The Elder Scrolls: Arena is the first game in the series, and has an OST composed by Eric Heberling (who would also be on audio duties for The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall.) TES: Arena shipped in 1994 on MS-DOS, meaning that Heberling's orchestral-style compositions had to be compressed to fit the technology of the time, something he bemoaned in a 2011 interview:

"The Elder Scrolls games used an 'orchestral' palette," said Heberling. "I mainly used the instruments offered by General MIDI. That said, I composed with a Roland Sound Canvas, when few players owned anything remotely similar. Inevitably, I had to convert them for FM Sound Blasters, etc. All the tracks suffered as a result. Especially the arrangements that relied on the timbre of the GM samples. Those I reinforced with counter-melodies fared better."

More than 30 years later, an enterprising young composer called Ryan Zachariah Martin (YouTube, Bandcamp) has taken it upon himself to compose a remake of the entire OST, and has released it across various platforms including Spotify. I'm a total sucker for cover versions of classic videogame music, purely because it's always great to hear the original compositions break free of their technological limitations:, and this is a wonderful example.

In another interview Heberling had highlighted the song Oversnow as one of his favorite tracks, and I can see why: it quickly builds layers into a beautiful crescendo before looping back on itself. In Martin's version, the counter-melodies of Oversnow have been gorgeously re-done.

"Arena has always been a game that I hold close to my heart," Martin tells PCG. "Not only is it the first entry of my favourite series, The Elder Scrolls, but a time capsule in both old-school RPG game design & music. It was actually released the year I was born, and I discovered it by working my way slowly backwards from Morrowind. When I read that the game featured all of Tamriel, I had to try it. I felt an odd nostalgia for it and it was a wonderful experience."

As for the qualities of the Arena soundtrack itself, Martin says it "has many similar motifs and elements that feature in the Daggerfall soundtrack and I think it's important that fans of The Elder Scrolls have the opportunity to hear a modernised version of the music, using software that wasn't available at the time."

I ask Martin what he likes most about the Arena OST, and the remake track he's proudest of.

"My favourite thing about the Arena OST is that it perfectly fits the retro-RPG vibe," says Martin. It's grandiose and varied, with eerie, atmospheric dungeon tracks & powerful, orchestral pieces for the intro & outro. It really gives you a sense of wonder and adventure, helping the player fully immerse themselves in the experience."

I have to concur: it must be decades now since I last turned on Arena, but I've had this remade OST playing in the background for the last hour or so and the '90s stylings are undeniable. That "retro-RPG vibe" Martin references is a perfect description, and at times it almost felt like I was back on my dad's PC playing Arena with a slideshow framerate in a nook of the dining room.

"I am most proud of the character creation track," says Martin. "I loved the tribal & orchestral mix and it was a challenge trying to recapture that in a more modern setting, whilst staying true to the original. The intro theme is another piece I was quite proud of. I think I captured the feel of what the intro was originally aiming for, with an emphasis on the beauty & simplicity of the melodies, rather than a bombastic orchestral piece."

Skyrim's got a lot of NPCs. Thing is, most of 'em are dolts. They don't have any kind of distinct personality or routine, and sometimes do the dumbest stuff imaginable. I'll never forget the time a dragon flew down to attack me near a settlement, destroying some fencing in the process, and the entire town swivelled before charging towards me, daggers drawn, completely ignoring the massive dragon in their midst that had actually caused the damage.

In recent years Skyrim's peerless modding scene has seen various experiments incorporating AI elements into the game, with varying results: PCG's Chris Livingston took a ChatGPT-powered Skyrim companion for a test drive and it nearly got him killed by repeatedly failing to solve the game's easiest puzzle. Another that's been around since 2023 is Mantella, which uses various AI LLMs alongside speech-to-text tech to enable NPC conversations, and last week received a major update.

Mantella boasts NPCs that "have memories of your previous conversations, are aware of in-game events, have vision, and can even perform actions." You can see an example of a conversation below (which is from a version before this patch) and, yeah, it's stilted in places and the voicework is clearly rudimentary computer babble: but it works.

Here's another, showing an NPC follower being scornful about the player's dance moves.

Installing Mantella is fairly straightforward (here's an installation guide, and a collection of community resources), and the new version (0.14) improves nearly every element of it, focusing particularly on NPC awareness and how they interact with the world. Among the improvements made in this version are:

• Advanced actions—Mantella can now trigger complex in-game actions. Actions can now be triggered in multi-NPC and radiant conversations. Advanced actions can be enabled in the `Actions` tab of the Mantella UI
• Nearby NPC tracking—Nearby NPCs are now added to the context and can be targeted by actions
• Combat targets are now tracked, and their deaths are added to the context
• Vanilla dialogue awareness—Vanilla dialogue interactions are now added to the LLM's context
• NPCs can approach the player and start a one-on-one conversation (disabled by default)

This version also supports group conversations involving up to five NPCs, with the winning detail that they'll no longer bellow across the room at each other, but group up like people would when talking.

A user with the un-improveable name BongChompsky says: "How do the voices work...? How on earth is the AI able to use the NPC voices so well? Is it because Skyrim is so thoroughly data-mined? I was shocked to hear some voices from Mod NPCs as well. Strangely, Hjoromir from Interesting NPCs has Aval Atheron's voice... the dark elf who sells meat in Whiterun, lol. Like some others have posted, I am floored by this mod."

If I can offer a more sceptical take, Mantella definitely points towards one future path for mods in particular, and it is an undeniably impressive production that can surprise you unexpectedly. But this isn't a revolution so much as an extremely cool gimmick, one that puts me in mind of that AI cliche about it being as wide as the ocean but as deep as a puddle. Mandela brings something new and different to a world we're all so familiar with, but this is still very much a work-in-progress.

To paraphrase some lyrics from my mispent youth pining for a Hot Topic, 'this ain't a scene, it's a goddamn AI arms race'. The preview of DeepSeek V4 is now live, and given that the AI giant was reportedly not so keen to grant Nvidia and AMD early access to the new model, the American AI industry has been equally keen to outpace China-based businesses any way it can. Case in point, Nvidia is really pushing OpenAI's GPT-5.5.

DeepSeek wouldn't give Nvidia the sneak peek, so 10,000 of its employees got an early look at OpenAI’s latest frontier model instead. The company went with a widespread rollout of Codex, specifically, which is OpenAI’s agentic coding application powered by GPT-5.5. This has apparently resulted in big efficiency wins. "Debugging cycles that once stretched across days are closing in hours," says Nvidia.

The Nvidia blog continues in a similarly effusive tone: "Experimentation that previously required weeks is turning into overnight progress in complex, multi-file codebases. Teams are shipping end-to-end features from natural-language prompts, with stronger reliability and fewer wasted cycles than earlier models."

As with anything agentic, security was top of mind for the rollout. So, to "ensure maximum security and auditability" (and presumably to stop Codex from getting into anything it shouldn't), all participating Nvidia employees were given a cloud-based virtual machine to run the AI agent from. From there, Codex can read company data but can't directly edit it (or indeed, delete). To oversimplify, they locked the bot in a virtual plexiglass box.

The blog post also surfaces similarly gushing praise from employees, with choice quotes calling Codex's results “mind-blowing” and “life-changing". Codex was rolled out across plenty of company departments besides engineering and development, with folks working in "product, legal, marketing, finance, sales, HR, and operations" also getting to grips with the application (personally, I would love to hear the honest Codex thoughts of a grumpy office admin).

Such enthusiasm from Nvidia is no surprise, though. For one thing, the two companies have an ongoing relationship to the tune of billions (though Nvidia has scaled down what was originally a $100 billion investment in OpenAI, to a slightly less eye-watering $30 billion more recently).

Second, GPT-5.5 runs on Nvidia GB200 NVL72 rack-scale systems. This set-up is apparently "capable of delivering 35x lower cost per million tokens and 50x higher token output per second per megawatt compared with prior-generation systems," making it an economically appealing enterprise model. Company head Jensen Huang quipped to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over email, "Fire up those Blackwells. We need more tokens!"

Larian has some big aspirations for its next RPG, Divinity, which it hopes will surpass even the mighty Baldur's Gate 3. It will be "even larger" than BG3, with "deeper sequences of consequence," more interesting fail states, better character customization, and even more natural and complex NPC relationships. Given how good Baldur's Gate 3 was in all those regards, that's aiming very high indeed.

Larian publishing director Michael Douse is aiming even higher than that, though. He wants the launch of Divinity, when it happens, to utterly destroy Steam.

A little background to begin: Baldur's Gate 3 launched into early access in October 2020 and was an immediate hit—not without issues, but it laid a very strong foundation for the full game, and Larian's subsequent high-visibility development over the next few years built anticipation for the full release even higher. It reached the point that, when Baldur's Gate 3 hit 1.0, Steam felt the impact. It trembled; it shuddered; it wobbled; it didn't go down, but boy, it was shook.

Larian boss Swen Vincke actually apologized for the trouble—tongue in cheek, perhaps, but a nice gesture nonetheless.

You know who's not sorry? Douse. The only regret he has, apparently, is that Baldur's Gate 3 didn't leave a smouldering crater where Steam used to be, and by god, next time he wants to make sure.

"Walked past this in the office. Forgot this happened," Douse wrote on X, alongside an image of a report about Steam's troubles when BG3 hit early access. "At the time we even fact checked it with Valve.

"I hope we absolutely demolish it next time. You remember so little when doing so much."

Well! Them's fightin' words, although I'm obligated to say (just in case it needs to be said) that I don't think Douse is seriously wishing harm on Steam, just that he hopes Divinity will be a successful release. But if it does somehow "demolish" Steam? Yeah, that'll be a pretty funny bonus.

For those who haven't been following along with Divinity, I should also clarify that this demolition train isn't likely to be pulling into the station anytime soon. Divinity was announced with a hell of a trailer at the end of 2025, and like Baldur's Gate 3 the plan is to go with an early access release, but so far there's no sign of when that will be: BG3 went from initial reveal to early access launch in 16 months, so 2027 feels like a pretty decent maybe, but at this point it's anyone's guess.

(Here's that Divinity reveal trailer if you haven't seen it. Stick with it—trust me, it goes places.)

Occasionally, I encounter a story that speaks volumes in a single image. It tells of human strife, endeavour, and an unwavering commitment to triumph in the face of adversity. This is one of those images.

My dear colleague Jacob Fox directed me to the r/pcmasterrace subreddit this morning, so that I may behold what he too has seen. And it's this Mac mini, with what I will call an "unorthodox" cooling setup.

