‘You’ve seen the number of releases from AAA publishers dwindle and dwindle and dwindle’: Clair Obscur’s runaway success was helped by staying smaller scale in a world of inflated budgets

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a tight, 30-hour RPG from a relatively small team that, since release, has sold over 3.3 million copies. In short, it’s been a resounding success—singular and distinct, it looks and feels like nothing else around. It’s a game that’s particularly interesting when compared to probably the most well-known turn-based RPG…

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GeForce Now finally gets a native app for the Steam Deck, solving what was our biggest complaint with the streaming service on Valve’s plucky handheld

GeForce Now is available on Steam Deck… uh, didn’t we know that already? Sure, the process is a bit fiddly, but at least Nvidia put together a script last year that somewhat streamlines the installation process—pretty handy considering not everyone has the cash to splash on a GeForce RTX 4080 GPU for their rig. But…

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The RX 9070 XT might not be the truly mid-range graphics card I’m still dreaming of but it turned my latest sci-fi PC build into a frame rate menace

Oh, please let it end. Please. I was so excited to start writing these features. The plan was simple enough. Every other month, I pitch a new and exciting PC build with the latest and greatest hardware available, do an in-depth guide, cover the part selection, take some lovely amateur photography, and everyone’s happy—at least…

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Nvidia’s Hopper GPUs are now dead to the Chinese market after export controls that made the company take a ‘multibillion-dollar write-off’

There was more than the usual swell of anticipation for Nvidia’s latest earnings call, primarily because the last quarter has been tumultuous in the wake of US tariffs and trade restrictions. On this front, and despite the fact that the AI chip giant still seems to be doing phenomenally well, Nvidia has admitted export controls…

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Texas Senate to vote on bill that restricts social media access for children, while parental consent for app downloads will be required from next year

As is not unusual among folks of a certain age, it’s hard not to wonder about the effects of unfettered internet access on my impressionable younger self. Ah well, back to doomscrolling and staring into the vast content pit it is. Wait, what was I doing? Oh, yes, the news! Earlier this week Texas governor…

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Elden Ring Nightreign launch times and release date

Elden Ring Nightreign is FromSoft’s experiment to see how players tolerate a Soulslike’s worth of punishment when it’s packed into a repeatable roguelike format, and the experiment is almost ready to commence. On Thursday, May 29, squads of nightfarers will be unleashed for co-op boss killing, and you’ll need to know exactly when Nightreign unlocks…

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Forget saving thousands for the newest iPhone. One hacker has turned his NES Zapper gun from Duck Hunt into a laser driven wireless phone

The tech inside Nintendo’s Duck Hunt Zapper gun is easily some of the coolest to come out of 80’s gaming. The way this device worked with the NES to determine whether or not you’d shot those poor innocent pixel ducks is truly some ingeniously innovative stuff. Unfortunately, with modern technology we don’t really have a…

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