With Diablo 4’s runewords, sorcerers won’t be the only class who can teleport across the screen. Barbarians won’t be the only ones who can shout so loud their skin turns to iron. Stealth? Not just for rogues anymore either. Runewords break the rules of Sanctuary and they’re coming with the Vessel of Hatred expansion in October.

Runewords have existed in the series since Diablo 1, but in Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred they’ve been simplified. Runes are a new type of item that drop from monsters (or are traded from other players) that let you essentially create your own skills. Ritual runes build up a new resource called offering, and invocation runes spend offering to trigger a unique skill, some of which are borrowed from other classes.

Take a legendary Yul and Jah rune for exam…

The wildly unpredictable spinoff publishers over at Riot Forge have got something new for you—Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story will be a crafting RPG inspired by games like Stardew Valley that stars the adorable fluffballs known as the Yordles, set in their hometown of Bandle City. It’ll be developed by Lazy Bear, the studio behind Graveyard Keeper and Punch Club, with adorably colorful pixel art to match.

“After a party goes wrong, the portals that connect your home collapse and throw everything into chaos! Using your knitting magic and backpack house, restore the portals to reunite Bandle City,” says the game description. 

Players will be in charge of a Yordle who has just finished their 101-year apprenticeship in knitting, which I guess is magic in Bandle…

As part of update 3.1.0, Total War: Warhammer 3 has another free legendary hero. Last time it was the Kislevite vampire Ulrika Magdova, and this time it’s a hard counter to undead like her: Harald Hammerstorm, also known as Harry the Hammer, a Chaos Warrior who specializes in killing anything that rises from the grave.

If you didn’t already go through this step to unlock Ulrika, to get Harry in your game you’ll first need to register a CA account and connect it to your platform of choice. Otherwise, you can skip that process. With that done, the hammer-wielding Kurgan will join a Warriors of Chaos army in any campaign after you complete his quest “The Hammerstorm Cometh”, which appears when you get your legendary lord up to level 15. It demands you kill 3,000 enemies in battle, af…

Save your Wordle win streak in a flash: just click your way straight to the answer to the September 7 (810) puzzle. After you’ve enjoyed today’s win you might want to take a look at our helpful tips or click through to our Wordle guide, both designed to help you make the most of every guess.

Today’s answer only came to me right at the end, after an early green led me down the wrong path for far too long. Looking back I can see it was entirely my fault—I forgot to keep an open mind. Hopefully I’ll remember this close shave when I tackle tomorrow’s Wordle.

Today’s Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Thursday, September 7

If you live in a particular place of any size you could be said to _____ there. Alternatively, today’s answer can also describe m…

What the hell are you doing still reading this? Don’t waste your time reading me talking lovingly about the excellent Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 now dropping below $900 at Best Buy, and how it’s one of the best gaming laptops of the past generation. If you’re in the market for a new notebook you should just go buy the damned thing and then pop back if you want a little post-purchase affirmation.

Sorted? Excellent. You, my good human, will soon be the proud owner of an outstanding little gaming laptop. 

Asus has been in the headlines a lot recently for the mess it’s made of its side of the burning AMD Ryzen 7000X3D CPU issue. But whatever shine that might take off the brand itself, there’s no getting away from the fact the Zephyrus G14 is a gaming laptop classic.

And it…

While the original Lords of the Fallen took after Dark Souls, this new 2023 reboot looks like it’s walking close behind the swishing cloak of Bloodborne. The latest trailer, revealed at the PC Gaming Show, shows off a Soulsbourne game polished to a high sheen. It’s certainly captured my interest.

Games journalists get a lot of flack for saying a game is “the next Dark Souls,” and calling yet another game “the new Bloodborne” is getting very old-tricorn-hat at this point. Still, honestly, if you’d shown me this trailer in isolation and told me it was a new Bloodborne sequel from Bluepoint Games, the people who remade Demon’s Souls, I’d believe you.

Confusingly, Lords of the Fallen is a sequel to 2014’s Lords of the Fallen (now called “Lords…

At the 2023 PC Gaming Show, Vampire Survivors developer Poncle announced the hit bullet heaven’s 1.5 update, complete with a fresh map, character variation, and chaotic new pickup. Patch 1.5 of Vampire Survivors is set to go live tomorrow, June 12.

The latest map, “Astral Stair,” will feature “seemingly endless corridors, flying paintings, and a gameshow-like spinning wheel that triggers random events.” I’m curious to see how that gameshow wheel shakes up Vampire Survivors’ already chaotic pace of play, and what’s more, the new feature’s not limited to Astral Stair⁠—it can be activated on any map thanks to the new “Trisection” relic, opening up new frontiers in pixel-popping on screen chaos reminiscent of Vampire Survivors’ chaotic viewer voting Twitch streaming mode.<…

I don’t always play surrealistic metroidvanias about escaping the clutches of ancient demonic beings, but when I do, I prefer for them to be set in giant cosmic uteruses. A difficult scratch to itch, but that’s the setting for Ultros, developed by Swedish studio Hadoque, and due for release in 2024.

Above is a new trailer shown during the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted livestream, offering further proof—in case you need it—that Ultros is a gorgeously distinct adventure. Its setting and themes are embedded in sci-fi, but the art style avoids any of the cliches associated with that tag. No, Ultros looks fecund, ornate, alive. No surprise then, that Ultros’ dextrous hack-and-slash combat is balanced by a meditative farming component, which appears to be how the pro…