I can't afford AC, so built this DIY watercooler for my mac mini, temprature dropped from 74°c to 49°c from r/pcmasterrace

At the risk of ruining the subtle beauty of what Reddit user kartikgsniderj has created, I'll attempt to explain what I see. I think what we're looking at here is a Mac that's been given a heavy ridge of packing tape around the outer chassis to act as a water cooling tray.

This, as the thread title reveals, is a cooling system—and apparently an effective one, too. As our redditor can't afford air conditioning, they "basically sprinkle water drops on top of tissue paper," to cool their machine, which is then presumably collected in the packing tape "tray", so as not to ruin the electrical components underneath.

Temp reductions of 74 °C to 49 °C are nothing to sniff at, though, and evaporative cooling is a thing. And I've been known to break out the packing tape in times of emergency, as well as enduring hot summers without the pleasure of air conditioning.

Still, I fear for the day this setup experiences an inevitable accident. The moment when that fragile tape lets go at a crucial junction, allowing water to drip into the vents and ports beyond.

There's a chunky power supply in there, too, you know. For goodness sake, do not attempt this in your own home. Water and mains power absolutely do not mix, and while the ingenuity here is notable, it's still a very, very bad idea.

Just last week, Night Street Games, an indie studio founded by Imagine Dragons' lead singer and manager Dan and Mac Reynolds, released Last Flag. It's a 5v5 multiplayer shooter built exclusively around the iconic capture the flag game mode, a favourite of the Reynolds brothers.

I've not played it, but it's got positive reviews on Steam and looks fun enough. It's dirt cheap, too, costing just $15. Despite that, it's struggling to find its audience right now, debuting with less than 600 concurrent players and declining in the days since.

It's not a great start, but in an interview with GamesRadar, Mac Reynolds expressed confidence in the team's vision and approach, saying the studio's priority is creating a good, unique game, because chasing trends or specific audiences is "a slippery slope."

"I really don’t think it’s how the best games—or art in general—are made. You absolutely want to listen to your players when you develop, but the creative core has to be what inspires you and your team, or it won’t have soul and you’ll burn out trying to force it into existence. So although we aren’t blind to what happens around us with other games, we really try to protect the team’s freedom to build without trying to think about other hits and misses when it comes to creative vision."

He adds that "players will still jump in and play something new—even a shooter in an already popular subgenre—if it brings something to the table that’s different and exciting for them." That's exactly what the team have tried to do with Last Flag, designing an entire game around the CTF mode.

It's a sentiment shared by Arc Raiders' design director Virgil Watkins (also interviewed by GamesRadar), who explained that Embark's extraction shooter wasn't an attempt to "break into a particular type of shooter or follow a trend." The team tried many different types of games, including co-op PvE, before settling on its extraction format. It wasn't designed to explicitly carve a path in the multiplayer shooter and extraction genres; it just did because it offered something new.

As much as I agree that sticking to a creative vision rather than caving to the whims of players is generally the way to go, it's no guarantee of success. The past few years have been a harsh lesson that you most likely won't make the next big hit, especially for live service games: we've all got plenty enough to play already, especially with how time-consuming some of these live games can be. Concord died after two weeks, Highguard disappeared after three months, and many more games have come and gone without the attention of such a spotlight. Even Bungie's Marathon is having a hard time retaining players despite being a fantastic FPS and enjoying a strong launch.

Last Flag's not off to the best start, but Reynolds claims that its "success will not be measured by how many people play it," since the team "already achieved the most important thing we could control, which is making a game we love and are proud of as a team."

Tifa Lockhart might be a Final Fantasy 7 character first and foremost, but another community has been wishing for her presence for a hot sec now: the Tekken community.

I always used to associate guest characters with Soulcalibur's zanier choices like Yoda, Ezio, and our very own PC Gamer mascot Geralt of Rivia. But other fighting games have been stuffing all sorts of weird outsiders into their rosters for a good while now. Tekken 7 had freakin' Negan from The Walking Dead, for example. But that game also had another guest character, one Noctis of Final Fantasy 15 fame.

It means that it wasn't totally out of the realm of possibility that Tekken 8 could end up with another Final Fantasy character, and the one everyone campaigned for the hardest? Tifa. It makes sense! She's a brawler, and her vibe feels perfect for a 3D fighting game. The only other character I saw people going so hard to bat for was Yakuza's Kiryu.

And then at the end of the first season, we got our Final Fantasy character. Except, erm, it was actually Final Fantasy 16's Clive Rosfield. A cool character in his own right, but he's no Lockhart.

The chances of a second Final Fantasy character are slim, but now they might be none if the latest rumours are anything to go by. Whispers are bouncing around the FGC that Tifa might actually end up in Capcom's own Street Fighter 6. A rumour which has left myself, and the Tekken community, in shambles.

"The Tekken bros shouldn't have asked for Tifa," one Reddit comment joked, before referencing the former Tekken head's mantra of Don't Ask Me For Shit: "Harada was very clear." Another comment on a different post said "If this is true then this is a big fumble for Tekken."

Another redditor summarised my own feelings pretty well: "I just never ever imagined in SF’s 30+ history, we would potentially be getting Tifa as a playable character. The one character Tekken fans have been asking for since 8 came out no less."

The secret, tiny possibility is that Tifa could arguably be in two fighting games. Nier: Automata's 2B is in both Soulcalibur 6 and Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising. That's a 3D and a 2D fighter! That could be Tifa! But they're also two fighting games from different generations unlike Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6. But hey, a girl can always hope.

And of course, rumours are always exactly that: just a rumour. Nothing's confirmed, so we'll just have to wait for Capcom to reveal the next season's fighters in its own time.

One thing that really impressed me with our running RPG of the year, Esoteric Ebb, is how it handles failure and save scumming, the practice of abusing a game's save/load feature just to get your desired result at every turn⁠—we all do it, at least sometimes, and we all feel guilty about it.

Save scumming risks ruining the stakes of a story and making me feel invincible⁠—or at least like I'm bowling with bumpers⁠—but sometimes I'll just feel railroaded into having no other option in a dice rolling RPG like this. Other times, I'll get a one-in-a-million failure rolling a skill I've put a ton of points into, and that just feels terrible.

Esoteric Ebb does a genuinely good job of showing its players interesting, cool things when they fail⁠, scenes that I wanted to remain part of my story, and not erased via metagaming intervention. What's more, there's an in-game resource to reroll failed checks ("Shards of Jor"), and using it is much faster than trying to reload a save. I asked Esoteric Ebb's designer, Christoffer Bodegård, for his thoughts on this design problem when we spoke after Esoteric Ebb's launch.

Bodegård said that he thinks in terms of the player being able to "design their own experience." What if they're a "bad designer" who flees from consequence at every turn? "I usually go with, 'Just let them go wild,'" Bodegård told me, saying that, if they're having fun, it's not a problem. He's not there to be offended as your dungeon master, after all, and if a DM is dealing with a rowdy table who won't play by the rules, "maybe that's not the table's fault, necessarily."

So we're not passing any judgement on the lumpen scummer, but Bodegård still wants to offer a well-paced, well-structured experience, no matter how players might react to it. That's where clever design that makes it feel like it's OK to fail comes in. Bodegård cited two major early encounters as examples of how he approaches the design challenge.

In the second room of Esoteric Ebb, there's a mysterious character who presents as your benefactor, but clearly also has their own agenda. You can make a difficulty class (DC) 33 Wisdom check⁠—practically impossible⁠—to deduce their whole deal. If you fail, no sweat, you can retry it with a Shard of Jor, while your investigation and other story revelations will lower the DC.

Succeeding at the check leads to a major sidequest, but there are other ways to get on the trail, too. "It's a tutorial on how to play the game," said Bodegård. "Which is: Don't save scum, just let it happen, and you will be taken care of. I am your DM, trust me. I don't always succeed perfectly, but I do it enough that you should be able to trust me."

The other early game roadblock Bodegård dove into was accessing the magically sealed tea shop crime scene at the center of Esoteric Ebb's mystery. "You're not going to succeed the first time, that's OK," Bodegård said. "You're going to make it into the tea shop later. This [Strength check] is going to be lowered. You can find Knock, you can find Grease, and make the planks easier to rip apart.

"You're going to find a back way in. You can find the password from the Coinlord. You can convince him to give you the password without swearing an oath. You can have a low Intelligence and guess the password. It's a bunch of different stuff stolen from Fallout, obviously, like all good things."

Bodegård said that these considerations come together "to build an illusion of agency" within the confines of the story he's put together. "The player feels like they can actually do whatever they want," said Bodegård. "I try my best to not break that illusion."

Are we all here? Excellent. I've gathered the keyboard nerd community today to show you The Listening Museum, a website that allows you to select from 36 different typing devices and switches, and, err, type on them. Well, you get to type in a box, anyway. But it plays the sounds of each keeb/switch in real time.

See, that was worth getting out of bed for, wasn't it? The first keyboard on the list is the truly iconic IBM Model M, as is right and proper (via Techspot). After that comes a whole host of different keebs and switches, which may prove very useful if you're looking to try out something new in the near future.

It's not just traditional mechanical computer keyboards and switches that are represented, though, as there's also the odd typewriter on the list. I'm a particular fan of the IBM Selectric-era typewriter. Yes, that's the sound of Mad Men-era advertising executives writing bizarre copy, and I'm totally here for it. You can almost smell the cigarette smoke and cheap whiskey.

Each sound gets an onomatopoeic description, too. For the "vintage typewriter" model, it is as follows:

"Steel typebar slaps a rubber platen through an inked ribbon, inside a steel resonant frame, every strike is a mini-hammer hitting a drum. Carriage return ding is an actual bell. The sound is not comparable to any modern switch."

Gosh, it's almost poetry. It's unclear if said description was actually typed on each example, but I'm imagining so as it's more fun. Imagine typing this on an HHKB Pro Hybrid with Topre switches, for example:

"Capacitive sensing means no physical switch contact, the conical rubber dome absorbs almost all high-frequency energy before the POM slider bottoms on the dome collar, so what you hear is a low, damped thump.

"PBT domed keycaps + dense chassis reinforce that bass signature. No clicky leaf, no metal-on-metal: pure low-mid thock."

Yes, you keyboard enthusiasts can be quite intense—and having tested quite a few for this very website, I'd like to count myself among you. Where is the clubhouse, exactly? I was sent to an abandoned warehouse in the middle of Birmingham, and I'm pretty sure the man on the door didn't appreciate my use of the word "creamy". Oh well.

It looks like the US government might be getting a little more serious about tackling the growth and development of foreign AI companies, judging by a White House memo seen by the Financial Times. The memo reportedly says:

"The US government has information indicating that foreign entities, principally based in China, are engaged in deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns to distil US frontier AI systems."

