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The Epic Games storefront on PC, like other online portals such as Steam, is generally a great place to discover new games and sales. But, they do always have some sort of free option going, as well. If you scroll down just below the featured games and sales, you’ll see a section aptly named “Free Games”. The games in this section are always games that normally cost money, but are slashed down to the low, low cost of zero. This revolves around every week or so. But, you can really get some amazing games from this section. This week is no exception. This week, you can find Murder by Numbers and The Elder Scrolls Online for free on the Epic Games store. Murder by Numbers is a Picross mystery adventure Murder by Numbers, normally a $14.99 game, mixes amazing visuals for a visual novel, with Picross-style gameplay. Basically, it’s “Ace Attorney paint-by-numbers with a cute robot companion instead of Maya”. Hato Moa, the creator of the pigeon-romance otome game Hatoful Boyfriend, handled the beautifully-made art for this game. You and your robot companion, SCOUT, are detectives solving murder cases. You do the usual visual novel thing, like the Phoenix Wright games, but the gameplay comes from nonogram puzzles. You can pick it up right now for free on Epic Games. The Elder Scrolls Online The Elder Scrolls: Necrom expansion was recently released. But, Bethesda is dropping the standard The Elder Scrolls Online experience for free this week on the Epic Games storefront. This version includes the base game, which has dozens to hundreds of hours worth of content as it is. It’s normally $19.99, but down to zero for the week. Even if you don’t plan to play, it might be worth grabbing if you’re a Fortnite player. Claiming the game will give you a special Sigil of the Alliance War back bling in Fortnite. And you didn’t have to do anything to get it other than clicking a couple of buttons. You can also pick up Necrom starting at $59.99, if you want to make a fun necromancer and play through the new stories from the expansion. Both of the games are free until July 27th, 2023 at 11:00 AM EST. At 11:01 AM, the free games incoming are Homeworld Remastered Collection and Severed Steel. Do you have any thoughts about this topic? Tell us in the comments below, or talk about it on Twitter. Don’t forget to tag us in the discussion! And don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly Patch Notes! Check out some other topics on GameCrate: I bring the Smoke: Mortal Kombat 1 shows off Smoke, Rain, and more Xbox gets a long-awaited feature: Voice reporting Toxic Destiny 2 “fan” owes half a million dollars to Bungie over harassment Xbox Live Gold to be retired in September, replaced with Game Pass Core

As gaming technology has improved, so has the realism in some of our favorite shooters, not only with higher-fidelity graphics but also with how developers approach in-game mechanics. For some, this hyper-realistic approach is insensitive to the real-world people the games are based on, while for others, video games are always a fantasy, regardless of the subject matter they are based on. Regardless of where you stand, it begs the question, "Can a game be too realistic?" Below, we look at a few new and upcoming first-person shooters that are pushing the boundaries of realism. Ready or Not Depicts Real-Life SWAT Scenarios Image: VOID Interactive Ready or Not is a first-person SWAT game that puts players in control of an operator that must complete missions in highly-dangerous and realistic scenarios. Developed by VOID Interactive and released into Early Access on Steam at the end of 2021, the game is getting a full release sometime soon, accompanied by an update entitled Streamer, which puts players in the center of the SWATTING of a popular online influencer. Rather than the colorful futuristic items and characters in Apex Legends or the fluid movement and flashy frags in Call of Duty, Ready or Not opts for realistic, plodding combat, where there is no run button. Instead of slide-canceling into an enemy, players must slowly navigate realistic hostage scenarios, clear rooms, and detain threats, all while issuing commands to an AI squad or communicating with a team online. The game has come under fire for some of the missions and content within those missions, including one that tasks the player with clearing a threat at a school (there are no children on any map), a nightclub mission, and the aforementioned Streamer mission. With mass shootings increasing significantly over the years, it's clear why some missions wouldn't sit well with some. Image: VOID Interactive However, with all this being said, as someone who played the game, it's evident to me that the developers are doing their best to create a realistic SWAT game rather than get views for shock value. If anything, they've avoided potentially problematic content and have created mission objectives that, while realistic, try to honor those involved in the real-life scenarios they are depicting. While it's arguable whether a game like this should exist, the same could easily be said for other games, which brings us to our next title. Unrecord Was Confused with Bodycam Footage Image: DRAMA Unrecord is an upcoming single-player FPS that puts players in the shoes of a tactical police officer from the perspective of their body camera. The graphics create an uncanny realism, and many speculated that the footage was taken in real life when the first trailer dropped earlier this year. However, it was later revealed that the game was genuine and developed in Unreal Engine 5, according to online statements from the game's developer, DRAMA. The game looks like video clips from LiveLeak or YouTube, immersing players into the world of a police officer. Rather than focusing so much on gunplay, the developer has stated that the game focuses mainly on solving crimes while using tactics and detective skills, though onlookers can't help but comment on how realistic early footage appears. The