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I do like a NetherRealm fighting game story mode, and the upcoming expansion for Mortal Kombat 1, Khaos Reigns, is adding to the narrative with the return of Havik—though this time, a Havik from an alternate timeline. I don’t expect to understand what’s going on, but I do expect to see a bunch of gratuitous slow-motion martial arts and eviscerations, and that’s always a good time.

The Khaos Reigns expansion also comes with Kombat Pack 2, adding several more fighters. Some are reimagined versions of returning characters seen in the story mode: Noob Saibot, Cyrax, and Sektor. It also comes with three crossover guest fighters: Conan the Barbarian (based on the version played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movies), Ghostface from the Scream series, and the T-1000 from …

I make it no secret that I love Dread Delusion, a chunky, retro RPG in a stunning alien world with body horror-fueled societies clinging to life on the asteroids orbiting a small, blood-red star. Despite its throwback looks and a green “verified” badge however, it used to just tank my Steam Deck, rarely cresting above 30fps and typically hovering around 25. A recent early access update has vastly improved those numbers, and the culprit was so simple I can still barely believe it.

Developer Lovely Hellplace outlined the changes coming in the Cadaver Keep update earlier in the month, and one of them particularly caught my eye. “Our programmer fotocopiadora has vastly improved the way the game loads data between regions,” lead developer James Wragg explained. “This has allow…

PC players have been getting a lot of shitty ports recently. We’re talking frame-dropping, glitch-swollen monstrosities that feel like they’ve warped here from the dark days of the late 2000s. But at least one of them might be getting a fix. The remaster of Chrono Cross, which hit PC last year riddled with stuttering and framerate issues, is slated for a patch “this month,” per an announcement on the Chrono Cross Twitter account (via RPS).

The Chrono Cross remaster’s performance was so bad that it eventually got re-remastered by the fans themselves. A mod by a creator named isa managed to coax a stable(ish) 30fps out of the game by opening it up in Cheat Engine and poking at things until they worked better. But you hopefully won’t have to rely on such jury-rigged fixes for much lo…

Watch On

I admit it, when I turned up at Riot’s LA HQ to learn about its League of Legends summer event, I was fully resigned to having the snot kicked out of me. My MOBA experience consists of a couple hours spent in an apartment where two Russian lads were getting incredibly heated about something happening in Dota 2, and that’s about it. My task, as I saw it, was to Forrest Gump my way through proceedings before reporting back to one of PCG’s actual MOBA-knowers.

So imagine my all-body bafflement when Riot unveiled Swarm | Operation: Anima Squad, the ungainly name for the “brand new PvE game mode” that makes up LoL’s 2024 summer event, and I was pretty dang good at it. Not because I’m some kind of MOBA idiot savant, mind you, but because the entire thing is basically Vampire Su…

Like karaoke, escape rooms, and showering, some things are just more fun with friends. Same goes with games: solving puzzles and overcoming obstacles can turn beating a game into a true collaboration, and that’s a feeling you just can’t get when playing solo.

But every so often a co-op game comes along that feels like it’s designed to end your friendships rather than strengthen them. (Overcooked: I’m looking at you.) The latest entry in that category is called Chained Together, a brutally punishing multiplayer platformer where you’re literally connected at the waist to your co-op partners by a chain. 

You and your pal or pals (it supports up to four players) find yourselves in the depths of hell, and the only way out is up. Way up. Climb a massive tower of moving platfo…

Hands up if you remember Söldner: Secret Wars. Okay, now hands up if you ever at any point in your life thought that what the world really needs right now is Söldner: Secret Wars Remastered. Obviously I can’t see how many hands are up so I’m just going to assume the number is zero, but be that as it may, it’s actually happening.

Söldner: Secret Wars is a 2004 multiplayer tactical shooter developed by German studio Wings Simulations that put players in the role of heavily-armed mercenaries (“söldner” is German for “mercenary,” and not to be confused with “soldat,” which is German for “soldier” and also the title of a completely unrelated 2002 action side-scroller) doing battle in a huge, highly-destructible world filled with all sorts of ground, air, and seaborn…

The Entertainment Software Association is insisting that E3 isn’t dead quite yet, though the Los Angeles City Tourism Board of Commissioners would beg to differ.

A ResetEra post shared a snippet of the board’s most recent meeting, which seemed to all but confirm the death of the once-beloved gaming convention. A footnote inside the meeting’s packet for convention sales, dated June 12, reads “includes E3 cancellations for 2024 and 2025.” While that doesn’t account for its future in 2026 and beyond, it seemed like the final nail in the coffin. After all, everyone seemed to do just fine without E3 around this year, and last year. It was a shaky time for the convention even before the pandemic, but now it seemed almost certain that we wouldn’t see its grand return.

Never say nev…

The appeal of soulslike games is one I’d somehow avoided. Then the other morning I was mindlessly scrolling TikTok instead of falling asleep and came across a short video. I watched a small crab  get fed up with dodging, blocking, and occasionally getting a hit in against a big boss crab, give up, and pop a cap in his face. It just pulled out a gun and blew him away. That game was Another Crab’s Treasure by Aggro Crab which currently has a limited time demo up on Steam as part of this year’s Next Fest.

I woke up the day after and, as soon as I had the chance in the morning work meeting, I pleaded with PCG’s editors to let me explore this exciting new avenue for soulslike games. So here we are.

Another Crab’s Treasure has you exploring the litter-filled ocean while tryin…

There’s a hint for today’s Wordle right here and ready to go, written to give your game a little guidance, while still leaving you enough room to solve the puzzle yourself. Although if you’d actually really like it if someone was there to give you the answer to the June 5 (1082) Wordle instead, you’ll find today’s winning word just below too.

Three greens, two yellows—I’ve done it, I’ve won, but I’m annoyed, too. Coming so very close to the Wordle answer can be worse than not having a clue at times. If only I’d switched those two letters around before I made that guess… Oh well, a win’s a win.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Wednesday, June 5

Today’s answer is a generic word for a body part—lungs, heart, kidneys, a…