The White House will apparently share information about all this with other American AI companies and help them coordinate against these operations.

Distillation, in the context of AI, is the process of training a model based on the outputs of a more advanced one, so it can learn how to replicate it. The Financial Times reported earlier in the year that Anthropic had accused DeepSeek, Moonshot, and MiniMax of "industrial-scale distillation attacks on our models."

Given Anthropic has been in more talks with the White House this month to discuss working together, it's not a big stretch to assume that the company is at least in part responsible for bringing the White House's attention to this distillation issue—or at least to its severity.

It's not only distillation that is an issue, though, apparently, as Michael Kratsios, a government science and tech adviser, reportedly said that these Chinese operations were "leveraging tens of thousands of proxy accounts to evade detection and using jailbreaking techniques to expose proprietary information."

The US is said to be exploring measures to hold foreign actors to account.

In response, the Chinese embassy in Washington has said these accusations are "pure slander" and that "China attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights."

Michael Kratsios has been Trump's top science and tech advisor for some time and also serves on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). This group was recently re-established with a bunch of business-oriented members including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and AMD's Lisa Su. Assuming it's legit, the memo will certainly have some weight behind it—at least to the President's eyes and ears given its origin.

Such concerns will likely only become more pronounced as things go forward, given DeepSeek 4 just launched and is supposedly offering "cost-effective 1M context length"—ie, cheap AI with better conversational memory.

It's something I'm sure no American AI company is sleeping on, so these companies and the US will be looking to shore up any holes that might allow corporate copying.

Due to the memory supply crisis, I'm sure I don't need to tell you that now is a particularly stressful time to experience hardware failure. With a bit of luck, a sensible multi-year warranty should save your bacon when an SSD stops playing ball—but it looks like the RAMpocalypse may be about to claim another victim.

Case in point, Nextorage has just unveiled a new QLC gaming SSD that comes with a mere one-year warranty policy (via HKEPC Hardware). As you may already be aware, QLC drives can store more data per NAND flash cell than TLC ones, but that comes at the potential cost of a lower write endurance. As such, a measly 12 months for a warranty period is a choice.

The just-announced G-series EEA SSDs offer capacities ranging from 1 TB to 8 TB. They use a PCIe 4.0 interface, and like most drives these days, they're also DRAM-less. Nextorage lists an advertised read/write speed of up to 7,000/6,400 MB/s, and that its design "reduces power consumption and heat generation".

As for write endurance, the 1 TB model is rated for 400 TBW, which doubles for the 2 TB model, and again for the 4 TB version. Comparatively, the new 8 TB features an impressive 4,000 TBW of advertised endurance.

However, the 1 TB drive will cost ¥44,550, or about $280. Now, PC components tend to be slightly pricier in Japan anyway, so there's a chance the actual USD cost may be a bit lower than the currency conversion suggests (though let's hope the memory supply crisis doesn't worsen to such a degree that it makes this statement seem like naive optimism in retrospect).

Still, if you ask me, that's not necessarily the best value for money as it is. Couple that with Nextorage's "One year from the date of purchase" warranty policy, and I'd really recommend looking elsewhere.

For instance, the most affordable 1 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD I'd suggest right now is the Kingston NV3. Yes, it's a bit slower than Nextorage's new drives, but it offers a much more approachable price point, and Kingston tends to still offer 5-year warranties—for now, at least.

Given that Toshiba is allegedly struggling to replace enterprise hard drives due to stock shortages, I can see the logic behind Nextorage's extremely short warranty period. Besides the current limitations of QLC, it may be a bit of a mission for Nextorage to secure enough stock for replacements, potentially until 2028.

While nuclear energy is often presented as the potential 'clean' solution for powering the vast number of US data centers currently under construction, the reality is that other, less sustainable energy solutions are often used to plug the gap.

Wired has been examining air permits for several new natural gas projects linked to 11 data center campuses, and has determined they have the potential to emit more greenhouse gases than the country of Morocco in 2024. And unfortunately, the news mostly gets worse from there.

The gas projects are being developed as part of an effort to provide power solely for data center usage, bypassing the traditional grid. Each has either been announced or is currently under construction, and as a result, has had to submit publicly-viewable air permits to suitable US state agencies.

To take one of many examples from the report, Microsoft is said to be looking into purchasing power from a natural gas project in West Texas. According to its permit, the Chevron-backed project could emit more than 11.5 million tons of greenhouse gases a year. As Wired notes, that's more than the yearly emissions of the island nation of Jamaica.

Or how about the gas turbines used to power xAI's Grok-crunching data centers? The Colossus campus in Memphis and the Colossus 2 campus in nearby Southaven could, according to the permits, potentially generate more than 6.4 million tons of CO2 equivalents, each, per year. That would be the rough equivalency of 30 average-sized natural gas plant emission figures.

And then there's the Stargate Project, an OpenAI-led multicompany venture to create multiple data center campuses across several US states.

Permit documents for just three Stargate-affiliated natural gas projects reportedly show they have a combined potential to emit more than 24 million tons of greenhouse gases—again, in a single year. That's more than Costa Rica, and slightly less than Croatia, if you were wondering.

Wired's estimates are based on the maximum listed emissions, so there's always hope to be found in the idea that some of these projects might not hit these figures in practice. Running continuously at full capacity, for example, would be unusual for a standard, grid-connected power plant.

Alex Schott, the director of communications for an oil and gas company building three power plants for Meta, told the outlet that these sorts of estimates "represent a theoretical, conservative scenario, not the actual projected emissions", and that the actual figures could be "potentially two-thirds less than what's on the paper."

Wired ran the numbers, and found that if the total emissions ended up being half the maximum figures shown on the permits, the combined gas power infrastructure would still create more greenhouse gas emissions in a single year than Norway did in 2024. Again, that's infrastructure linked to just 11 data center campus examples.

And energy researcher Jon Koomey told the outlet that data center-specific gas plants may behave differently. A permit application submitted in November notes that traditional power plants have to respond to the demands of a constantly varying grid. "At the data center, the power requirements do not vary significantly," the application says.

Koomey also says that, as highly efficient gas turbines are in short supply (like most things connected with the AI boom), some developers are already considering less efficient models, which will need to run longer and create more emissions.

While many of the companies contacted by Wired describe the situation as something of a stopgap while clean power catches up—and US president Donald Trump has signed an executive order to accelerate nuclear power plant construction— it seems unlikely that all of these potential gas facilities would be retired once cleaner energy sources are brought online.

However, several crumbs of hope remain. Air permit applications are not a guarantee of construction, for a start.

And given global instability at the moment regarding the supply chains of, well, just about everything to do with AI data centers, from memory to power plant equipment, it's possible that data center growth may eventually slow enough for clean energy to catch up. Or that many of these proposed facilities may no longer be needed for other reasons.

Still, it's pretty sobering stuff. As the founder of energy research firm Cleanview Michael Thomas puts it: "It's almost like we thought we were on the downside of the industrial revolution, retiring coal and gas, and now we have a new hump where we're going to rise.

"That terrifies me in a lot of ways."

Silent Hill: Townfall is the next window into Konami's long-standing psychological horror series. But like Silent Hill f, Townfall seeks to do something slightly different, stepping towards full survival horror instead.

The devs over at Screen Burn have been drip-feeding us more information as we draw closer to its release date, and this time lead game designer Graeme McKellan and QA lead Linda Stenback have given us a little insight into Townfall's combat and stealth.

"We want stealth and combat to be in our game on equal footing," McKellan explains in a video shared to social media. "Sometimes parts of the game will certainly push you forwards one form of dealing with enemy encounters."

It makes sense that some sections of the game will be one or the other, instead of combat and stealth being dead even the entire time. It's balance like this that makes for good horror—knowing when to ramp up the heat and when to cool it down creates an oppressive atmosphere but one in which players don't get burnt out too quickly.

But Silent Hill has always managed to walk that line before. It creates a truly terrifying experience despite the fact that players at times can defend themselves with weapons.

"We have various ways of doing combat in the game," Stenback adds. "We can go from melee weapons to firearms and just general distractions." The confirmation that we'll have firearms in Townfall is certainly a welcome one. While the handgun is a pretty simple weapon it's present in most mainline Silent Hill games alongside the shotgun and rifle, so we'll likely be seeing these again in Townfall.

Silent Hill f didn't have any firearms present, as it was entirely a melee combat game, but I didn't mind. Honestly, guns and ammo in a small village in the mountains of Japan would have been a little out of place. I don't think a fishing town in Scotland would have the same issue though.

This isn't to say you'll be able to go in guns blazing, McKellan confirms melee will still be an integral part of the game: "What I really enjoy about melee combat is just how frantic it is. You feel like you're in a real scrap." You know what that means—steel pipes here we come.

We know very, very little about the next Mass Effect game. In fact, BioWare hasn't even revealed its name yet, so we've all been calling it Mass Effect 5 in the meantime. That aside, it was announced at The Game Awards 2020, and over five years later, there's little to show for it. But Mike Gamble confirmed in a 2025 N7 Day post that BioWare is now "heads-down and focused exclusively on Mass Effect", which was reassuring after EA downsized the developer.

When questioned about the awkward lack of updates on the new entry in one of the most treasured RPG series of all time, project director and executive producer Mike Gamble said it plain and simple: "Just busy workin. Not a lot of time for tease." Mic drop.

The developers don't have time to put together a fancy trailer or info dump because they're hard at work constructing the thing, especially now that the studio is smaller post-Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Still, over half a decade on from its announcement, it would be nice to have more than two vague CGI trailers and a handful of (beautiful) concept images. It's frustratingly similar to The Elder Scrolls 6, which was also announced way too early in advance—a rough eight years early, in that case.

As for when we might get some more details on the next Mass Effect game, I'd say N7 Day, a ME celebration day on November 7 every year, is the most likely scenario. It's a good six months away, and a key date for any Mass Effect fan. Another option is The Game Awards 2026 on December 10, after all, that's where it was originally unveiled. Fingers crossed we'll get an actual in-game trailer next time we get an update, though that might be too hopeful.

Still, many fans (including myself) are fearful that the age of Mass Effect has passed, as it seems it has for BioWare's similarly beloved Dragon Age. PC Gamer's Fraser Brown argues that for BioWare to make a comeback, it needs to cancel Mass Effect and create something else to find a new identity for the studio all these years later. Honestly, I think I agree. But I'll still be eagerly awaiting any news on Mass Effect 5, whenever that comes.

The first Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival for the MMO's next expansion kicks off today. We should be getting a little glimpse at a trailer, the expansion's name, and more than likely producer Naoki Yoshida's usual mind games with a t-shirt that'll give some sort of hint about one of the new jobs.