French-based games studio, DRAMA, must tread lightly, especially considering the recent fatal shooting of teenager Nahel Merzouk by French police, which sparked protests and unrest throughout France. While American onlookers must contend with their own dark history of police brutality, having a game depict a detective's body cam footage as you potentially shoot suspects may feel too soon for some and never appropriate for others. A game that appears so realistic leads many to question whether titles like this go too far, blurring the line between video games and real life. Though a firm release date has yet to be set, some of these questions should be answered when the game debuts and players can get a better sense of what it is actually all about. Six Days in Fallujah Has Had Over a Decade of Controversy While Unrecord and Ready or Not place players in hypothetical police scenarios, Six Days in Fallujah is based on an actual U.S. military operation called the Second Battle of Fallujah in 2004, which saw 110 coalition forces die and is estimated to have killed thousands of Iraqi insurgents and civilians. For this reason, the title, developed by Highwire Games, came under intense backlash when it was first announced in 2009, eventually leading to the temporary cancellation of the game. Image: Highwire Games Flash-forward to 2023 and the game is officially revived and is currently sitting with a "Very Positive" rating on Steam, showing that sensitivity around real-life war scenarios seems to wane over time. That being said, the game has also come under fire for several other aspects, including negative, shallow, or stereotypical depictions of the Iraqi people. War will always be a sensitive subject and for good reason. Still, it's arguable whether all the negative attention should remain on the title, as games have depicted real-life war scenarios, from Battlefield to the original Call of Duty games and many other titles, for decades. Where the line lies with you will likely depend on your relationship with the story behind the game. Controversy is Nothing New for Video Games While it's clear to see why the above titles would garner attention for their realism, it's nothing new for the industry. Famously, in 1993, Senator Joe Lieberman held hearings to put Mortal Kombat execs on the stand to talk about violence in video games and the potential effect that may have on child development. Today, it still looks like we're talking about similar things, though, admittedly, the Mortal Kombat franchise has gotten a lot more gorey and realistic since the 90s. Whether or not these games are going "too far" or whether FPS titles can be "too real" will ultimately depend on the publishers distributing and funding their development and the gamers buying the games. As with many other things in our global economy, if it makes good money sense and people are willing to buy it, there's a high likelihood that someone is willing to make it. Whether or not it's a net positive for society overall, however -- only time will tell. Do you have any thoughts about this topic? Tell us in the comments below, or talk about it on Twitter. Don’t forget to tag us in the discussion! And don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly Patch Notes!

Fire up any Diablo game, and it won’t be long before you’re drowning in loot. Weapons, rings, pieces of armor, amulets, and so much more can be found all over the place. Inside chests, under rocks, as a reward for completing quests, or inside the guts of demonic foes. Blizzard’s latest hell-fueled adventure is no different as Diablo IV will have you swimming in gear almost immediately. Obviously, you won’t need all of the equipment you come across, but you should think twice before hawking it at your nearest vendor. One of the best things you can do with unwanted loot is salvage it. To do this you’ll need to find a blacksmith. Marked on your map as a small hammer and anvil, they can be found in towns and there’s one you access early on in Kyovashad. In fact, the second you enter the city of Kyovashad you can run straight to the blacksmith. Lorath and the main questline can wait just a little bit longer. Interact with a blacksmith, and you’ll be taken to a screen where you have multiple options for going about your salvage work. You can salvage everything in your inventory based on item rarity, salvage everything you’ve labeled as junk, or simply salvage everything you’ve got. Caution! Anything you salvage is irreversibly destroyed, so double check your selection. So why are we salvaging things instead of selling them? For a few reasons. First, salvaging gear is how you unlock different looks for customizing your character. You might get a powerful helmet later on and decide that it’s much uglier than the weaker helmet you used to have. If that weaker helmet happened to be one that unlocked a new look when salvaged then voila! Your stronger helmet could be transmogrified to look like the old one while retaining its power. Thankfully, equipment descriptions will say whether or not the item in question unlocks a new look, and when salvaging at a blacksmith these items are even easier to spot thanks to a hammer symbol that appears above them. Even if you aren’t worried about making a bold, Diablo fashion statement, salvaging is still a good idea because it’s a great way to acquire crafting materials. Breaking down equipment can give you things like Iron Chunks and Silver Ore that can then be used at the blacksmith to upgrade your gear. While these materials can be found when you’re cutting down demonic hordes and exploring, you’ll get a lot more of them by recycling your unwanted loot. You can’t actually begin using the blacksmith for upgrades until your character hits level ten, but you can begin to salvage things the second you meet your first blacksmith. Additionally, none of the crafting materials you gather from salvaging will take up any of your precious inventory space and you can hold onto a lot of it so salvage, salvage, salvage!

