They have over 100 full-time, paid “volunteers”, but 40 unpaid “supporters” working on it Fntastic, the studio developing Steam’s most wishlisted gameThe Day Before, have issued a statement to RPS explaining their policy of using paid and unpaid volunteers to make up their dev team. Metaphorical alarm bells began ringingearlier this weekwhen it emerged that Fntastic are composed entirely of “volunteers” – although full-time volunteers, kindly dubbed “employees” in the statement, do receive salaries....

A super-fast NVMe drive with an integrated heatsink. The Renegade isn’t quite as well-known asstrong gaming SSDslike the Samsung 980 Pro or WD SN850, but it offers even better performance than these drives while costing a little more most of the time - so this discount which brings it below the likes of the SN850 makes it an awesome value. I tend to call this class of drive ‘second-gen PCIe 4....

It’s a big no to map markers When action-adventure gameHell Is Uswasfirst announceda couple of months ago, we thought it had Annihilation vibes and appreciated the team’s attempts to invoke Annihilation… and its vibes. Developers Rogue Factor didn’t provide many other details, besides a few buzz words: “semi-open world”, “true adventure”, “third person”. So, I sat down with the game’s creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête in the hopes he could shed some light on the aforementioned vibes, perhaps even turning them from ethereal gusts of Annihilation-ness to concrete info on just how the game aims to be a “true adventure”....

That’s 1.2¢ per gigabyte. Looking to load up on storage? Seagate’s enterprise-grade 16TB 7200RPM Exos X16 HDDs are down to $200 when you buy a manufacturer refurbished unit at Amazon USA. That’s $73 cheaper than a new equivalent, and the drives come with a 90-day ‘Amazon renewed guarantee’. This means that you can check the drive’s actual usage and performance using tools like CrystalDiskInfo, and keep it only if you’re happy with it....

Meowster rank I lovedMonster Hunter: Risewhen I first played it on Switch last year, but I’ll admit that I sort of sleep-walked through its entirety, dreamily kicking the tails off a couple of raptors before making them into a fashionable pair of hot pants. This wasn’t a bad thing, mind. Far from it. I found Rise to be a substantially better-paced MonHunt entry compared to its predecessors, the series’ steep barrier to entry readjusted to a gentle incline that was more palatable for newcomers like me....

Guitar Hero meets Life Is Strange Pop-punk is not my musical (brand new) bag but I can’t resist a coming-of-age story about a teenager who finds their place in the world by picking up a guitar. Give me Pugwall, give me Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, give meLoud. Announced yesterday, the rhythm game will tell the tale of teen girl who goes from playing air guitar on a broom to wailing on the world stage....

New InZone brand goes beyond the PS5 The new lineup’s flagship monitor, the InZone M9, is a 4K/27in IPS display. Its HDMI 2.1 connectivity suggests it still has Sony’s PS5 on the brain, but is otherwise a bonafide PC gaming screen, with Displayport, a 144Hz refresh rate, 1ms grey-to-grey response time and compatibility withNvidia G-Sync. Full-array local dimming (FALD) also promises better backlighting control, in tandem with the M9’s DisplayHDR 600 support....

An actor who’s no stranger to wacky roles Amazon’s upcoming TV adaptation of post-apocalyptic RPG seriesFallouthas cast veteran sci-fi actor Kyle MacLachlan in an undisclosed role as a series regular. You may remember him from such roles as future emperor of the universe Paul Atriedes in David Lynch’s Dune, cafficionado Special Agent Dale Cooper in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, and for his turn in David Lynch’s Oscar-nominated Blue Velvet. Please tell me David Lynch will at least direct the pilot....

Intrinsic reward vs. extrinsic reward Last time, you decided thatan AI-controlled friend just running about helping me fight is better than air control. We’re blowing up entire genres of video game, but at least we won’t be alone. This week, we continue to whittle down all of the things with a question of intrinsic or extrinsic rewards. What’s better: boss battles as skill checks, or secrets behind waterfalls? Boss battles can take many forms, from the obvious ‘murder a giant man’ through to other genres with particularly challenging and striking puzzles or tricky conversations....

Hints and the answer to today’s Wordle word If you’re struggling to find the solution to today’s Wordle, you’re in the right place. Below we’ll give you today’s Wordle answer and an explanation of the word if needed. But first, we’ll offer you a few hints to help you figure the answer out for yourself. Wrong day? Check out theWordle hint and answer for Thursday 12th Decemberinstead! Wordle June 30 hints...

I think of Disney as a company that will protect their image by working on something until it’s both good and finished, which is frankly stupid of me given I just finished watching Obi-Wan Kenobi. Still, I found myself surprised when I learned thatDisney Dreamlight Valleywill be an early access game when it launches on September 6th. Watch the latest trailer for the Disney-themedAnimal Crossing’em up below. There’s clearly some DNA fromThe Simsin Dreamlight Valley’s character creation and decorating, but once you watch the protagonist dig a hammer out of the ground for Wall-E, the Animal Crossing inspirations seem the most prevalent....

FREEDOM15 gets you $15 off an already great value SSD. Adata’s Premium SSD for PS5 might be the most misleadingly titled storage device on the market. Okay, it is a high-spec SSD suitable for the PS5, but it’s also a really good value PCIe 4.0 SSD for PCs too. Today, it’s down to $185 at Adata’s official Ebay store when you use the codeFREEDOM15- an unbelievable price for the level of performance on offer....

Or Rune Factory Harvestellais Square Enix’s spin on the life simulation RPG, in which you’ll plant crops, befriend townspeople, and attempt to thrive across the seasons: winter, spring, summer, autumn, andBloodborne. It was just announced today, but it’s also launching this November. All credit to Alice0 for the Bloodborne joke, but really the fifth season is called the Quietus. In Harvestella’s world the seasons are kept stable by four giant crystals (of course it’s crystals) called “Seaslight”, but problems begin to arise when the Quietus, a season during which crops die and townspeople refuse to leave their homes, begins and then mysteriously starts getting longer each year....