But first, we still have a whole other patch for Dawntrail to get to first. Patch 7.5 is set to drop on April 28, and as usual we've been handed some preliminary patch notes to comb through in anticipation.

My verdict? There's some ridiculously good quality-of-life changes here. The biggest ones were already revealed in previous livestreams: player housing is getting a furniture limit increase for both indoor and outdoor furnishings, and a whole bunch of dyes are being consolidated so they stop constantly clogging up your inventory.

Housing is still far from perfect, mind. It's still not instanced, and certain items might get culled if a house is full of folks and furni—which potentially scuppers methods a lot of FF14 house designers use like clipping furniture through two storeys to change its function or appearance. But an overall increase is a net positive, and the poor patch of my small house's front garden that's been negleted due to the 20-item limit will no doubt be happy to finally receive some attention.

The same can be said for the dye consolidation. They're all still single use and the premium ones you can purchase with real money are still unconsolidated. Gotta sell those Pure White and Jet Black dyes in the cash shop somehow. But the rest are split into three categories, which is infinitely more manageable for my inventory and retainers than the 100+ dyes we have right now.

Some of the QoL changes are new knowledge to me, though. One of the neatest is the fact that you can finally share hotbars across characters. It's something that might not feel entirely necesary—after all, it's an MMO that prides itself on being able to do everything on one character—but as someone who recently made an alt, it was super frustrating not being able to port over my main's hotbars and UI with the click of a button.

Technically it's still not a click, it's multiple clicks. And a 16-digit share code. It feels a little archaic of the Nintendo variety, but the process does seem to open up the possibility of sharing hotbars and HUD layouts between friends, which will be an incredibly neat use. Especially as someone who has seen some of my friend's hotbar layouts. Please let me fix them now, buds.

Not every change has me jumping for joy, though. I'm admittedly a rather casual PvPer, but the Frontline changes have me raising my eyebrow. Battle High—the thing you accrue through kills and assists, with five ranks that grant you increasing buffs as a reward—no longer deteriorates when you get killed.

You'll also earn a lot more Battle High the further up you go. It feels like a bizarre change that takes a huge part of Frontline's dynamic away—maintaining Battle High is half the fun, and I'm not sure if these changes will actually fix any of the stomping issues the huge 72-player mode currently faces.

There's loads more stuff, including:

• New chocobo interactions, like having them react to pets
• A new 24-player alliance raid
• Bonus Second Chance points on select Wondrous Tails entries
• A new message telling you which emote to use or what weather is required for some of A Realm Reborn's fussier Sightseeing Log entries
• More hats for Viera (a lot of the metal helmets we were missing in the first update)
• Changes to party KOs in deep dungeons
• Loads more gear getting two dye channels

There'll no doubt be more revealed across this weekend's Fan Fest. I hope this sea of QoL changes is the sign of something good. Even if they're not completely perfect, they're a start. And when you've got over a decade of spaghetti code to untangle, better to do it bit by bit.

I've fully entered my raiding era in Final Fantasy 14—I finally cleared my first full savage tier with the latest Arcadion raids, and I'm in the throes of progging my first ultimate (we do Looper, and then we do Looper etc). It's been a learning process of not only what my job does, but what everyone else's does and how they all intersect. Plus, you know, learning all the mechanics.

Has any of that come in handy with this Final Fantasy 14-based logic game that has recently dug its claws into me? Absolutely not, but these daily puzzles are a must-play for anyone looking to flex their knowledge of the critically-acclaimed MMORPG.

Clock Spots gives you eight different jobs spread out in a circle (at their "clock spots", hence the name), with each one having different criteria you need to fill in order to complete the puzzle. One spot might need a job released in a certain expansion, while a healer might have to be positioned with an AOE heal in order to catch other players with low HP.

It's a real test of just how much you know about the game—do you know who has a ground-targeted heal? Or which jobs you learn in Gridania versus Ul'dah or Limsa Lominsa? Or who wears Aiming accessories? Clock Spots has tooltips that you can hover over if you're not a walking Final Fantasy 14 encyclopaedia, but there's also a "blind prog" setting that turns them off entirely, which means you really have to know your stuff.

The puzzles vary in difficulty each day, all thematically named of course with Normal, Extreme, Savage, and Ultimate giving a little nod to how hard a time you might have with it. Clock Spots has only been going for a week as of writing so there's not too many archival puzzles to dive through, but they are releasing daily so you can get a consistent fix.

My times have been pretty average across most of the puzzles. I completely flubbed the April 23 puzzle and walked away with a measly solve time of 7:41, but managed to wrangle every other day at around the two-to-five minute mark.

As someone who is a total sucker for daily puzzles—I am a stout NYT Games enjoyer with Wordle, Connections, the Mini and the Midi practically being a ritual for me at this point—having one which is so specifically catered to my interests has me kicking my feet in pure joy.

I hope Clock Spots carries on for a good long while, and who knows? Maybe all of this random knowledge (I'm sorry, I cannot remember every job with a single-target raid buff), will actually come in handy when I play the actual game, too. One can hope, anyway. I need all the help I can get.

Intel's Enthusiast Channel VP and GM Robert Hallock has told PC Games Hardware that we shouldn't underestimate the impact software improvements could have on gaming performance. In other words, that perhaps our focus as gamers shouldn't be so laser-focused on hardware:

"I truly believe that the general PC gaming market and especially enthusiasts... are significantly underestimating the importance of software to the PC experience, like really, really seriously."

"There is no game on earth that is as fast as it's going to be purely through hardware. That doesn't exist anymore. That used to be the case in 2010, 2015. That is not how gaming works anymore."

He doesn't deny that hardware is an important factor, but wants to remind us that it's not the only one:

"Yes, you can make the game faster with a faster piece of hardware, but there's always going to be 10, 20, 30% performance hidden behind the fact that that game was just not optimized for your CPU."

In one sense, this shouldn't come as a surprise, because in pretty much any CPU review we've done we see that some games perform better on AMD chips and some on Intel ones. Often, game devs will simply optimise their games for whichever CPUs they can spend the most time testing them on.

While the 10–30% figure is referring to game optimisations and, more specifically, console ports, games are only one part of the software picture. Apparently Hallock also couched some of the discussion in terms of things like CPU scheduling, which is an operating system task that helps direct the right processes to the right CPU cores and threads.

Scheduling and similar fine grain CPU management has been incredibly important for Intel most especially since the company decided to split its cores into P-cores and E-cores (and, more recently, LPE-cores). And while the company got rid of Hyper-Threading for a while, multithreading should be back in future, given CEO Lip-Bu Tan admitted. "Moving away from SMT put us at a competitive disadvantage." Which means optimised CPU scheduling will become even more important.

Given all this, Hallock claims that gamers asking for Intel to focus less on software and more on hardware is sort of like saying "hey, just leave 20% performance behind."

When thinking about software and hardware improvements, though, I can't help but think we should be echoing Tulio and Miguel on their Road to El Dorado: Both. Both is good.

I've spent the past few weeks testing the pants off of several graphics cards. Such is the life of a hardware writer. Alongside my 8 GB vs 16 GB VRAM testing, I've also reviewed the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB and the RX 9060 XT 8 GB, and found them to deliver reasonable gaming performance on average—although the Nvidia card definitely wins the day. And yes, the 16 GB versions are faster overall.

One question has been nagging at the back of my mind, though. While I've proven that the 8 GB variants of these semi-budget GPUs are often slower on average compared to their 16 GB equivalents, can overclocking even the odds?

To find out, I've tweaked the twangers out of my 8 GB graphics card samples, and then run them across our GPU benchmarking suite. I've then compared that data with both the stock performance and the overclocked performance of the RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB and RX 9060 XT 16 GB.

It's been a big old showdown, and I've come up with some interesting results. Yes, overclocking an 8 GB graphics card can often even the odds with its more-expensive 16 GB variant in the benchmarks. But, in some games, there's simply no replacement for VRAM—and the tests don't always tell the whole story.

Overclocking methodology

I've kept things real simple in regards to overclocking, as you can easily get into the weeds chasing tiny percentage gains and fighting stability issues as a result.

Essentially, it's been a process of upping the core clock and memory speeds, then running demanding benchmarks over and over again until the GPUs crash, before backing things down to a state where each can complete all of our tests. This differs for each GPU, so your mileage may vary here.

Some of my tested cards have hard power limits, so for the most part the power levels have been kept stock for comparison purposes. The RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB, for example, couldn't get past +350 MHz core speeds and a +500 MHz memory clock without a power boost, something its stock BIOS doesn't allow—so that's where I've stopped.

The exception to this has been the RX 9060 XT 8 GB. I had no luck undervolting my 16 GB sample to allow for higher clockspeeds, as it crashed almost immediately as soon as I dropped the voltage by a small amount, even with a higher power limit overall. Still, it accepted a reasonable +300 MHz core, 300 MHz memory overclock at stock power levels nonetheless.

My 8 GB Asus sample, however, needs an undervolt to accept any clockspeed tweaks without crashing, so I went for a stable -100 Mv. This will differ from card to card, but it did allow me to push the core clock to +300 MHz, and the memory to +200 MHz.

Our Jacob provided the figures for the Palit Infinity 3 RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB. As you'll see from the results, a +400 MHz core overclock alone still gains some considerable performance from the Nvidia GPU. It's also worth mentioning that all my tested cards kept within temperature limits at these speeds, which is something to keep an eye on if you do it for yourself.

Take these results as they're intended—a demonstration of what basic overclocking techniques can potentially do to 8 GB graphics card performance, not any kind of guarantee over what you will gain from your own cards. If you'd like to buy one and break out the liquid nitrogen, be my guest. Me? I value my fingers too much, and I'd only end up spilling it everywhere anyway.

Overclocked 8 GB graphics cards

Let's kick things off by looking at the performance gains you can get out of an overclocked 8 GB graphics card. At 1080p, we can see that all of our 8 GB samples show average frame rate improvements over the stock GPUs.

No great surprises there. However, while the gains are often small, there is the odd exception. The Talos Principle 2, is one such example, with the otherwise-unimpressive RX 9060 XT 8 GB gaining a whole 10 frames over the stock version. That allows it to soar from the bottom of my results to the very top.

