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IN THE YEAR 2206, humanity left Earth. At least, some humans did. A selection of our civilization's best and brightest piled into a great big colony ship bound for the [...]

RECENTLY I PLAYED Day of the Tentacle (dott.doublefine.com) legally. Those of you who played it back in 1993 understand why this is such a big deal. And the rest of [...]

'THIS IS PROBABLY the first time high-profile scientific journals are publishing screenshots from EVE Online,' said Attila Szantner, cofounder of Massively Multiplayer Online Science (MMOS) (mmos.ch). 'This is going to [...]

CONGRATULATIONS TO BEAMDOG. I'm pretty sure that Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear (siegeofdragonspear.com) now holds the record for 'Longest Time Between Base Game and Expansion,' at seventeen years. Described somewhat [...]

AFTER YEARS OF teasers and hardware iterations, the Oculus Rift VR headset launches, and it's a magical piece of hardware. But when it comes to splurging on a $600 peripheral-- [...]

This isn't a normal review. How could it be? We mark the cusp of not just an entirely new technology, but also the culmination of three years reporting on virtual [...]

SUPERHOT. IT'S A REAL GAME, FINALLY--nearly three years after the original demo emerged on the Internet (birthed from the 7 Day FPS Challenge game jam) and two years after the [...]

THE RAZER BLACKWIDOW Ultimate 2016 Edition (go.pcworld.com/ blackwidowrazer) gaming keyboard is the epitome of an incremental upgrade--and that's absolutely fine. Take the totally competent keyboard we saw in 2014 (go.pcworld.com/blackwidowrazer2014), [...]

SEVENTEEN INCHES WIDE. More than 10 pounds of heft. A socketed Core i7 Skylake CPU and a desktop GTX 980 card crammed inside. More graphics horsepower than any laptop we've [...]

I WAS READY to read out Hitman's death warrant. 'Here lies Agent 47. Alas, he went episodic.' It's not that I have anything against episodic games in theory, but it [...]

YOU KNOW IF you need a gaming mouse. You're not pushing virtual paper around on your desktop; you're fragging bots and shooting zombies. Seeing how they run It was brutal [...]

UP FRONT: THERE are going to be spoilers in this review. Or, at least, a few of you may deem them spoilers--I am going to actively discuss some of the [...]

I'LL ADMIT: When Samsung first announced it was creating its own virtual reality headset, I rolled my eyes. 'Oh great, another me-too product from Samsung,' I thought, envisioning a future [...]

LAST YEAR I CALLED the HyperX Cloud 'one of the bestsub-$100 gaining headsets I've ever used.' Apparently not content with that, Kingston went ahead and released the HyperX Cloud II [...]

'SO ... WHEN'S THE CONSUMER VERSION of the Rift coming?' I've been asking Oculus that question since the first time I strapped one over my eyes, and every time cofounder [...]

IT'S FUNNY TO THINK of Kerbal Space Program (kerbalspaceprogram. com) as a 'new' game. Thanks to the magic of Steam Early Access, I've been playing the game on and off [...]

I'M NOT DONE with Pillars of Eternity (eternity.obsidian.net). Let's be clear: The only context in which that statement is bad is in the context of writing a review. Do I [...]

OKAY, YOU'VE HEARD of this 'Grim Fandango' game for years and everyone seems pretty excited it's been re-released, but what is it? Any relation to the WWE wrestler? How about [...]

IT FINALLY HAPPENED. After two years of hands-off demos, multiple delays, and et cetera, I finally got my grunny hands on The Witcher 3 (thewitcher.com)--not just for a piddling few [...]

WITH THE RISE of multiplayer voice chat comes the rise of headsets. This once-luxury peripheral is now about as standard as a mouse and keyboard when it comes to the [...]

THERE WAS A time in the late 90s or early 2000s when The Last Tinker: City of Colors (go.pcworld.com/lasttinker) would've been a blockbuster game. It was a time when mascot-driven [...]

WE ALREADY REVIEWED one set of mechanical keyboards, (go.pcworld.com/mk) but believe it or not there have been enough new releases in the months since that we're able to put together [...]

WHY ARE YOU suffering in silence with that generic hunk of plastic you call a mouse? You love games. So don't settle for a tool designed for applications no more [...]

ALTHOUGH THE $170 Matias Secure Pro (go.pcworld.com/matiassecpro) wireless keyboard's number one claim to fame is its 128-bit AES encryption (more about that later), I have to say it's more notable [...]

AT LAST, GAMING laptops are becoming slim and light enough to fit comfortably on your lap. The 2014 Lenovo Y50 (go.pcworld.com/ Ienovoy50). isn't quite as slim as, say, the 0.7-inch-thick [...]

