Monthly Archives: February 2020

Being a video game fan in 2020 means more options than ever before.

Not only are more games being made, but there are more ways to play those games for less money than ever.

If you're a PlayStation 4 owner, a $10 monthly/$60 annual subscription service called PlayStation Plus offers a monthly stipend of free games. If you're an Xbox One owner, a similarly priced service offers similar benefits.

That's before we start talking about newer, more disruptive offerings like Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass program or Apple's Apple Arcade, which provide Netflix-style instant game libraries for a monthly or annual subscription fee.

Executives at major video game studios and publishers told Business Insider that the growth of subscription services was a sign of a "new paradigm" in the industry one that may signal long-term trouble for developers even as fans and platforms thrive.

These services are great for gamers, who have more options to play great games. And in the short term these services are great for game makers, who reap the financial benefits of massive companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Apple splashing out for games.

As Microsoft seeks to grow its subscriber base with Xbox Game Pass, for instance, it offers lucrative deals to developers and studios whose games it wants on the service.

Shonda Rhimes, the creator of "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal," and "How to Get Away With Murder," signed a $150 million contract with Netflix. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Look no further than the film and TV business for examples of just how lucrative those deals can be "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimesgot a $150 million deal from Netflix to produce content for the streaming giant.

But these big paychecks from platforms don't last forever.

So the logic goes: As more people subscribe to these platforms, platform owners have less incentive to pay for content. The people who used to buy games directly become service subscribers instead, leaving game makers nowhere to publish games other than those subscription platforms.

"What happened with the other industries is big checks were written for a while until the platforms didn't need the content creators anymore," one game publishing executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of active relationships with gaming platforms, told Business Insider. "This check might feel good now, but it might not feel so good in five years."

Platforms like Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass need that content to draw in subscribers, but the long-term effect could be dire for the industry: People stop buying games directly, and start paying for subscription services instead.

"It's an offer you can't refuse," another studio executive told Business Insider. "If you destroy the system of purchasing and replace it with a subscription model, then the subscription model is all that's left. It's just Netflix and Blockbuster; instead of renting per video, you're paying for subscription services."

These subscription services could mean the end of the traditional direct-to-consumer sales of individual games, where the sales trajectory over time looks like a downhill slope with a (hopefully) long, tapered decline.

"We just adjust to the new paradigm," that studio executive said. "We have to make sure we have our profit margins up front. If we do a Game Pass game, we have to build our margins into that."

The music industry already went through this.

When was the last time you bought a CD? How about a digital copy of an album?

Streaming service Tidal has attempted to return music streaming profits to musicians, including Rihanna. Jason Kempin/Getty Images

More likely, you're one of the hundreds of millions of people either paying for a subscription-based music service, or you're listening for free (with ads, of course someone is paying for it).

Another prominent game developer who spoke with Business Insider put the issue succinctly: "Isn't it much easier to just give developers a giant sum of money for now, and then, when there's no market to sell directly to consumers anymore, you just give them less? That's what I would do if I was a platform."

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The 'Netflix of gaming' is coming, and game makers are worried - Business Insider - Business Insider

The nice thing about this question is there's really no wrong answer, because every year is a great year for PC gaming. Maybe you're especially a fan of 2007's Orange Box, Bioshock, and Crysis, or you really love 2015 because it brought us The Witcher 3 and Metal Gear Solid 5, or you think Half-Life 2, World of Warcraft, and The Sims 2 helped make 2004 the best year for PC gaming ever.

Like I said, there's no wrong answer!

But it's still something to discuss and argue (hopefully politely!) over: What was the best year for PC gaming? Below you'll find answers from our staff as well as some from the PC Gamer forums. Let us know your favorite year, and why it's the best, in the comments below.

Evan Lahti: '99 is a religious moment for competitive FPS players over the age of 30. Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament formed a new era for competitive FPS. You might think of them as a similar style of game, but they were built on opposing philosophies. Quake 3 was defined by its purity: its weapons were simple, but in the hands of athletic players, they were paintbrushes for pain that could be combined with an elegant movement system. In contrast, UT looks like the Canyonero: a rocket launcher stuffed inside a grenade launcher, an attack-and-defend mode that played out like a castle siege, mutators, low gravity railgunning, Chainsaw Melee, a gun that lobbed piles of poison goo.