Overclocked 8 GB GPUs - 1080p gaming benchmarks

Black Myth Wukong (1080p High)Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra)F1 24 (1080p Ultra high)Homeworld 3 (1080p Epic)Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra)The Talos Principle 2 (1080p Ultra)Total War: Warhammer 3 (1080p Ultra)

Avg fps

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

71

58

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

75

67

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

74

62

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

80

69

020406080

Black Myth Wukong (1080p High) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	71 Avg FPS, 58 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	75 Avg FPS, 67 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	74 Avg FPS, 62 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	80 Avg FPS, 69 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

41

26

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

47

30

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

52

35

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

56

36

015304560

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	41 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	47 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	52 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	56 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

82

66

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

94

74

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

90

73

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

92

75

0255075100

F1 24 (1080p Ultra high) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	82 Avg FPS, 66 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	94 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	90 Avg FPS, 73 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	92 Avg FPS, 75 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

111

63

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

115

60

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

108

32

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

121

55

037.575112.5150

Homeworld 3 (1080p Epic) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	111 Avg FPS, 63 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	115 Avg FPS, 60 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	108 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	121 Avg FPS, 55 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

93

64

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

99

67

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

101

65

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

108

71

037.575112.5150

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	93 Avg FPS, 64 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	99 Avg FPS, 67 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	101 Avg FPS, 65 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	108 Avg FPS, 71 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

66

35

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

76

49

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

69

37

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

70

38

020406080

The Talos Principle 2 (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	66 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	76 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	69 Avg FPS, 37 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	70 Avg FPS, 38 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

90

42

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

96

58

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

81

59

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

85

62

0255075100

Total War: Warhammer 3 (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	90 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	96 Avg FPS, 58 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	81 Avg FPS, 59 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	85 Avg FPS, 62 1% Low FPS

In F1 24, the same 8 GB card miraculously gains 12 frames on average. This is a game that already seems to favour AMD GPUs, but the improvement is impressive nonetheless.

Overall, though, the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB beats out its AMD competition when comparing stock to stock, and overclocked to overclocked. Adding a dose of enhanced speed to the little AMD GPU does allow it to jump ahead of the stock Nvidia card, though, which suggests it's worth doing if you've decided to save some cash with the former.

Overclocked 8 GB GPUs - 1440p gaming benchmarks

Black Myth Wukong (1440p High)Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Ultra)F1 24 (1440p Ultra High)Homeworld 3 (1440p Epic)Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra)The Talos Principle 2 (1440p Ultra)Total War: Warhammer 3 (1440p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

48

43

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

51

46

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

50

43

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

54

47

015304560

Black Myth Wukong (1440p High) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	48 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	51 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	50 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	54 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

26

17

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

26

19

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

33

25

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

34

26

010203040

Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	26 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	26 Avg FPS, 19 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	33 Avg FPS, 25 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	34 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

51

41

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

57

47

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

59

47

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

60

47

015304560

F1 24 (1440p Ultra High) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	51 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	57 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	59 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	60 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

75

58

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

81

49

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

87

42

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

94

37

0255075100

Homeworld 3 (1440p Epic) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	75 Avg FPS, 58 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	81 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	87 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	94 Avg FPS, 37 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

68

49

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

69

48

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

75

53

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

80

56

020406080

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	68 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	69 Avg FPS, 48 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	75 Avg FPS, 53 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	80 Avg FPS, 56 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

47

27

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

51

36

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

44

30

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

46

32

015304560

The Talos Principle 2 (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	47 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	51 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	44 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	46 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

60

44

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

64

46

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

57

40

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

60

44

020406080

Total War: Warhammer 3 (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	60 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	64 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	57 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	60 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS

Switch things up to 1440p, and the gains become smaller. Again, no great surprise. Still, the little AMD card does benefit considerably from the extra speed, although Cyberpunk 2077 once again proves to be its downfall.

The average frame rate remains exactly the same for the RX 9060 XT 8 GB, whether overclocked or stock, although the 1% lows do improve by two frames. This is a pretty crunchy result overall, although I'm testing all of our games here without upscaling or frame generation, in order to represent the raw rendered fps difference underneath the hood.

The RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB, meanwhile, offers a solid set of improvements once overclocked, although it's nothing mind-blowing. Still, extra frames are extra frames, and while its advantage is eaten into slightly by the RX 9060 XT's overclocked gains, it's still the top performer at 1440p on average.

Overclocked 16 GB graphics cards

So, what do the 16 GB cards have to offer by comparison? Well, higher frame rates overall, for a start. However, the gains from overclocking aren't quite so impressive, with the odd exception.

Check out the eight extra frames gained by the RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p. That's with purely a core overclock, too. Given just how demanding Cyberpunk can be with the ray tracing turned up, I'd happily overclock this card for the extra smoothness here alone.

Overclocked 16 GB GPUs - 1080p gaming benchmarks

Black Myth Wukong (1080p High)Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra)F1 24 (1080p Ultra high)Homeworld 3 (1080p Epic)Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra)The Talos Principle 2 (1080p Ultra)Total War: Warhammer 3 (1080p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

73

63

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

75

66

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

75

65

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

81

31

0255075100

Black Myth Wukong (1080p High) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	73 Avg FPS, 63 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	75 Avg FPS, 66 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	75 Avg FPS, 65 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	81 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

49

39

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

49

40

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

51

41

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

59

42

015304560

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	49 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	49 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	51 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	59 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

95

61

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

97

75

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

90

71

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

94

77

0255075100

F1 24 (1080p Ultra high) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	95 Avg FPS, 61 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	97 Avg FPS, 75 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	90 Avg FPS, 71 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	94 Avg FPS, 77 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

106

65

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

123

74

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

117

65

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

123

68

037.575112.5150

Homeworld 3 (1080p Epic) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	106 Avg FPS, 65 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	123 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	117 Avg FPS, 65 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	123 Avg FPS, 68 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

96

42

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

100

69

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

98

42

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

102

42

037.575112.5150

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	96 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	100 Avg FPS, 69 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	98 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	102 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

73

37

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

77

53

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

75

41

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

80

47

020406080

The Talos Principle 2 (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	73 Avg FPS, 37 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	77 Avg FPS, 53 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	75 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	80 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

94

72

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

97

72

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

83

54

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

89

56

0255075100

Total War: Warhammer 3 (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	94 Avg FPS, 72 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	97 Avg FPS, 72 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	83 Avg FPS, 54 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	89 Avg FPS, 56 1% Low FPS

And yes, the RX 9060 XT 16 GB doesn't seem to benefit as much from overclocking as the rest of my cards. I'd wager that's down to lower sustained clock speeds without an undervolt, but again, this XFX sample refuses to play ball once you start fiddling with the power levels.

Still, an extra 4 fps in Metro Exodus Enhanced edition is good to see, and with a massive 27 fps improvement in the 1% lows, too.

In fact, improved 1% lows might be reason enough to overclock this card, even if the averages don't budge by significant amounts. Homeworld 3, F1 24, The Talos Principle 2—a couple of simple slider adjustments in AMD Adrenaline appears to be all it takes.

Overclocked 16 GB GPUs - 1440p gaming benchmarks

Black Myth Wukong (1440p High)Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Ultra)F1 24 (1440p Ultra High)Homeworld 3 (1440p Epic)Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra)The Talos Principle 2 (1440p Ultra)Total War: Warhammer 3 (1440p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

48

44

RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

50

45

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

51

45

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

56

41

015304560

Black Myth Wukong (1440p High) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	48 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	50 Avg FPS, 45 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	51 Avg FPS, 45 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	56 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

30

24

RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

30

25

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

32

26

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

35

29

010203040

Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	30 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	30 Avg FPS, 25 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	32 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	35 Avg FPS, 29 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

60

46

RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

61

46

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

56

45

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

62

50

020406080

F1 24 (1440p Ultra High) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	60 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	61 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	56 Avg FPS, 45 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	62 Avg FPS, 50 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

86

65

RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

90

74

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

97

64

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

104

66

037.575112.5150

Homeworld 3 (1440p Epic) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	86 Avg FPS, 65 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	90 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	97 Avg FPS, 64 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	104 Avg FPS, 66 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

71

34

RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

74

43

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

72

34

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

73

31

020406080

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	71 Avg FPS, 34 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	74 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	72 Avg FPS, 34 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	73 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

49

35

RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

51

36

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

51

32

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

54

35

015304560

The Talos Principle 2 (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	49 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	51 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	51 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	54 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX

62

45

RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

64

47

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

60

44

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz

65

48

020406080

Total War: Warhammer 3 (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 16 GB XFX	62 Avg FPS, 45 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 XFX | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	64 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	60 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3 | +400 MHz	65 Avg FPS, 48 1% Low FPS

At 1440p, it's much the same story for the 16 GB GPUs as our 8 GB cards. There are gains to be made with a dose of overclocking, but it's usually not by a whole lot.

Three fps here, four fps there—it's about what I expected to see from both our 16 GB GPUs, if I'm honest. The 1% low advantage is curbed a little at this resolution, too, although the RX 9060 XT 16 GB proves the exception yet again, as it manages to gain a chonky nine frames in Metro Exodus.

Otherwise, though? There's no huge gain in performance for any of our cards, although more frames are more frames.

8 GB vs 16 GB overclocked graphics cards

So, what happens when we combine this data together? Well, to prevent building a couple of massive, hard to read charts, I've broken up my findings into two main chunks.

First, let's take a look at the difference between the RTX 9060 XT 8 GB and 16 GB, at both stock and overclocked speeds.

AMD RX 9060 XT - 8 GB vs 16 GB overclocked

RX 9060 XT | 8 GB vs 16 GB | 1080p overclocked gaming benchmarks

Black Myth Wukong (1080p High)Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra)F1 24 (1080p Ultra high)Homeworld 3 (1080p Epic)Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra)The Talos Principle 2 (1080p Ultra)Total War: Warhammer 3 (1080p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

71

58

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

75

67

RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB

73

63

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

75

66

020406080

Black Myth Wukong (1080p High) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	71 Avg FPS, 58 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	75 Avg FPS, 67 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB	73 Avg FPS, 63 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	75 Avg FPS, 66 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

41

26

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

47

30

RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB

49

39

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

49

40

015304560

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	41 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	47 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB	49 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	49 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

82

66

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

94

74

RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB

95

61

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

97

75

0255075100

F1 24 (1080p Ultra high) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	82 Avg FPS, 66 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	94 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB	95 Avg FPS, 61 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	97 Avg FPS, 75 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

111

63

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

115

60

RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB

106

65

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

123

74

037.575112.5150

Homeworld 3 (1080p Epic) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	111 Avg FPS, 63 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	115 Avg FPS, 60 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB	106 Avg FPS, 65 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	123 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

93

64

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

99

67

RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB

96

42

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

100

69

0255075100

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	93 Avg FPS, 64 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	99 Avg FPS, 67 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB	96 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	100 Avg FPS, 69 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

66

35

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

76

49

RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB

73

37

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

77

53

020406080

The Talos Principle 2 (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	66 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	76 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB	73 Avg FPS, 37 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	77 Avg FPS, 53 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

90

42

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

96

58

RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB

94

72

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

97

72

0255075100

Total War: Warhammer 3 (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	90 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	96 Avg FPS, 58 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT XFX 16 GB	94 Avg FPS, 72 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	97 Avg FPS, 72 1% Low FPS

Here's a pleasing result to see from the off. In Black Myth Wukong at 1080p High settings, the overclocked RX 9060 XT 8 GB manages to best its 16 GB bigger brother at stock speeds. And even with an overclock, the RX 9060 XT is a mere single frame ahead of it in the 1% lows. The averages? Exactly the same.