Any ARPG player will tell you having a proper build is the only way you'll be able to take out stronger enemies and bosses in the game. Diablo IV is no different, with theory crafters and Diablo veterans tinkering and tweaking different skills and Aspects to create the strongest character. Druids are one of the most powerful classes in Diablo IV, mixing high defense with reliable damage via elemental spells. They are among the most challenging classes to play because of all the different mechanics and spell options. If you've been struggling to get past World Tier 3 or complete your Capstone Dungeon, these endgame Druid builds will give you the power boost you need to make it through the more challenging portions of the game. These builds assume that your character is at least level 50 and you've reached the Paragon board; however -- you can also use them to level if you still need to make it there. Diablo IV Werebear Pulverize Build Perhaps the most well-known endgame build in the beta, the Werebear Pulverize build utilizes Earth Spike to build up Spirit and Pulverize as the main damage-dealing attack. The basic skill setup that you can use includes the following: Skills Earth Spike Pulverize Earthen Bulwark Debilitating Roar Trample Grizzly Rage See the full Skill Tree breakdown. The core of this build is to get your Skills and gear to the point where you can spam Pulverize, then obtain gear and Aspects that enhance your Pulverize damage. To recoup and regenerate Spirit faster so that you can spam, players should invest in Core skills like Heart of the Wild and Abundance and the Earthen Might ult, which provides a 5% chance to recoup 100% of your Spirit. Players can also use the unique Mother's Embrace ring that drops from defeating Lilith to refund 20-40% of the resource cost when simultaneously hitting five or more enemies. Key Aspects The two most important aspects of the Werebear Pulverize Build are the Shockwave Aspect and the Aspect of Ursine Horror. The Shockwave Aspect creates a shockwave that blasts in front of your Druid and transforms it into a ranged move. Unfortunately, this is also one of the most challenging Aspects to obtain and can only be found on Legendary 1H weapons, 2H weapons, and gloves. Players may get The Shockwave Aspect by gambling obols at the Curiosity Vendor in town. Luckily, the second critical aspect, The Aspect of Ursine Horror, is much easier and can be obtained by defeating the Belfry Zakara dungeon in Hawezar. This will create tectonic spikes that deal a certain amount of damage after casting Pulverize, transforming it into an AOE attack. It also makes Pulverize an Earth Skill, meaning buffs for Earth Skills also apply to Pulverize. Other aspects you can get, most of which can be obtained by completing dungeons, include: Ballistic: When you have Fortify, your Earth Skills gain +2 ranks. Disobedience: You gain increased armor for four seconds after you deal damage. Retaliation: Your core skills deal increased damage based on your amount of Fortify. Spirit Boons Spirit Boons are a unique mechanic to the Druid and go a long way in enhancing your character's power. The Boons you should activate for this build include the following: Deer: Wariness Eagle: Avian Wrath Wolf: Calamity Snake: Masochistic, Calm Before the Storm Related: https://www.gamecrate.com/guides/diablo-iv-unlock-druid-spirit-boons Key Items Certain Unique items will also synergize with this build and enhance its power significantly. They include: Vasily's Prayer (helm): Earth skills are now Werebear skills and Fortify you. Insatiable Fury (chest): Werebear is now your true form, and you gain +2 ranks on all Werebear skills. Temerity (legs): Effects that Heal you beyond 100% Life grant you a Barrier up to 80% of your Maximum Life that lasts 8 seconds. Ballistic Necklace (amulet): When you have Fortify, your Earth Skills gain +3 ranks. Players should concentrate on gear that provides them additional ranks on their Earth Skills and any equipment that provides Willpower, as it increases the damage that your Pulverize does. Vasily's Prayer is critical to round out this build, as it makes all of your main skills, Werebear and Earth skills, meaning you benefit from any buffs for either type of attack. If you follow these steps exactly, then the Druid Pulverize Earth build is one of the most powerful AOE builds in the entire game while still providing your Druid with enough defense via Fortify and armor to tank high-level dungeon bosses and make it out alive. Try to wrangle as many mobs in clusters as possible, as this will