RAZER'S 2014 BLADE Pro seems to be caught between two hardware generations. While its less-professional cousin, the 14-inch Blade, benefits from an enormous bump in graphics horsepower and display resolution [...]

ON A MECHANICAL keyboard, you don't have to push a key until it bottoms out, which reduces the amount of work your fingers and wrists must do. If you use [...]

FEATURES The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have ridden off into the sunset, replaced by the PlayStation 5 (go. pcworld.com/nv12) and Xbox Series X (go.pcworld.com/10nv). Much of this generations games focused on refining or making good on old ideas. SOMA Soma (go.pcworld.com/soma) is not the game I expected from Frictional. WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT Last but certainly not least, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (go.pcworld.com/w3hn) is arguably the game of this generation. [Extracted from the article]

And that's a shame because pacing is what sets Gears Tactics apart from other tactics games (go.pcworld.com/gtrv), at least in the early hours. DESPERADOS III A few years ago developer Mimimi Games revived the real-time tactics genre with Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (go. pcworld.com/blsh), drawing on classics like Commandos and Desperados for inspiration. More expansive levels and a well-written and well-acted Wild West story make Desperados III maybe the most accessible real-time tactics game ever developed. That said, Alyx is an excellent new chapter for Half-Life (go.pcworld.com/a1yx), and deserving of a spot on this list even if it didn't reinvent the entire games industry. [Extracted from the article]

DEPARTMENTS Oculus stopped selling its entry-level virtual reality headset, the Oculus Go, in June. People bought Go thinking they'd finally "get into" VR, just as Facebook and Oculus intended - but Go gave them little reason to explore or be excited about the platform. [Extracted from the article]

We've put together a list - not just games that deserve a remake, not just games that would benefit from a remake, but ones where a remake seems actually feasible. SPLINTER CELL: CHAOS THEORY People have called for a Splinter Cell reboot for years now, but how do you reboot Splinter Cell in the modern era? RIVEN Cyan has remade Myst three times, with realMyst, Myst: Masterpiece Edition, and realMyst: Masterpiece Edition (go.pcworld. com/mted). [Extracted from the article]

DEPARTMENTS The Razer Kraken has long been a favorite of people buying a gaming headset on the cheap. Jet black, with the same metal mesh and three-headed snake logo on the ears, the Kraken X blends right in with the rest of Razer's headsets. Razer has a headset for everyone, at every price point, and the Kraken X is a solid option at $50. [Extracted from the article]

DEPARTMENTS Cease your magic, before the hourglass shatters!" When last we left Mortal Kombat 11, Liu Kang had saved the world. Having been granted the powers of a god by Raiden himself, Liu Kang defeated the time-bending deity Kronika and prevented her from remaking the Mortal Kombat universe in her own image. When Liu Kang bested Kronika at the end of Mortal Kombat 11 he froze her in place, then roundhouse kicked her icy head off, shattering her skull into a million tiny pieces - and her crown. [Extracted from the article]

Last year's HP Reverb featured a best-in-class display and an Oculus-like design - but paired with the Windows MR platform's busted tracking solution, you might as well have been driving a Ferrari with square wheels. The Reverb G2 is the first Windows MR headset to break out of the dual-camera paradigm. Assuming the tracking holds up, the Reverb G2 might prove to be Valve's proxy-war competition for the Oculus Rift S. The Rift S has one more camera, the Reverb G2 has a better display (2160x2160 at 90Hz). [Extracted from the article]

IS UPGRADING A LAPTOP'S SSD AND RAM WORTH IT? The model Dell sent over is the top-of-the-line Inspiron 15 7000 Model 7591 (currently $1,050 on Dell.com (go.pcworld.com/md75)), a humble little machine that packs an Intel Core i7-9750H, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, a 512GB M.2 SSD, and 8GB of DDR4 RAM. Those with a bit more spending money can add a second M.2 SSD - or replace the existing SSD, or replace and add. Replacing the existing drive is a bit more complicated because Dell uses an M.2 2230-size SSD. [Extracted from the article]

DEPARTMENTS To say I had low expectations for Fallout 76's new Wastelanders expansion would be an understatement. BOTTOM LINE It's still not as good as a proper offline Fallout sequel, but Fallout 76's Wastelanders expansion injects some much-needed personality into post-apocalyptic West Virginia. [Extracted from the article]

That renders the Viper Mini's 2.1 ounces slightly less impressive, insofar as the Viper is a full-sized mouse and the Viper Mini is 3/4-scale. BOTTOM LINE The Razer Viper Mini is a great option for people with smaller hands, for children getting into gaming, and for anyone who wants a mainstream-branded mouse for only $40. [Extracted from the article]

Google's Stadia is finally "free" now, but the game-streaming service still comes with caveats I did the math, back in November: "By Google's own math, 4K streaming requires up to 20GB of data per hour. To its credit, Google hasn't left Stadia to die - yet. [Extracted from the article]