Before we all go jumping up and down at the thought of massive savings, though (the 8 GB card is often considerably cheaper than the 16 GB version), here comes Cyberpunk 2077 to ruin the 8 GB card's day.

Yep, it's time for an early preview of my One Big Caveat™—certain games will show the flaws of a tight VRAM limit. The overclocked 8 GB AMD card gets within 2 frames of the stock 16 GB GPU on average, but I'd ask you to give some serious consideration to those 1% lows.

It might not look much on paper, but having played Cyberpunk 2077 on this card while overclocked, I can tell you that it has a tendency to drop frames fairly often when faced with only 8 GB of VRAM. The RX 9060 XT 16 GB isn't perfect in this regard, either, but it's a much smoother-feeling experience.

Still, 1080p gains are definitely in evidence here, and sometimes the overclocked RX 9060 XT 8 GB can beat the stock 16 GB version on average. In Homeworld 3, it wins by a whole nine frames—although even the stock 8 GB GPU posted higher figures than the 16 GB version in my testing.

The Homeworld 3 benchmark can be a twitchy thing, after all. I re-ran the tests many, many times, but these are the averages I ended up with. Shrug your shoulders with me, and move on.

RX 9060 XT | 8 GB vs 16 GB | 1440p overclocked gaming benchmarks

Black Myth Wukong (1440p High)Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Ultra)F1 24 (1440p Ultra High)Homeworld 3 (1440p Epic)Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra)The Talos Principle 2 (1440p Ultra)Total War: Warhammer 3 (1440p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

48

43

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

51

46

RX 9060 XT 16 GB

48

44

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

50

45

015304560

Black Myth Wukong (1440p High) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	48 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	51 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB	48 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	50 Avg FPS, 45 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

26

17

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

26

19

RX 9060 XT 16 GB

30

24

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

30

25

07.51522.530

Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	26 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	26 Avg FPS, 19 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB	30 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	30 Avg FPS, 25 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

51

41

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

57

47

RX 9060 XT 16 GB

60

46

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

61

46

020406080

F1 24 (1440p Ultra High) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	51 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	57 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB	60 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	61 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

75

58

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

81

49

RX 9060 XT 16 GB

86

65

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

90

74

0255075100

Homeworld 3 (1440p Epic) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	75 Avg FPS, 58 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	81 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB	86 Avg FPS, 65 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	90 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

68

49

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

69

48

RX 9060 XT 16 GB

71

34

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

74

43

020406080

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	68 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	69 Avg FPS, 48 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB	71 Avg FPS, 34 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	74 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

47

27

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

51

36

RX 9060 XT 16 GB

49

35

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

51

36

015304560

The Talos Principle 2 (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	47 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	51 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB	49 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	51 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RX 9060 XT 8 GB

60

44

RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV

64

46

RX 9060 XT 16 GB

62

45

RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem

64

47

020406080

Total War: Warhammer 3 (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RX 9060 XT 8 GB	60 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 8 GB | +300 MHz | +200 Mem | -100 mV	64 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB	62 Avg FPS, 45 1% Low FPS
RX 9060 XT 16 GB | +300 MHz | + 300 Mem	64 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS

At 1440p, the overclocked RX 9060 XT 8 GB comes good once again in Black Myth Wukong and the Talos Principle 2, handily beating the stock 16 GB card in both averages and 1% lows. In fact, in the former, it even manages to best its overclocked score. It's only by a single frame, though, which is well within benchmark variances.

And yep, here comes Cyberpunk 2077 again to give the AMD card trouble. The overclock allows for a couple more frames in the 1% lows, but the extra VRAM of the RX 9060 XT 16 GB allows it to pull significantly ahead.

Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti - 8 GB vs 16 GB overclocked

RTX 5060 Ti | 8 GB vs 16 GB | 1080p overclocked gaming benchmarks

Black Myth Wukong (1080p High)Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra)F1 24 (1080p Ultra high)Homeworld 3 (1080p Epic)Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra)The Talos Principle 2 (1080p Ultra)Total War: Warhammer 3 (1080p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

74

62

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

80

69

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

75

65

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

81

31

0255075100

Black Myth Wukong (1080p High) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	74 Avg FPS, 62 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	80 Avg FPS, 69 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	75 Avg FPS, 65 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	81 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

52

35

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

56

36

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

51

41

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

59

42

015304560

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	52 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	56 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	51 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	59 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

90

73

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

92

75

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

90

71

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

94

77

0255075100

F1 24 (1080p Ultra high) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	90 Avg FPS, 73 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	92 Avg FPS, 75 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	90 Avg FPS, 71 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	94 Avg FPS, 77 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

108

32

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

121

55

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

117

65

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

123

68

037.575112.5150

Homeworld 3 (1080p Epic) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	108 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	121 Avg FPS, 55 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	117 Avg FPS, 65 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	123 Avg FPS, 68 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

101

65

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

108

71

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

98

42

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

102

42

037.575112.5150

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	101 Avg FPS, 65 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	108 Avg FPS, 71 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	98 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	102 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

69

37

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

70

38

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

75

41

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

80

47

020406080

The Talos Principle 2 (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	69 Avg FPS, 37 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	70 Avg FPS, 38 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	75 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	80 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

81

59

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

85

62

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

83

54

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

89

56

0255075100

Total War: Warhammer 3 (1080p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	81 Avg FPS, 59 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	85 Avg FPS, 62 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	83 Avg FPS, 54 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	89 Avg FPS, 56 1% Low FPS

But what about the RTX 5060 Ti, I hear you cry? Well, hold on to your hats, because the overclocked 8 GB card puts on quite an impressive showing in comparison to the stock 16 GB GPU.

In fact, it beats the stock RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB in all but one of my tests at 1080p, that outlier being The Talos Principle 2. Otherwise, the extra dose of speed allows the 8 GB card (which is fairly close in performance to its 16 GB variant to begin with at this resolution) to pull quite a few frames ahead on average, even occasionally beating the overclocked RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB.

RTX 5060 Ti | 8 GB vs 16 GB | 1440p overclocked gaming benchmarks

Black Myth Wukong (1440p High)Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Ultra)F1 24 (1440p Ultra High)Homeworld 3 (1440p Epic)Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra)The Talos Principle 2 (1440p Ultra)Total War: Warhammer 3 (1440p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

50

43

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

54

47

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

51

45

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

56

41

015304560

Black Myth Wukong (1440p High) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	50 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	54 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	51 Avg FPS, 45 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	56 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

33

25

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

34

26

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

32

26

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

35

29

010203040

Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	33 Avg FPS, 25 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	34 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	32 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	35 Avg FPS, 29 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

59

47

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

60

47

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

56

45

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

62

50

020406080

F1 24 (1440p Ultra High) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	59 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	60 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	56 Avg FPS, 45 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	62 Avg FPS, 50 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

87

42

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

94

37

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

97

64

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

104

66

037.575112.5150

Homeworld 3 (1440p Epic) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	87 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	94 Avg FPS, 37 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	97 Avg FPS, 64 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	104 Avg FPS, 66 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

75

53

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

80

56

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

72

34

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

73

31

020406080

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	75 Avg FPS, 53 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	80 Avg FPS, 56 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	72 Avg FPS, 34 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	73 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

44

30

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

46

32

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

51

32

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

54

35

015304560

The Talos Principle 2 (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	44 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	46 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	51 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	54 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB

57

40

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem

60

44

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB

60

44

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz

65

48

020406080

Total War: Warhammer 3 (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB	57 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | +350 MHz | +500 Mem	60 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB	60 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | +400 MHz	65 Avg FPS, 48 1% Low FPS

At 1440p, the Nvidia card continues its overclocked reign of terror. It beats the stock 16 GB card in Black Myth Wukong, Cyberpunk 2077, F1 24, and Metro Exodus, and matches its benches exactly in Total War: Warhammer 3.

The clear winner in most of my tests, however, is the mildly-overclocked RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB. It's a surprising set of results, and furthers my assessment that the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB is the graphics card to buy if you can't afford the higher-VRAM equivalent.

There is, however, a very large caveat to all of these figures. Follow me to the section below.

Analysis, and a very large caveat

So, what have we learned? Well, these results show that you can indeed overclock a cheaper 8 GB graphics card to bring its performance more in line with the 16 GB variant, and perhaps even exceed it—in the benchmarks. And that's grand.

But before you put a substantial wad of cash back into your pocket and go running out into the streets to buy an 8 GB graphics card, we need to talk about something important—and that's the real world.

In-game benchmark tools are useful ways of comparing the performance of graphics cards against each other. And each one of these GPUs has been tested using just such benchmarks. But I'd like to direct you towards my 8 GB vs 16 GB graphics card testing once more, and show you one last chart.

The Last of Us Part 1 - VRAM usage and performance

In-game testing, Ultra settings

The Last of Us Part 1 (1080p Ultra + Quality upscaling)The Last of Us Part 1 (1440p Ultra + Quality upscaling)The Last of Us Part 1 (1440p Ultra+ Quality upscaling + 2x FG)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Avg. VRAM

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

89

48

6.92

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

79

52

6.61

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

113

92

9.84

RX 9060XT 16 GB XFX

113

93

11.47

037.575112.5150

The Last of Us Part 1 (1080p Ultra + Quality upscaling) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	89 Avg FPS, 48 1% Low FPS, 6.92 Avg. VRAM
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	79 Avg FPS, 52 1% Low FPS, 6.61 Avg. VRAM
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	113 Avg FPS, 92 1% Low FPS, 9.84 Avg. VRAM
RX 9060XT 16 GB XFX	113 Avg FPS, 93 1% Low FPS, 11.47 Avg. VRAM

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Avg. VRAM

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

79

44

6.98

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

60

42

6.71

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

92

73

10.39

RX 9060XT 16 GB XFX

89

72

12.02

0255075100

The Last of Us Part 1 (1440p Ultra + Quality upscaling) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	79 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS, 6.98 Avg. VRAM
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	60 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS, 6.71 Avg. VRAM
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	92 Avg FPS, 73 1% Low FPS, 10.39 Avg. VRAM
RX 9060XT 16 GB XFX	89 Avg FPS, 72 1% Low FPS, 12.02 Avg. VRAM

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Avg. VRAM

RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual

132

61

7.21

RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime

112

61

6.74

RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3

147

78

11.09

RX 9060XT 16 GB XFX

149

104

12.12

037.575112.5150

The Last of Us Part 1 (1440p Ultra+ Quality upscaling + 2x FG) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB Palit Dual	132 Avg FPS, 61 1% Low FPS, 7.21 Avg. VRAM
RX 9060 XT 8 GB Asus Prime	112 Avg FPS, 61 1% Low FPS, 6.74 Avg. VRAM
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Palit Infinity 3	147 Avg FPS, 78 1% Low FPS, 11.09 Avg. VRAM
RX 9060XT 16 GB XFX	149 Avg FPS, 104 1% Low FPS, 12.12 Avg. VRAM

This is my in-game VRAM testing of The Last of Us Part 1, using stock variants of all our tested graphics cards. These results were recorded in an actual level, where I ran around as if I was, y'know, playing video games for a living.

