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…

Workers from just about every industry in the US are celebrating a landmark announcement by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that, unless stopped, will ban non-compete clauses in around four months.

A non-compete is, in essence, a clause that dictates whether a worker can find employment (or create a product) that directly competes with their employer—even if they aren’t working for them anymore. Typically, these will last around six months to a year after the end of employment, but they can last longer. 

“Today, the Federal Trade Commission issued a final rule to promote competition by banning noncompetes nationwide, protecting the fundamental freedom of workers to change jobs, increasing innovation, and fostering new business formation,” reads an announcement …

Just to say it up front: I’m very smart. My mom says so. That means it’s totally fine that, according to recent Tweets from former BioWare cinematic designer John Ebenger, I’ve been bamboozled into thinking my characters are moving faster when they aren’t, thanks to techniques like “speed lines” and “whooshing sounds.” Yes, I’ve basically fallen for the video game equivalent of when you trick a dog by pretending to throw something. I’m not at all upset and I’m handling it very well.

We owe this latest reveal of game developer villainy to Twitter user @dyingnome, who tweeted on Saturday that a Dragon Age: Inquisition dev once admitted that they “just added some wind lines” to obscure the fact that DA:I horses weren’t actually going any faster while sprinting. Ebenger quoted …

The release of Valve’s SteamOS for handheld gaming devices other than the company’s own Steam Deck hasn’t quite reached Half-Life 3 levels of can-kick-down-the-roadery. But it’s getting there.

Last week we reported on a tantalizing hint that Valve’s Linux-based gaming operating system might be just about to roll our for Asus’s ROG Ally handheld. It still might be. But we’ve now spoken directly with Valve designer Lawrence Yang and, well, let’s just say it doesn’t seem imminently imminent.

“SteamOS isn’t ready to run out of the box on other handhelds yet, but we’re continuing to work on adding support,” Yang told PC Gamer when we asked about a new entry reading “Added support for extra ROG Ally keys” in the SteamOS release notes.

So, SteamOS isn’t ready to r…

TSMC’s position as the world’s largest chip manufacturer puts it in an enviable position in many ways, not least that the entire world is dependent on its output of today’s best computer chips, and it reaps huge financial rewards as a result. 

However, nowhere is that dominance more keenly felt than in the United States, as US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo ponders what might happen should it fall into antagonistic hands.

When asked about the impact of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan and the subsequent seizure of TSMC, Raimondo said it would be “absolutely devastating” to the American economy (via Reuters). Adding that, “right now, the United States buys 92% of its leading edge chips from TSMC in Taiwan”.

These comments come in the wake of reports that TSMC, Samsun…