reward you with a greater chance to recoup lost Spirit and increase your overall damage. Diablo IV Werewolf Tornado Build The Werewolf Tornado Build uses Storm Strike to build up Spirit, Tornado as your main attack weapon, and the Werewolf form to increase your attack speed. This synergy enables you to spam your Tornado and procure critical hits more frequently. Skills Storm Strike Tornado Blood Howl Cyclone Armor Hurricane Grizzly Rage See the full Skill Tree breakdown. The Werewolf Tornado build relies on recouping lost Spirit quickly via Earthen Might and increasing attack speed as much as possible by spamming Blood Howl and Grizzly Rage, which puts you in an immune state so you don't get stun locked. With the increased attack speed via your Werewolf skills, you should be able to stack multiple tornados, which will all continue to hit enemies in the area for severe damage over time. Key Aspects The two critical aspects of this build include the Mighty Storm's Aspect and the Dire Wolf's Aspect. The Mighty Storm's Aspect makes it so the Earthen Might skill also applies to Storm Skills, providing a 5% chance to recoup all your Spirit while increasing critical strike damage. Unfortunately, this Aspect can only be found on Legendary gear, which you'll have to farm for or trade obols for at the Curiosity Vendor. Roll on 1H weapons, as they only cost 40 obols, and restrict your rolls to Offensive Aspects. The Dire Wolf's Aspect makes Grizzly Rage transform you into a Werewolf instead of a Werebear while also applying damage reduction, a speed boost, and Spirit cost reduction. It will also heal you when killing mobs, which can be helpful because you won't be in Werebear form and may require additional survivability. Other important Aspects include the following: Vigorous Aspect: Damage reduction while in Werewolf form. Stormchaser's Aspect: Tornados will seek up to 1-3 targets. Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast: The duration of Grizzly Rage is increased by 1-5 seconds and provides increased Critical Strike damage. Spirit Boons The Spirit Boon passives you should get for the Werewolf Tornado build include the following: Deer: Wariness Eagle: Avian Wrath Wolf: Calamity Snake: Masochistic, Calm Before the Storm Key Items Luckily, only a few items are required for the Druid Werewolf Tornado build beside the unique helm, Tempest Roar. Tempest Roar (helm): Storm skills have a chance to grant 4 Spirit. Your base Storm Skills are now also Werewolf Skills. Temerity (legs): Effects that Heal you beyond 100% Life grant you a Barrier up to 80% of your Maximum Life that lasts 8 seconds. Unfortunately, Tempest Roar is required to work at its maximum capacity for this build. It can typically be found in World Tier III and beyond in Helltide Chests, World Bosses, and other random in-game drops. Players can also pick up the unique Temerity (legs), which grants a barrier that lasts up to 8 seconds. If you can obtain Tempest Roar, the Werewolf Tornado build is one of the strongest in the game. Because you're in Werewolf form, you should focus on items to improve your Fortify and survivability since that will be your only weakness. Just as powerful as the Pulverize build but better for single-target bosses, the Werewolf Tornado might be slightly more challenging to use than the Pulverize build, but the DPS payoff is well worth it. Paragon & Gems for Druids in Diablo IV For both builds, initially spec your Paragon points into the Willpower Paragon path – or the right side- as it will increase your character's elemental damage. Branch out and obtain the Tempest Node to boost your Willpower significantly. As you gain more Paragon boards, the path to increase your Willpower and damage output will become more apparent. Paragon is one of the more fun and creative things you can do in the game, so as long as you invest in Willpower and nodes that increase your damage, you’re on the right path. Regarding gems, players should socket Sapphires in armor for damage reduction, Skulls in jewelry for additional armor, and Rubies or Sapphires in weapons for increased Overpower damage or Critical Strike Damage. Whatever build you select for your Druid in Diablo IV all comes down to you. Luckily, there are plenty of options for any playstyle, and this class is one of the most fun and unique in the game. You don’t need to adhere to these rules strictly, but if you do, it should maximize your damage output. If you have difficulty in the game, try reducing your World Tier level or following one of these builds closely to help you through it.