Throw in Team Fortress Classic and Counter-Strike (the mod, at least), and 1999 is unquestionably the primordial pool from which most current competitive shooters were spawned. I guess some other stuff came out that year too: System Shock 2, Everquest, Planescape Torment, Homeworld, Age of Empires 2, Alpha Centauri, and C&C: Tiberian Sun.

Jody Macgregor: You could make an easy argument for 2007 on the strength of The Orange Box, Supreme Commander, Crysis, BioShock, and STALKER, but this is really a personal pick. It's the year that got me back into PC gaming after the cost of upgrading and buying games here in Australia had kept me away for a few years. Portal and Team Fortress 2 helped win me back, but so did a lot of excellent low-spec games like Recettear (still the best JRPG I've played), Peggle, Deathworm, and Osu! I spent a lot of 2007 playing The Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion as well.

Andy Chalk: 1998 is the year it all began for me. Thief: The Dark Project, Baldur's Gate, Fallout 2, Half-Life, and StarCraft (which I wasn't really into, but it probably deserves a mention) all showed up in '98, which makes it not only a seminal year for gaming, but also a launchpad for so many bigger and better things. With the exception of Fallout 2, which deserved so much better than it got, each of these represents the starting point of series that were deeply formative on a personal level: The Thief and Baldur's Gate series still share the top spot on my all-time best list, and even though I'm not as enthusiastic about Half-Life as I used to be, Half-Life 2 set a standard for shooters in a way that's never been replicated. Without 1998, none of it happensthat makes it a hell of a good year in my eyes.

Tyler Wilde: I'm tempted to go with '96 or '97 for Quake, Quake 2, Diablo, Zork: Grand Inquisitor, and other of my all-time favorites, but the start of the new millennium feels more notable to me. In 2002, games felt bigger than they ever had before: I could stand on the wing of a plane in Battlefield 1942 while someone else flew it, see the Command & Conquer world from a unit's perspective in C&C: Renegade, go jetpack skiing in Tribes, and explore a whole island in The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. It wasn't as if big 3D spaces were unheard of at the time, but that year sticks out to me as the year we'd truly escaped hallways. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and Grand Theft Auto 3 also came to PC in 2002.

Meanwhile, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault remains one of my favorite shooters evermy virtual M1 Garand skills will never be better than they were thenand the release of Warcraft 3 marked the beginning of a brief period when I went to gaming cafes and drank Bawls (plus it's among the most influential games of all time, in large part due to its mod scene). No One Lives Forever 2, Neverwinter Nights, Dungeon Siege, and Mafia help seal it for me. I wish there were some indie hit I could point at to score more pointsCave Story was 2004but I suppose every year can't be representative of everything. Good year, though!

Wes Fenlon: I don't need a long list of games released in a given year to tell you which year was the best for PC gaming, because it's clearly 3057, the year MechWarrior 2 takes place. As that 31st century warfare documentary has shown us, future PC gaming will have each of us fighting for our lives in a sweet-ass mech. Yes: in the future, all computers are inside giant robots, obviously.

(Anyway, 1995 was a super influential year: MechWarrior 2, Command & Conquer, Warcraft 2, TIE Fighter, and Dark Forces all hit the PC that year).

Steven Messner: A little surprised no one has beat me to this because 2004 is clearly the best year for PC gaming. In that short span of just 365 days, some of the most influential games of all time were released alongside a bevy of really good games that didn't have quite the same lasting appeal. Obviously the big one to note is Half-Life 2, but World of Warcraft also launched in that same year along with Rome: Total War (which redefined the series), The Sims 2, Far Cry, Counter-Strike: Source, and Unreal Tournament 2004. This year also had a number of great cult classics, like City of Heroes, Sid Meier's Pirates!, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, EverQuest 2, Battlefield Vietnam, Tribes: Vengeance, Need for Speed: Underground 2.