PERFORMANCE First, the briefest note on performance - and I'm only doing this because from what I've heard, the baseline Xbox One version of Ori and the Will of the Wisps is pretty rough. As such, the best additions to Ori and the Will of the Wisps are all movement-related. The last act is gated behind finishing the rest, in whatever order, which means Will of the Wisps can count on the player having Ori's full toolkit. BOTTOM LINE It's really a wonder to behold, and as I said in our preview: Ori and the Will of the Wisps is more than the sum of its parts. [Extracted from the article]

DEPARTMENTS When Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (go.pcworld.com/ bop4) launched in 2018, I thought its "Blackout" mode would become the third big battle royale game. This is even more tense, a high-stakes purgatory that takes the sting out of an early death, the catch being that the Gulag disappears once a Warzone match is down to around 50 players (from the max of 150). [Extracted from the article]

HP's seem Pavilion like a Gaming relic from Laptop years past, may given the rise of HP's Omen line. The Pavilion Gaming Laptop looks every bit as good as HP's Omen lineup. If you're looking for a sub-$1,000 gaming laptop, HP's built one every bit as sturdy and refined as its high-end counterparts - because at the core, they're the same laptop. HP's Pavilion Gaming Laptop (15-dk0045cl) is just a low-end Omen without the Omen branding - and more importantly, without the Omen's better-looking screen. [Extracted from the article]

Even by 2020 standards, with many of the games it inspired already in the rearview, Kentucky Route Zero has a remarkable view of the player's role. Anyway, Kentucky Route Zero is the type of game best enjoyed in the wee hours of the night, an hour at a time. Above all, Kentucky Route Zero is an argument that games can be more. [Extracted from the article]

Hell, throw in the Windows Mixed Reality owners as well, you still only get 0.87 percent of the Steam audience owning a VR headset - or about 800,000 people, doing some back-ofnapkin math. I imagine every VR headset owner has a similar list. I remember the heady days before the consumer launch of virtual reality, following each new development and thinking "Wow, VR is going to change everything.". [Extracted from the article]

How "Warcraft III" became a great "Lord of the Rings" game Better yet, Warcraft III introduced "Hero" characters, bigger and more powerful units that gave modders a perfect way to separate rank-and-file armies from named characters like Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn. A bunch of Warcraft III maps built with 2002's finest map-making tools probably won't cut it. [Extracted from the article]

When Microsoft announced Ori and the Will of the Wisps at E3 2017, I don't think I ever imagined it would take until 2020 to release. It's an ambitious game, and when ambitious games go radio silent I assume they've been delayed. Crusader Kings III is another game I doubt releases in 2020, but that's what Paradox claims and so it goes on the list. [Extracted from the article]

Sennheiser GSP 370: A wireless headset that lasts for 100 hours - that's all you need to know Sennheiser's gaming headsets tend to be boxy, with more than a hint of the dreaded "Air Traffic Control" silhouette, and the GSP 370 is no exception. Reviewing the GSP 600, I commended Sennheiser for making a microphone that was "crisp, clean, and flattering even without the software tricks most USB-powered headsets lean on." But the GSP line is bland, if not outright ugly, and a far cry from Sennheiser's more mainstream headphones like the Momentum 3 or many of its HD-branded models - or even its alternative gaming headset, the all-but-abandoned Game Zero. [Extracted from the article]

A YEAR IN, THE EPIC GAMES STORE'S FIGHT AGAINST STEAM HAS MADE PC GAMING BETTER FOR EVERYONE And for good reason: The Epic Games Store debuted December 6, 2018 and upended the PC gaming market. At GDC, Epic said more than 85 million accounts were using the Epic Games Store already - and that 40 percent of them didn't have a corresponding Steam account. In 2019, Valve finally needed EA as much as EA needed Valve - and Epic's improved revenue split gave EA some leverage. [Extracted from the article]

Come November 19, those who anted up $129 for the Google Stadia Founder's Edition or functionally identical Premiere Edition will receive a Stadia controller, a 4K-ready Chromecast Ultra, and three months of the $10-a-month Stadia Pro subscription. The phone situation is absurd though, requiring you first attach a mount to the Stadia controller, then put your phone in the mount, then wire the two together. Google initially announced that Stadia would launch alongside a dozen games. [Extracted from the article]

Halo: Reach PC impressions - the prodigal son returns to the PC, with some quirks As I said, most modern PCs will run Halo: Reach maxed-out, even at higher resolutions. If you're buying Halo: Reach on PC, I assume it's because you want to play Halo with a mouse and keyboard. Microsoft's come a long way since Games for Windows Live, and quite frankly Halo: Reach is one of the least offensive by modern standards. [Extracted from the article]