In Diablo 4, Druids gain access to powerful passive buffs known as Spirit Boons at level 15. Players can choose from four Spirit Boons, each providing strong passive bonuses that will help you make it through Tier 2 and beyond. Like the other classes in the game, this class-specific mechanic can synergize with your build and greatly enhance your damage output and survivability. If you're a little lost on how it all works, this guide will tell you everything you need to know about Druid Spirit Boons in Diablo 4. Upon reaching level 15, players unlock the Priority Quest, Spirits of the Lost Grove. To unlock the Spirit Boon mechanic for Druids, players must travel to Túr Dúlra and defeat the Stronghold there. Afterward, players can head to southern Túr Dúlra to unlock different Boons using Druidic Spirit Offerings, a resource that drops when defeating enemies. To enable the Boons after you've unlocked them, open your inventory and select the Spirit Boons tab. From here, you can select one passive per Spirit unless you've unlocked all the boons, in which case you can allocate two Boons for a single Spirit as part of the Spirit Bonding passive buff. There are four different Spirits, each with four different Boons to select from. The four spirits include: Deer Eagle Wolf Snake Each time you unlock a new Spirit Boon tier, the Druidic Spirit Offerings cost increases, with each level costing 25, 50, 75, and 100 for tiers 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The only exception here is the Snake Spirit, which requires you to invest 100 Druidic Spirit Offerings upfront to unlock all its Boons. All Druid Spirit Boons in Diablo 4 Each of the four Spirits has a Boon to select from. See below for all the Boons currently in the game. Deer The Deer Spirit helps players by providing a variety of defensive abilities. Prickleskin: Gain X Thorns Gift of the Stag: Gain 10 Maximum Spirit Wariness: Take 10% reduced damage from Elites Advantageous Beast: Reduce the duration of control impairing effects by 15% Eagle The Eagle Spirit increases attack modifiers, with Iron Feather being the only passive contributing to Health. Scythe Talons: Gain 5% Critical Strike Chance Iron Feather: Gain 10%[x] Maximum Life Swooping Attacks: Gain 10%[+] Attack Speed Avian Wrath: Gain 30%[x] Critical Damage Wolf The Wolf Spirit offers a variety of passive buffs that mainly play on Lucky Hit and Fortify. Packleader: Lucky Hit: Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes have up to a 20% chance to reset the Cooldowns of your Companion Skills. Energize: Lucky Hit: Dealing damage has up to a 15% chance to restore 10 Spirit. Bolster: Fortify for 10% of your Maximum Life when you use a Defensive Skill. Calamity: Extend the duration of Ultimate Skills by 25%. Snake As mentioned, you'll need to invest 100 offerings to unlock all four Snake Spirit Boons. Obsidian Slam: Every 20th kill will cause your next Earth Skill to Overpower. Overload: Lucky Hit: Dealing Lightning damage has up to a 20% chance to cause the target to emit a static discharge, dealing [x] Lightning damage to surrounding enemies. Masochistic: Critical Strikes with Shapeshifting Skills Heal you for 3% Maximum Life (#). Calm Before the Storm: Lucky Hit: Nature Magic Skills have up to a 10% chance to reduce the Cooldown of your Ultimate Skill by 2 seconds. As far as what Diablo 4 Druid Spirit Boons are the best, that really comes down to your build. It will all depend on what kind of skills you’re speccing in and what role you’re trying to fill with your character. Experiment with different Boons to see what fits best with your character. Remember, you can always reset skills with enough gold.