I could go on... so I will. Painkiller, The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Star Wars: Battlefront, Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia (one of its coolest expansions), The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, Doom 3 (it sucks but I still love it), Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. Looking back, that's an absurd number of really good games that could satisfy almost anyone.

Crazy year, that 2004.

Phil Savage: If I judge years based on how heated the discussions were during PC Gamer's Game of the Year processand honestly, why wouldn't I2015 is the clear standout. As an RPG fan, The Witcher 3 was one of the best games of the decadehuge, beautiful, and full of great writing. As a stealth fan, Metal Gear Solid 5 was an intricate sandbox full of toyseverything from the iconic fulton balloon to the horse that poops on command. 2015 was the year that brought us the best detective game of recent memory in Her Story, the best city-builder of recent memory in Cities: Skylines, and one of the best tactics games of recent memory in Invisible, Inc.

It also brought us 80 Days, Life is Strange, Rainbow Six Siege, Sunless Seas, Undertale and Pillars of Eternity. It brought GTA 5 to PC. It wasted hundreds of hours with Rocket League. And, look, personally I liked Fallout 4, so there's that. Notably, it's also the last year (to date) in which we awarded a 96% scorehistorically, for the UK side at least, the highest we give out. While there may be years with more historical importance, I'd argue 2015 remains the best of the last decade.

Chris Livingston: This is what happens when you answer lastyou have to get creative. But 1982 was an incredibly important year for me personally: it's the year my parents bought us our first home computer, an Apple IIc. And with it came Choplifter, my very first computer game.

I devoured as many games as I could that year, including Aztec, which was basically Spelunky before Spelunky: a randomly generated tomb-raiding game filled with traps and dynamite, snakes and monsters, destructible walls and floors, and a precious idol to bring back to the surface. Loved it.

There were plenty of others I played that year: a fighting game called Swashbuckler, turn-based strategy Taipan!, adventure games Sherwood Forest and Zork 3, all which helped form my early and lasting love for computer games.

Frindis: I think 1993 was the best year for gaming and I especially give Doom that reason. Doom was one of the first games to make multiplayer FPS quite popular and I remember how cool it was to attend local LAN events trying to get that sweet frag. There is a little slice of entertaining gaming history to be found when looking up some of the greatest Doom players in the past.

Lead programmer John Carmack would also make it easy for players to make their own maps, thus opening for both competition and yearly praises of some of the best WADS. While not being the first game you could mod, this one definitely was the most popular, carving the way for future modding communities. Another thing to mention is that being able to understand the game data also opened up for speedrunners to tighten the scores and still to this date people are competing in getting the best times.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention it was the most violent and gory fps game that year, how the 2D was made to look 3D, the BFG, kick-ass soundtrack, monsters from hell, erm..story and that Doom recently got a megawad: an unofficial sequel to the fourth episode from none other than John Romero, one of the original creators of Doom.

Mazer: A lot of my childhood favourites seem to be clustered in 1997.

Mainstream hits like Fallout, Quake 2, Hexen 2, GTA, Dungeon Keeper, The Curse of Monkey Island, Age Of Empires etc. Cult classics like MDK, Interstate '76, Oddworld: Abes Oddysee, Dark Earth, The Last Express, Myth: The Fallen Lords, Outlaws, Privateer 2, and Twinsen's Odyssey. We got ports of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Shadows Of The Empire and Panzer Dragoon to test our new graphics cards, and Carmageddon's release in Australia was completely uncensored in a very rare move for my country.

It's also the year in which the naming conventions of the Dark Forces series officially went off the rails with the release of Star Wars Jedi Knight - Dark Forces 2. It's by this logic that I'd like to move that we officially rename the final game in the series, Jedi Academy, to now be 'Star Wars Jedi Academy - Jedi Outcast 2 - Jedi Knight 3 - Dark Forces 4'.