I've chosen to show it to you not because it shows overclocked figures (I simply don't have time in the day to run the OC'd GPUs through all those particular tests too), but because it demonstrates the potential performance difference between the 8 GB and 16 GB GPUs when faced with a VRAM-swallowing game.

And yes, it's a kinda ugly result. It's not the only example, either. Resident Evil Requiem also demonstrates a similar performance delta at certain settings, among others.

Transposing the results I'm seeing here with the gains made from overclocking, I very much doubt that, in actual gameplay, the 8 GB cards can be overclocked to deliver the same performance as their 16 GB equivalents, at least in certain games. Benchmarks? It appears so. In-game? Perhaps not.

Can overclocking make up some of the gap? Yes, it's quite likely. But given the sometimes massive difference in performance in certain games at certain settings between the 8 GB cards and the 16 GB variants, I really doubt these overclocking gains will translate to parity when proper VRAM constraints come into play.

Benchmark tools are simply lighter on the VRAM than actual game worlds, and that's likely what we're seeing here.

I'll have to do some more testing to find out for certain, so it's back to the GPU mines for me. Still, if you own an 8 GB card, or are stretching your budget to afford one, I can confirm that there's performance left on the table here—at least with the GPUs I have in front of me.

So overclock away, and enjoy those extra frames. It's pretty simple to do, and there's a possibility that you will get some extra performance for free. But can you force an 8 GB card to run games just as well as a 16 GB one, once in-game VRAM demands come into play? From what I've seen from all my testing, I'd say not.

Titanfall is one of my favourite FPS series of all time, and I'll forever be bitter that EA canned it at its peak. It's not Titanfall 2's fault it was sent to the slaughter being released between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Actually, that's EA's fault. That frustration lives on all these years later, and with no hope in sight from EA—or any other AAA studio wanting a piece of the pie—it's been up to indies to give us our dose of mech-infused movement shooter.

Enter ShatterRush, a spiritual successor to Titanfall developed by two-person dev team Tetra Studios over the past year. You can download a pre-alpha build on Steam, which Tetra actually describes more as "pre-pre-pre alpha" when you boot it up. Textures and sound effects are very barebones right now, obviously, but ShatterRush has the sauce.

You'll start in a familiar speed-running tutorial where you're taught the controls through an obstacle course and encouraged to go for a high score. You see what I mean? It's unapologetically Titanfall. After that, you can play online.

Even this early in development, movement is fluid as you slide at Mach 10, run on walls, and grapple hook to the heavens. You can even swap your grapple for a dash, stim, or jetpack—that last one's a blast.

I instantly got back into the Titanfall rhythm of jumping between walls while raining bullets down on my enemy's head, or launching myself at an enemy like a cannonball with a shotgun. While maps are generally visually basic, they're cleverly designed to encourage this kind of slick movement to get the jump on players.

And just like Titanfall, you'll be slowly charging up your pilotable mech while you're running and gunning. Stand by for Titanfall:

You could swap your mech out for airstrikes, but why would you ever do that? Your Guardian Mech has massive machine guns and rockets, it can dash, and you can even stick your hand out to block bullets like my beloved Vortex Shield. When your mech's on its last legs, tug the ejection handle and get outta there, blowing up any poor sods nearby.

Of course, so far this is all sounding like a low-budget copy of Respawn's iconic shooter, more or less. And that's not a bad thing—I want more Titanfall—but ShatterRush actually has a unique trick up its sleeve: destruction.

Taking a page out of Battlefield and The Final's playbook, environments are fully destructible. It's so cool to call your mech down on a rooftop and have it crash through the floors. Sure, right now it's a little buggy, and you'll often get stuck, but being able to crack open buildings to make new paths or simply for the fun of it never gets old. I can see the vision, and it's a good one.

The developers explain that they update the game roughly every two weeks. In fact, it was updated while I was playing it to tweak a map, make mechs more tanky, and various other bits. ShatterRush is in its infancy, but I'm on board and interested in where it goes from here.

Overwatch's new season kicked off last week, and alongside a new battle pass, hero, and a bunch of skins it came with the regular patch notes full of buffs and nerfs. I actually mentioned how, amid everything, the changes that stood out to me were Sierra's ridiculously strong kit as well as Roadhog's long-awaited nerf which increased the cooldown on his Chain Hook.

In the previous season Hog had been one of the strongest tanks and a real pain to go up against. As a support main, I tend to be on the wrong end of Hog's Chain Hook more often than not, so I was pretty happy to learn of the nerf. Well, I was happy while it lasted, as only a week later Team 4 has put everything back to normal.

Yesterday's patch notes revealed that Hog's Chain Hook cooldown is back down to just seven seconds. How the hell does this even happen? Well, it's been a particularly rough week for Hog players, with his pick rate dropping and the character suffering on the battlefield.

"The generation of Lucio players I ruined can't even lower his winrate to get a buff," Overwatch streamer Frogger shares on social media. "But Roadhog did it in a week. A WEEK!!!" Some people just have that Midas touch I guess.

Hog's biggest problem is that he's hard to balance, just as many hook characters are. When he's strong he's suffocating and can make the game feel awful for everyone else. But when he's weak, he plays like a piece of paper that has absolutely no presence and is practically a throw pick. Unfortunately, this probably means Hog and those who main him are cursed for a life of sporadic patches swinging from god-like to worthless, it must be a stressful life to live.

On the upside it means Hog players should make the most of the buffs as they currently stand and enjoy the lack of that extra second. It may not sound like a lot, but Overwatch deals in small measures, even the slightest change to an ability, damage output, or perk has the potential to completely change a hero's viability as well as others that fall in its counter-chain.

But what do you think? Is Hog right where he needs to be, is he too weak, or do you think Team 4 needs to pluck up some courage and drop the cooldown even more?

Intel has reported its first-quarter 2026 financial results, and they read as something of a victory lap. It wasn't too long ago the company appeared to be down on its knees, but CEO Lip-Bu Tan, now just over a year into his posting, struck a defiant tone in the opening remarks.

"Intel is now a very different company than when I first joined over a year ago," said Tan. "We have taken, and continue to take, deliberate steps to rebuild Intel into a more competitive and more profitable company.

"A year ago, the conversation about Intel Corporation was about whether we could survive. Today, it is about how quickly we can add manufacturing capacity and scale our supply to meet enormous demand for our products," the Intel chief continued. "This is a fundamentally different company today, and we still have a lot of work ahead."

The company reports first-quarter revenue of $13.6 billion, which CFO David Zisner notes, "would have been meaningfully higher, but demand continues to outpace our growing supply." AI-driven businesses are said to now represent 60% of Intel's revenue, and grew by 40% year-over-year.

Data center and AI revenue was reported as $5.1 billion, a seven percent sequential increase and 22% year-over-year. ASIC revenue was reported to have nearly doubled compared to the same quarter in 2025, while client computing group revenue is up by $300 million quarter-over-quarter, representing 33% of total revenue.

Zisner notes that the client computing revenue increase was down to "improved product margin, sales of previously reserved inventory, better 18A yields, and lower operating expenses." It's AI server-fuelled boom time in the processor industry, although reports have indicated that some Intel chips are already in short supply, and that the industry is waiting for more 18A offerings to plug the gap.

Speaking of 18A, the company reports "better" yields and "great progress" for its previously-struggling chip process, although Intel Foundry's operating loss was reported as $2.4 billion. That's a $72 million improvement over the previous quarter, and something Zisner explains as being "mostly offset by increased operating expenses associated with an intentional step-up in Intel 14A investments."

CEO Lip-Bu Tan said that the "maturity, yield, and performance" of Intel's in-development 14A process is already outpacing 18A at a similar point in time, and that the company is continuing to develop process design kits (PDKs) with "multiple customers".

One of which is Tesla. CEO Elon Musk recently announced that Intel's 14A process will be used to make AI chips for the company, as part of a partnership with Intel for his Terafab project—which represents a huge potential boon for Intel. In fact, Musk was given special mention in Lip-Bu Tan's opening remarks:

"Elon and I share a strong conviction that global semiconductor supply is not keeping pace with the rapid acceleration in demand," said Tan. "We are excited to explore innovative ways to refactor silicon process technology, looking for unconventional ways to improve manufacturing efficiency that will eventually lead to a dynamic improvement in the economics of semiconductor manufacturing."

And there's always that Nvidia/Intel collaboration to consider, too. Rumours have suggested that the team green/team blue efforts will be named "Serpent Lake", and potentially be a combination of Nvidia's next-gen Rubin GPU tech and Intel's own silicon. The exact details are mostly speculation at this point, though, and Nvidia was only tangentially mentioned in the earnings call.

Still, Intel's certainly been busy racking up partnership and collaboration agreements in the past year, and by the sounds of it, the AI boom has played a significant part in its impressive performance, too. The company's share price jumped by 20% after the earnings and forecasts were revealed, and that's likely to be news that makes Lip-Bu Tan, and Intel's investors, very happy indeed.

World of Warcraft's latest patch, 12.0.5, was a bit of a doozy—flooded with bugs from small irritants to busted classes, head-scratching design decisions, and raid-scuppering glitches. Not to mention just some confusing choices, like giving my class a new ability that makes it harder for everyone to not stand in the fire.

It's been one of the messiest updates in recent memory, and while I know Blizzard's halfway decent at sorting things out after the fact, the point remains that a lot of what players are griping about was brought up on the PTR—in some cases weeks in advance.