In most games, you’d probably want to sell any rubies, emeralds, or other precious gems you find lying around. In Diablo IV, however, currency is easy to come by and Gems serve a great purpose: making your character even stronger. If you thought that all you would need to kick demon butt was some high level gear, you would be half right. To really maximize your survivability and damage output, you’ll want to find, craft, and upgrade Gems that work with your character build. Finding Gems is the easy part, luckily. As you go about your adventure through Sanctuary, Gems will fall at random from defeated enemies and interactable chunks of ore found throughout the world. The Gems you can find are Amethysts, Diamonds, Emeralds, Rubies, Sapphires, Topazes, and Skulls. No, a Skull isn’t a Gem, but they work the exact same way. Using a Gem is simple. If you have a weapon or piece of armor with a socket on it, indicated by a large, empty circle in the center of the image representing your gear, you can pop any Gem you’ve found into that socket. All you do is select the desired Gem in your inventory, and then the desired, empty socket. All done! The effect you’ll receive is dependent on the type of Gem used, and you’ll likely notice that the bonus isn’t too amazing. That’s because until you hit at least level 20, you’ll most likely only have a collection of Crude Gems. When you do hit level 20, you’ll receive a Priority Quest informing you that you now have access to Jewelers that are marked on your map by a large Gem. If you head to a Jeweler with three Crude Gems (or Crude Skulls) of the same type, you’ll be able to exchange them for a more powerful Chipped Gem. Similarly, when you hit level 40 you’ll be able to exchange three Chipped Gems of the same type for an even more powerful completed Gem. Neat! Perhaps you’ve already socketed some Gems into your gear before reading this guide, and perhaps you’ve noticed that you cannot unsocket it. Don’t worry, because a Jeweler has the proper training and can unsocket any Gems from your gear, thankfully. This means that you can throw Gems wherever you want without fear of losing them. Unless, of course, you sell a piece of gear with a Gem filling one of its sockets — that would definitely be a costly mistake. It’s also important to note that Jewelers can do more than help you craft and unsocket Gems. They can also add sockets to your socketless gear and upgrade amulets and rings in exchange for gold and crafting materials. This may prove more useful as you get into the endgame for Diablo IV and find that your gear isn’t changing as quickly as it was during the beginning of the game, but it’s just another way that you can further customize your demon-slaying arsenal.

With The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom now in the hands of players everywhere, plenty of new mechanics and ideas have been discovered that differentiate this title from its predecessor. One such mechanic is the new way for Link to take damage. Sure, he can still be set on fire, frozen, and electrocuted, but now his hearts can become cracked. This undesirable side effect of taking damage from the mysterious, glowing, ooze known as Gloom makes it impossible for Link to restore the health of any cracked hearts through traditional means. Don’t worry! There are a few ways to remedy any broken hearts you collect. First and foremost, broken hearts aren’t really a big deal most of the time. If you wander into a pile of gloom on the surface of Hyrule or even up on a Sky Island, your hearts will naturally heal themselves after a few seconds. Their health won’t return, but they will stop being cracked. Where cracked hearts become a real obstacle, however, is below Hyrule in the enormous area called the Depths. Down in the Depths, cracked hearts are permanent until you get a Game Over or find a way to restore them. There aren’t any Skyview Towers in the Depths, but there are large, unlockable fast travel points known as Lightroots. Like Skyview Towers, these massive, glowing roots will fill in the map of the Depths, but they will also heal any cracked hearts you may have by virtue of their cleansing light. Nice, right? While this is handy, the Depths are enormous and filled with Gloom. Baddies in the Depths will crack your hearts simply by touching you, so having to run all the way back to a Lightroot doesn’t help with exploration too much. Luckily, there’s an ingredient you can find back on the surface that will add a cracked heart-restoring property to cooked meals. Naturally, the plant that will dispel the heart-cracking effects of the Gloom is the Sundelion. While this helpful, little flower can be found on the surface, it is much easier to find in large quantities on Sky Islands. The South Eldin Sky Archipelago in particular is a great farming location for Sundelions, and it’s an easier group of Sky Islands to reach. The Eldin Canyon Skyview Tower (located at coordinates 1637, 1183, 0225) will spit players out within perfect landing distance of these floating hunks of earth. With Sundelions and a few other ingredients in hand, you can stock up on meals that will restore cracked hearts and make exploring the Depths much easier. It’s worth noting that if a dish says it will restore three cracked hearts, it will not necessarily heal all of those hearts. It simply makes those cracked hearts healable once more. Of course, with some proper experimentation you can easily prepare some meals that will simultaneously restore pools of health and cure those pesky, cracked hearts. Good luck in the Depths, and make sure you take some Brightbloom Seeds to light your way as well!