Zloth: Actually, 2016 was a mighty good year:

MaddMann: Personally I would say 2004. Some of my all time favorite games that I still play to this day, and some that have died, but left me with great memories. Some of my favorites from 2004:

McStabStab: For me I'd say 2000.

Kaamos_Llama: Oh man 1998 has Halflife, Starcraft, Baldurs Gate, Fallout 2, Thief Dark Project, Commandos and Grim Fandango. Games of that era had so much influence on future games.

Looking back over the last 25 odd years though, it seems every year has an argument. Good times!

See the original post here:

What was the best year for PC gaming? - PC Gamer

Four free games are coming to Xbox One and Xbox 360 in March. Here's what to expect.

Even in a Leap Year, February goes by fast. Certainly this month has zipped by for yours truly. Its been unseasonably warmIve gone skiing in a tank topand while were in the middle of winter at least around here it doesnt feel like it.

Still, even with nice weather free games are always fun. Xbox Live With Gold and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will have access to four new Games With Gold for the very attractive price of free in March. Lets take a look at what were getting this time around.

Xbox 360 (Backward Compatible on Xbox One)

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

Xbox One

Thats all the games coming in March (Ill have a separate list for Game Pass once thats announced) and you can still download some of Februarys free games as well. Read about those right here. (Also, note to self: Download that one February game you keep forgetting to download!)

See the article here:

Here Are All The Free Xbox Games With Gold For March 2020 - Forbes

Board games are bigger than ever before. Literally. The damn things take up entirely too much room on the table, so the team at Spidermind Games came up with a unique solution. They designed another, smaller table to sit on top of whatever table that you already own. Its called the Level Up, and its earned more than $1 million on Kickstarter. The campaign ends Thursday.

Dearly departed Geek Chic, which went under about three years ago, helped to popularize the modern-day fad of luxury gaming tables. Its designs relied primarily on a sunken play surface, with board games that sat below the rim of the table. Its the perfect solution if you need to have dinner later in the evening of if you just want to hide your board gaming addiction from the neighbors. All you need to do is plop some leaves on top to cover up the sprawling bits below and youre good to go. Its been copied by dozens of manufacturers since.

But people like to have a drink while they play a board game. They like to have snacks. Putting your drinks and your snacks into the pit with the board game itself is a recipe for disaster. One false move and youve ruined the nice felt surface that you paid a premium for, and the board game itself. So the luxury board game space adopted all manner of kludgy cup holders and bolt-on shelves. The end result is table systems with nearly as many bits to keep tack of as the board games themselves.

Seriously. I recently attended a board gaming event at a venue with multiple luxury board gaming tables. In the corner was a shelf with a stack of more than a dozen cup holders. Each one was color-coded to the table that they matched up to. When people left them attached after a game I kept bumping into them as I walked by. It was a nightmare.

Enter the Level Up. Its a plastic tray with metal legs that sits on top of your table, providing plenty of room below for snacks, beverages, books, and bits. Im honestly angry that I didnt think of the idea myself. Here in Chicagoland its called a pizza tray, and theyre made sturdy enough to hold even the beefiest of deep dish pies.

Spidermind Games is best known for the Elite: Dangerous Role-Playing Game, a pen-and-paper game based on the spacefaring game by Frontier Developments. Its Level Up campaign runs through 11:58 a.m. ET on Feb. 27. You can get a 2 foot by 3 foot Level Up for around $62, or build out even larger ones to suit your needs. Delivery is promised by September.

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New type of board gaming table has raised more than $1M on Kickstarter - Polygon

Patently Apple believes in keeping track of what some of Apple's competitors are up to and late yesterday it was reported that Facebook confirmed it had acquired development studio Sanzaru Games to join the Oculus gaming group inside its virtual-reality division.

Sanzaru has produced a number of games, including from the Sonic the Hedgehog and Marvel Studios franchises, according to its website. The studios most popular VR game, Asgards Wrath, was highly reviewed at the time of its release in October, and was included several games-of-the-year lists.

