature adds new options during the Create-A-Sim process....

Bad mouth sounds There’s no way to get around it. I have to, in the process of constructing this post, write the name “Slopper Johnson: Graviton Agent.” I don’t like the feel of it in my mouth or in my brain, but as a game, Slopper Johnson is too interesting to ignore. It’s a roguelike in which you construct your actions during combat by wiring together modules as you would with a modular synthesizer....

It will follow up last year’s The New War Veilbreaker is essentially a smaller scale redux version of Warframe’s The New War expansion. As shown in the trailer, Grineer Lancer Kahl-175 returns from the previous expansion, and The New War’s boss robots, theArchons, are back, too, though they’ve been souped up to be more difficult. Warframe’s 50th, erm, warframe will also make its debut during Veilbreaker, but that wasn’t featured in the trailer shown today....