Gaming laptops are like other categories, with multiple sizes that meet varying user needs. And the gaming laptop industry has responded. Some gamers want the most powerful laptop they can get to run modern titles at the highest resolutions and with all features, like HDR and ray tracing, turned on. That dictates powerful CPUs and GPUs that run hot and need a lot of room for thermal management. Then there’s screen size, where some gamers want the largest panel for the most immersive experience. Other gamers care less about performance and would rather have a laptop that’s easier to carry around. They’re okay with a smaller screen and slower components, as long as they can play most games at reasonable frame rates and graphical detail. It’s a balancing act, and one that has produced a variety of laptops meeting the needs of all these different kinds of users. Which is the best size of gaming laptop for you? 13-inch gaming laptops Yes, there are 13-inch gaming laptops, and they appeal to users who want the least amount of gaming laptop to carry around but aren’t as worried about performance. Let’s face it – there’s only so much space inside such a small chassis and keeping things cool can be a challenge. Perhaps the best example of the class is the 2023 ROG Flow X13, a brand-new 13-inch laptop announced at CES 2023. It comes with an AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPU and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070. That’s an incredible amount of power to so easily carry around. Plug in the Asus XG add-on, and you can equip up to an RTX 4090 for a true gaming platform that’s no longer so portable. 14-inch gaming laptops A more common highly portable gaming laptop size is the 14-inch class, which offers slightly more room inside while still being small enough to easily carry around. The 14-inch laptop has generally become more popular for adding some additional screen real estate without requiring a much larger chassis. Even so, there’s more room inside for better thermal designs and more airflow, and so 14-inch gaming laptops can most often be configured with some powerful components. The Razer Blade 14 has been the best version for a couple of years, offering up to a very fast AMD Ryzen 9 6900HZ CPU and an RTX 3080 Ti for playing modern titles at 1440p with graphics turned up. The 14-inch display runs at up to 165Hz in the QHD version, allowing high frame rates with no tearing. There’s a reason why the Razer Blade 14 has garnered strong reviews and is at the top of a lot of best-of lists. 15-inch and 16-inch gaming laptops The sweet spot for years has been the 15-inch laptop, actually built around 15.6-inch 16:9 aspect ratio displays. There’s been a wide range of variation in this space, with some thinner and lighter laptops and some that have been pretty hefty. But the extra chassis size provides a lot more room for faster components and better thermal management – hence, typically much faster gaming performance. The industry has been migrating to 16-inch laptops lately, adding a bit of screen without massive increases in chassis size. It’s a lot like the adoption of 14-inch laptops over 13.3-inch machines, and for the same purpose. We’re glad to see the change, because more screen is a good thing especially in this particular laptop size. We’re also seeing most manufacturers adopting 16:10 aspect ratios, which provide taller displays and hence more room for productivity work – and after all, these machines are often using for work as much as for gaming. The Razer Blade 15 is one of the holdouts in the 15.6-inch panel size, and it remains one of the best rated gaming laptops around. It can be configured with fast Intel 13th-gen Core i9 CPUs and RTX 4070 GPU, which means it’s not the fastest gaming machine but it’s one of the thinnest and lightest. And example of a newer 16-inch gaming machine is the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, which in reviews has demonstrated monster performance. 17-inch gaming laptops The largest mainstream gaming laptops come in at 17.3 inches, providing extremely large screens and in many (but not all) massive chassis. If you want some of the best thermals, highest-end components, and best keyboards and port selections, then the 17-inch class is the way to go. Just remember that they’re going to be bulky, both large in widget, depth and (typically) thickness and also the heaviest gaming laptops you can buy. Dell’s Alienware x17 R2 is an example of a 17-inch machine that’s rather thin for the class and still offers outstanding gaming performance; in particular, its “absurd” 480Hz refresh rate has reviewers buzzing. The x17 R2 is still running previous gen Intel 12th-gen CPUs and Nvidia RTX 3000 GPUs, but it’s a fast gaming laptop nonetheless. For something comparable with current gen specs, HP’s Omen 17 is an example of a newer machine introduced at CES 2023 that has Intel 13th-gen CPUs and Nvidia RTX 4000 GPUs. 18-inch gaming laptops If you want to go really massive, then you can opt for an 18-inch laptop. There aren’t as many to choose from and so they’re not exactly mainstream, but if you want the absolutely largest display and chassis, then they’re an option. It’s another newer gaming laptop that’s not quite available for sale, but in hands-on reviews has been impressive. It offers a mix of high-end Intel 13th-gen and AMD Ryzen CPUs and Nvidia and AMD GPUs, with an 18-inch display running at a crazy 480Hz refresh rate. Which gaming laptop size is right for you? There are two questions to answer when it comes to picking the right gaming laptop size. Do you want to run the newest games at the highest frame rates, resolutions, and graphical detail with features like ray tracing and HDR turn one? If so, then you’ll be looking at a 15-inch or larger laptop. On the other hand, if you want a laptop that’s easier to carry around and you’re less demanding in your performance needs, then a 14-inch or 13-inch laptop might be the ticket.