Facebook's spokeswoman said in an email. "Were exploring many ways to accelerate VR. We believe it is great for content to be developed outside of Oculus and Facebook. That said, there are instances where it will make sense for us to have a deeper stake in order to more fully support content development and enhance the user experience." For more on this, read the full Bloomberg report.

Facebook's Oculus made the announcement officially on their blog yesterday stating the following:

"VR is home to many remarkable developers doing incredible work, pioneering a whole new language of game design, and pushing themselves to always achieve more. Sanzaru Games was one of the earliest development houses to take these steps, and, just a few months ago, we saw the state of VR gaming make a huge leap forward with the launch of Asgards Wrath, a title that redefined what a full-length, fully-featured VR game looks like. Today, Im pleased to announce that Sanzaru is joining Facebook to help us pursue a future of rich, immersive, and original VR game content.

Sanzaru is a veteran game developerhaving shipped titles to multiple platforms in the pastas well as a VR pioneer: Theyve created four titles for the Oculus Platform since 2016, when they were the first developer to partner with the Oculus Studios team. They approach game design with three pillars in mind: great design, beautiful art (including animation and audio), and strong tech. It is this foundation that enabled Sanzaru to build a game as rich as Asgards Wrath, and its a strong foundation they will continue to build upon as we all push VR forward.

As part of Oculus Studios and supported by our latest advancements in VR technology, Sanzaru will continue to make amazing VR game experiences for gamers around the world as an independently-operated studio. We couldnt be more excited to see what they build next.

Why Sanzaru Games?

Sanzaru is a veteran game developerhaving shipped games to multiple platforms in the pastas well as a VR pioneer: Theyve created four titles for the Oculus platform since 2016, when they were the first developer to partner with the Oculus Studios team (Ripcoil, VR Sports Challenge, MARVEL Powers United VR, Asgards Wrath). With Facebooks latest advancements in VR technology, Sanzaru can readily explore a future of rich and immersive original VR content.

It appears that Apple will be crashing the Oculus market space at some time in the future. Apple has filed for many patents relating to a future Head Mounted Display system with VR gaming being one of the possible avenues that will Apple will engage in.

While Apple has started with Apple Arcade for mobile gaming, it's very possible that Apple will aim a little higher with more console-like titles and VR gaming would be a natural fit.

In fact, Patently Apple posted a patent application report last Thursday titled "Apple Patent dives deep into Future Mixed Reality gaming with Sophisticated Game Controllers & Next-Gen Console."

The patent filing noted that "the game played by the participants may be hosted by a game console. In some embodiments, the game console may wirelessly serve game video to goggles worn by the participants.

A panoramic optical scanner incorporated into the top of the game console may have a 360 degree panoramic field of view, whereas a set of goggles may incorporate a panoramic optical scanner into each temple portion of the goggles, with each panoramic optical scanner having a 270 degree panoramic field of view that overlaps the 270 degree panoramic field of the other panoramic optical scanner."

A Mixed Reality (MR) Headset is definitely one of several future products that Apple fans are looking forward to.

Read more here:

Facebook has Acquired Development Studio 'Sanzaru Games' that will be joining their Oculus VR Gaming Division - Patently Apple

Netflix isnt hiding its ambitions to push further into the world of interactive storytelling, and a trailer for its Carmen Sandiego Choose Your Own Adventure-style special teases whats to come.

In Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal, the iconic spy is tasked with doing the Villains International League of Evils (V.I.L.E.) bidding after they capture professional thief Zack and his sister Ivy during a heist. If Carmen Sandiego doesnt succeed, Zack and Ivy will have their minds wiped and become operatives within V.I.L.E.

The trailer, seen above, shows how viewers will take control of Sandiego during her mission and the types of decisions theyll have to make to move the story forward. Players will decide whether Sandiego should enter V.I.L.E.s headquarters from the ground floor or the roof, for example. Considering Carmen Sandiego started as an educational video game character, giving fans of the Netflix show the ability to play out an entire episode like a game is a nostalgic return to her roots.

Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal is one of three childrens interactive specials Netflix is reportedly planning to make, according to a Bloomberg story from August 2019. The other two series set to receive interactive specials include Boss Baby and Last Kids on Earth. Ted Sarandos, Netflixs chief content officer, has long talked about how important interactive entertainment is to the company, but he has also noted they want to do projects that make sense. Carmen Sandiego, which appeals to younger kids and is based on a video game, is a perfect combination.

Gaming is becoming more movified, and movies are becoming more gameified, but it wont take over, Sarandos told the Evening Standard last year. People still want to be told a story.

Netflixs biggest interactive special, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, was a rousing success for the company according to the company. The special won two Emmys and nabbed show co-creator Charlie Brooker a Nebula Award for his writing for the episode. Netflix also told Variety last May that 90 percent of viewers chose to play the special rather than watch it as a form of passive, linear entertainment, which was a big deal for the company. The level of participation led Netflix to launch a whole new slate of adult interactive content, according to Variety.

Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal should be an even easier sell considering the target audience. The special will be available to watch and play on March 10th. It will run for 45 minutes.

Visit link:

Netflixs Carmen Sandiego returns to its gaming roots in an interactive special - The Verge

March's Free PS Plus Games There's Good News & There's Bad News

According to an advertisement on Polish site GRYOnline.pl, next month's PlayStation Plus games are Shadow of the Colossus and Sonic Forces.

February 26, 2020 11:36 AM UTC

Sony gets one fabulously right and one amazingly wrong in March's PlayStation Plus freebies. | Source: Christian Petersen/Getty Images/AFP

Next months PlayStation Plus free games are reportedly Shadow of the Colossus and Sonic Forces, according to an ad on Polish site GRYOnline.pl.

A user on gaming forum Resetera and another on the PlayStation Plus Subreddit both captured a snapshot of the banner, upping the likelihood of the two titles landing on PS Plus next month. It appears the advertisement hit the site ahead of an official announcement on PlayStation.Blog as is customary.

Adding credibility to the leak is the appearance of this months trio of free titles The Sims 4, Bioshock: The Collection, and Firewall Zero Hour on the banner.

If the leak is genuine, Marchs PlayStation Plus freebies are among the more lopsided selections weve seen to date. Bluepoint Games Shadow of the Colossus isnt so much a remaster of the PS2 classic as a ground-up remake. Fresh assets and a new control scheme add to the already fantastic foundations of the original.

Critically acclaimed and prized among fans, it is a must-play for anyone that owns a PlayStation 4 and features proudly in countless Best PS4 Games lists that pepper the internet.

Accompanying Shadow of the Colossus is Sonic Force. Finding a suitable game to accompany Shadow of the Colossus would be no small feat at the best of times. But it seems like PlayStation just gave up and picked any old game ripe for a stint as a PS Plus freebie when throwing in Sonic Forces.

With a Metacritic score of 57, SEGAs latest Sonic game is mediocre at best. Heres my colleague Max Moellers take on the game;

Sonic Forces was a boring release that failed to represent any of the exciting mechanics from the hedgehogs past. The levels are full of tired quick-time actions, strange gimmicks that break momentum, and unrefined set pieces that slog the game along.

Its worth noting that we still need official confirmation from PlayStation that these are indeed Marchs PlayStation Plus games. Nevertheless, based on previous leaks, we can be reasonably sure well be playing Shadow of the Colossus and Sonic Forces next month.

This article was edited by Samburaj Das.

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Marchs Free PS Plus Games Theres Good News & Theres Bad News - CCN.com

AOC (the display maker, not the US politician) just announced one of the fastest gaming monitors available, the Agon AG273QZ. It's a 27-inch display with a twisted nematic (TN) panel capable of up to a blistering fast 240Hz refresh rate and incredibly low 0.5ms response time (MPRT), both of which are highly suited for esports.

What those numbers essentially mean is that the AG273QZ can keep up with your hardware. Whether the reverse is true depends on your setup, and in particular your GPU and CPU (in that order). The native resolution on this display is 2560x1440, and you'll need a meaty setup to push 240fps at 1440p in more demanding games.