In 2003, everyone’s favorite entrepreneur, Wario, had an idea. Instead of spending all his time making one big game, he would aggregate several smaller games, put them together in a curated collection, and distribute them. He was ahead of his time. We aren’t advocating for a new Warioware release (Well, we are. Warioware is awesome. It’s just not what we’re talking about here). We are saying that there is a lot of power in the idea of creating a curated content platform for smaller games, and we might very see that happen in the future. If you aren’t heavily into the indie game scene, then you probably get all your indie titles from Steam, Epic Games, or maybe even first-party digital stores on consoles. However, hundreds of thousands of indie titles come out on more indie-friendly platforms like Itch.io, Gamers Gate, and Game Jolt every day. That’s just full titles. There are heaps more demos, alphas, and prototypes to play. They are all free, take no time to download and install, and can be played in a few minutes to a few hours. They are also some of the coolest experiences that are out there to be had, titles that fool around with genre and mechanics in ways AAA titles are afraid to. And they are impossible to find. That’s the problem with any platform that has tons of titles. You have to go searching yourself. Every so often a neat title comes out and outlets pick it up, write an article about it, and it catches on in mainstream consciousness, but for each title that lucks out, there are hundreds and thousands of titles that don’t. This is because curation on these platforms, and arguably curation on big platforms like Steam, is pretty bad. Sure it can show you the most popular games and it can sort by tags, but tags can sometimes be deceiving. Steam is trying to tailor recommendations to your preferences and they are getting there, but there is still a major barrier: cost. It’s really difficult to take a chance on a lot of games on Steam because they cost money. Spending money on a game you never played before and know nothing about is always a crapshoot, and if you are living on a budget you’d likely be a little hesitant to make impulse purchases, and there aren’t a whole lot of games that have free demos. But that’s not the case on platforms like Itch.io and GameJolt. Most of the games there have free demos, or are still in development and have free alphas. Yes, there are plenty of games you can buy and you should spend money to support your favorite developers, but the wealth of free gaming experiences is a truly untapped goldmine, both for gamers like us, and for developers in terms of exposure. So the question is, how do you get these games in front of an audience? This brings us back to Wario. Wario is a genius. He predicted in 2003 that one of our primary methods of consuming media would be through short-form content. We all Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, all platforms build upon short easily digestible, and, more importantly, easily scrollable media. Each tiny bit of content on these platforms can be consumed in a short period of time. If you like it, you comment, share, and interact, and “the algorithm” will make choice pieces of content float to the top and curate them to people based on their preferences, followed tags, and general viewing history. If you don’t, just scroll past, no harm, no foul. This is our breakneck speed low attention high content social information age. While lots of people like to pull an “old man yells at cloud” and complain about this media landscape, we think it can be harnessed for good. We have short-form platforms text, pictures, and video, why not games? Well, as we said before there are platforms that have tons of short-form proof of concept games. All that would have to be done is to package them in a familiar social media formula. So here’s the thought. Think of a service like TikTok. You get to scroll through game after game, watching a video or trailer being played. At any time, you can click play, and BOOM, you are trying the game out. This can be done with game streaming, especially since most of these small indie games don’t take a whole lot of graphical processing power. You play for a bit in some shortened demo version of the game, see if you like it, give it a few comments, and then scroll on to the next one. Or maybe you just scroll to the next one if you are bored. If you find one you really like, you can purchase the full version, or pre-order it if it’s not out yet, or perhaps even just wish to list it. In a perfect world where our game streaming services aren’t so... bad… you could do this with AAA gaming platforms like Steam too. It would require many, MANY more games to have available demos, or at the very least publishers would have to be comfortable with users playing small snippets of an otherwise complete game. Why do this? Well, social media platforms are built around one philosophy: ease of access. Absurd ease of access. They want nothing coming between you and the content that you scroll through endlessly. They want to keep your eyes on their platform. It’s how they make money. And ease of access is, in fact, one of gaming’s biggest problems right now. Finding, trying, and buying games that fit your tastes is still kind of difficult. It requires a lot of research, a lot of skepticism, and a lot of purchases that end up being duds. Yes, this model works just fine now, but it could be better. Why not harvest the immense attention retaining power of social media for the good of gaming everywhere? Let’s face it, we aren’t going to be getting our demos at events like E3 anymore. The pandemic saw fit to put a stop to that. So we might as well think of new and interesting ways to try games that we might potentially love. I mean what else are we going to do, bring back Blockbuster Video? Ugh… perish the thought.