If you have it, this is one of the fastest monitors around. It's not clear if the refresh rate can be overclocked to 280Hz on this model like the Asus TUF Gaming VG279QM ($399.99 on Newegg) allows with its IPS panel, albeit that's a 1080p display.

Here's a rundown of the pertinent specifications:

IPS and VA panels typically yield better viewing angles and superior color accuracy, depending on the model. However, AOC claims the AG273QZ offers 93.7 percent coverage of the AdobeRGB color space, and 126.4 percent of the sRGB color space. Those are certainly respectable numbers, though we can't say how it actually performs because we have not spent any hands-on time with this model.

As for the 400 nits brightness rating, that's good enough to qualify for VESA's DisplayHDR 400 certification, which this monitor does. That's also one of the requisites for AMD's FreeSync Premium Pro branding, which this monitor also boasts.

We wish AOC would have included a gray-to-gray (GtG) response time metric, as that is more commonly used. Nevertheless, MPRT is gaining traction. According to the folks at Blur Busters, MPRT ratings are more useful anyway.

As for the refresh rate, I'm not aware of any monitors that go higher without overclocking, at least for now. There are 300Hz laptops, and Asus said at CES it will be coming out with a 360Hz G-Sync monitor later this year. But like the VG279QM, that's a 1080p display as well.

The AG273QZ will be available later this month for 659. It's not clear when it will arrive in the US or how much it will cost when it does, but a straight currency conversion would put the price at around $857.

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If you're into esports, this gaming monitor is one of the fastest around - PC Gamer

A couple of weeks ago, Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone revealed that he's working on two new games, both connected in one way or another to his hit farm life sim. There was much rejoicing (people really like Stardew Valley), to the point that Barone asked everyone to please calm down and let him work.

But that was then and this is now, and I guess now it's time to get all hyped up again because it turns out that along with those other two projects, Barone is also cooking up new stuff for Stardew Valley.

Barone didn't say anything about what the 1.5 update might include, but given the heft of the 1.4 update, which added a huge number of new items, cosmetics, and monsters, 14 new music tracks, romance events, quality-of-life improvements, and an end-game mystery in an abandoned building, it's fair to expect that it will be significant.

We can probably also expect a patch coming sooner for some connection issues that resulted from the last update.

What I'd like to know, honestly, is where Barone finds the time and energy for all this. "[Game development] is extremely difficult and time consuming. Stardew Valley took me 4.5 years of working 60-70 hours a week," he tweeted in response to an inquiry on Twitter. But, he continued, "seeing your idea and world come to life before your eyes is extremely rewarding & satisfying."

I've emailed Barone to ask if he'd like to share any insights as to what's in store for Stardew Valley 1.5, and I'll let you know if he does.

See more here:

Stardew Valley is getting another free content update - PC Gamer

The spread of novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on gaming conventions, with a number of major exhibitors having pulled out of PAX East. The convention kicks off in Boston this Thursday, but both CD Projekt Red and PUBG Corp have announced at the last moment they won't attend, though neither had confirmed presences on panels or the showroom floor.

CD Projekt Red's North American head of communications, Stephanie Bayer, revealed the studio's decision in a tweet earlier today. "I just found out my team is cancelling our PAX East trip so I will NOT be at PAX East as previously planned," she wrote. The studio's next big game, Cyberpunk 2077, wasn't confirmed to be appearing at the convention.

Gamespot has also confirmed that PUBG Corp has canceled its PAX East 2020 commitments. These two join a growing list of PAX East cancelations from companies including Sony, Square Enix, Capcom, though the latter will go ahead with its planned Monster Hunter: Festa event.

GDC 2020 has already lost EA, Facebook, Sony, and Kojima Productions, including Hideo Kojima himself.

Correction: This article originally reported that PUBG Corp had pulled out of GDC 2020. This reference has been removed, as the company was never scheduled to attend. A note has also been added to reflect that neither company had scheduled appearances on panels or the showroom floor.

Read more here:

CD Projekt Red and PUBG Corp abandon PAX plans amid coronavirus fears - PC Gamer