In a new post to the game's site, Blizzard has issued an apology: "The 12.0.5 patch launch was not up to our standards, and we know this disrupted your time and caused justified frustration.

"The team has been working around the clock since launch to stabilize the game and fix the biggest issues players were hitting right away," the post continues—which is fair enough. Several problems, like bonus rolls from the Voidforge and and the aforementioned class bugs have already been stamped out.

"The team is taking lessons learned from this launch to help ensure this doesn't happen again. We will also work harder to communicate openly, early, and often when a launch doesn't go as expected: the known issues we're working on, fixes as they roll out, and any other information that would be useful to our community as problems are worked on and solved.

"We care deeply about this game, and we play it right alongside you. We will do better."

It does seem genuinely heartfelt, and I don't envy being in the position of a developer having to bear the brunt of any irate fanbase—let alone World of Warcraft players, who are… let's just call them passionate, for better or worse.

But it's clear patch 12.0.5 was born of a structural problem with Blizzard's QA pipeline. Devs aren't just oblivious, they know when something's wrong, but they're also paid salaried jobs and, like any work, can't just pivot without upper management's say-so. Developers not being given the time to fix obvious, already-reported bugs before launch smacks to me of a management issue.

Fans are, understandably, waiting to see if Blizzard can do more than talk the talk. Over on the forums, one player writes: "All these bugs come from trying to release too many systems too fast. We don’t need all these side games in wow. Our classes don't function, communication in game doesn't function, pets are broken, battle pets are broken, UI is broken, Instances are broken. It would be faster to list what does work."

Over on the r/WoW subreddit, sentiment is also rough: "What I don’t understand is that some of these bugs were reported 3+ weeks ago on PTR," writes user tapwater86. "Who in their right mind would sign off to go live with all of this? There’s no way someone in the chain didn’t say 'hey guys we have a lot of issues we need another week or two'."

One option is just slowing down a bit—Blizzard's been on a roll ever since Dragonflight in meeting its roadmap goals, but the game's been getting… very ambitious, lately. An overhaul of the UI to fit a post-addon world, a player housing system (which is genuinely rather good), a narrative promising to span three entire expansions that were announced all at once, and a rapid-fire patch cadence.

As someone used to the arguably too slow cadence of Final Fantasy 14, WoW players have been eating good—but with patches like these, it feels like Blizzard is struggling to keep up with itself. For both the players and the development team's sake, I hope they can find a balance soon.

In the month since Archetype Entertainment gave us our first look at its sci-fi RPG Exodus, there's been a drip-feed of teasers showcasing gunfights, the exploration of alien worlds, stealth and a man looking out of his balcony. The main takeaway from these teasers is that, yep, this sure looks like Mass Effect.

Which isn't surprising—Archetype describes itself as being "led by industry veterans from BioWare, 343, Electronic Arts, Naughty Dog, and other leading AAA studios" (emphasis mine), with a cohort that included former BioWare design director James Ohlen. I'm using the past tense here because Ohlen left his role as the head of Archetype late last year.

"At this stage, James felt his work on the game was complete and that the polishing and tuning were in great hands with the team," Hasbro vice president of corporate communications Abby Hodes told Bloomberg at the time. Exodus is being published by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro.

This is pretty weird! Exodus isn't due out until next year. There's clearly a lot of work still to be done. A studio boss's work isn't complete when the game isn't remotely finished.

But whatever is going on at Archetype, it's still acting as if it's business as usual. On top of the teasers we've been seeing over the last month, an extended look at the RPG is expected this summer.

It's uncanny just how much it looks like Mass Effect though. Not just "inspired" by Mass Effect. Aesthetically and mechanically, from what we've seen so far, it looks like it could be Mass Effect 5. Though it's clearly not just copying Mass Effect and calling it a day. The stealth system showcased last week is new, for instance.

Granted, it doesn't look especially novel or any different from the shoe-horned stealth that so many action games deploy. But it's not something Shepard ever did.

This week's teaser is not particularly thrilling. It's just a dude looking at a generic sci-fi cityscape on a balcony, accompanied by ambient music that you'll swear you heard in Mass Effect's Citadel.

Mass Effect codex fans might be excited by one of the advances on display, though—you can look at things and get on-screen codex pop-ups instead of needing to view them in a separate menu. This is the future, folks!

I probably sound more cynical than you'd expect from someone who genuinely loves Mass Effect and is keen for more big budget sci-fi RPGs, but nothing we've seen so far has set my heart pounding. It all looks OK. A bit stiff, a bit too much like some games I played years and years ago, but certainly not dreadful. But I'm still waiting for the reveal of something that could actually get me excited.

Fingers crossed for the extended showcase this summer, I guess! And hey, if this doesn't work out, we've also got The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, along with the latest official Mass Effect entry. Though regarding the latter, I still think it's a terrible idea.

Taming the legendary Phoenix in Crimson Desert is just one of the many new features that the most recent patch added to the game. While you can capture most birds using the Sotdae of Bond item, essentially a fancy bird feeder, this flame-feathered friend requires a rougher approach.

Similar to the legendary Silver Fang and White Bear mounts, you'll actually have to kill it first, and then craft a Sigil of Solidarity using a witch vendor. So, here's where to find the Phoenix, plus how to take it down so you can unlock it as a pet.

How to tame the Phoenix in Crimson Desert

Before we go into the Phoenix location, you're first going to need a few things:

• At least one explosive arrow
• To unlock the Charged Shot skill
• To unlock the Witch's Lair vendor via their faction quest that unlocks in Chapter 5

You can buy a couple of explosive arrows from the Back Alley Trader in Tommaso, which is on the way to the Phoenix's location. The Charged Shot skill will also make it easier to hit the bird, since killing it seems to be the easiest way to unlock it as a pet.

Now, you can find the Phoenix in the north of the Crimson Desert region, just south of Trader's Expanse, in a little area with ravines that it flies around. The Phoenix is quite easy to spot since it's a giant golden bird flying in the centre of a flock of smaller golden birds. I recommend heading to the big stone pillar in the centre of the crater and waiting there until the Phoenix flies by. Then, shoot it with your explosive arrow in Charged Shot to take it down.

Find where it fell and skin its corpse to get the Phoenix Feather, before heading to the Witch's Lair vendor. Select the "Craft Abyss Gear" option, cycle across to "Special Items", and craft the Sigil of Solidarity (Phoenix). Consume this in your inventory in the Key Item: Treasure section to unlock the Phoenix as a pet.

The Sotdae of Bond might be one of Crimson Desert's most weirdly named items, but it's effectively a big ol' bird feeder, letting you tame the new bird pets that were added in the recent update. Bird-wise, you can befriend anything from a common variety Sparrow, to a legendary Phoenix, but first you'll have to unlock the item itself for use.

The new update also includes new cats to take home like the Abyss Heuklang, plus the new Baltheon Armor set. All that said, here's how to get the Sotdae of Bond in Crimson Desert and tame some feathery friends.

How to get the Sotdae of Bond in Crimson Desert

You have to complete the Authorized Access section of the Trembling Woods faction quest for the Pororin Forest Guardians in order to get the Sotdae of Bond. This is the quest which unlocks access to the Florindale area, and you can start it by trying to get into the village, southeast of the Hernand Highlands, and getting sleep-darted three times.

After this, a guardian called Arkin will appear you can speak to, letting you start the quest. It doesn't take too long either. If you've already completed it, you can find the Sotdae of Bond in your item storage in camp, so simply stow it in your inventory.

How to tame bird pets in Crimson Desert

Once you have the Sotdae of Bond, you'll also need some food to use with it (since it's a bird feeder). Different food types attract different birds, but as far as I can tell, you can use:

• Meat (non-bird)
• Fish (alive or dead)
• Insects
• Oats
• Seeds
• Fruit

The feeder has a very large capacity and will hold its food between uses, so it's definitely worth just dumping all types of feed in there to attract the widest possible variety of birds based on where you set it up. Now:

1. Select the Sotdae of Bond in your inventory to get it out.
2. Hold CTRL and press R to place it (LB and Y on controller).
3. Interact with it to load up the feed.
4. Step back a little way to watch.

Different areas seem to contain different birds. For example, I placed the feeder on a mountain where it attracted an eagle and a sparrowhawk, but then moved it to a river where I attracted a crow and a sparrow, instead.

Different overall regions also contain different birds. Once a bird has landed on the feeder, it'll feed until it reaches 100 Trust, just like other pets, and then you can approach and choose the "Take In" option, making it your bird. Bird pets don't have equipment, but they will loot corpses similar to dogs and cats, and will land on your arm if you stand still for a while.

In what's looking to be The Year of Linux (TM) as well as the year of the RAMpocalypse and future market uncertainty, it's perhaps not surprising that some would try to get their hands on a solid, performant, and most importantly modular and upgradeable laptop that plays well with Linux. Though I will admit to still being a little surprised to see that, according to Framework, those who are ordering the new Framework 13 Pro are buying more of the Ubuntu-flavoured version than the Windows ones.

The official Framework account posted on X:

"Framework Laptop 13 Pro is selling far above our forecast, and we've sold out of the first six batches already. Also nice validation of our approach, the Ubuntu configurations are outselling the Windows ones!"

The company describes the Framework 13 Pro as the "MacBook Pro for Linux users", and I can see why. Judging from the specs, it has a great screen that shines at up to 700 nits, has tons of battery life thanks to the Panther Lake chips and 74 Wh battery, and fits everything inside a sleek and premium aluminium chassis.

We've already seen lots of love for the laptop from the Linux community. GloriousEggRoll of Proton GE and Nobara Linux fame, for instance, said he's enjoying it and its "freakishly good battery life." CachyOS, too, posted that "it finally feels like a genuinely premium Framework."

Admittedly, there's likely to be a disproportionate weighting towards Linux lovers to begin with, at least compared to your average laptop, given Framework machines are known to have great out-of-the-box Linux compatibility. It also makes sense that Linux users, who tend to like having more control over their operating system than in Windows, would like the modular and upgradable Framework approach.

Setting aside the weighting towards Linux, that the Framework is apparently selling out in general might also be a little surprising given it's far from a cheap machine. But the market might have something to do with that. With PC, laptop, and component prices being so expensive and the future looking so uncertain, some might want to get in with a purchase as soon as possible, not willing to risk future price hikes or stock issues. We've already seen signs of this with PC purchases, for instance.

And if there were ever a safe bet to get in the world of laptops it would be a Framework machine which you can upgrade once all this shortage malarkey has blown over—in theory, anyway.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma promised "a renewed commitment to Xbox" when she took over from Phil Spencer in February, and in the months since we've seen some movement on that front: A promise to avoid "soulless AI slop," the end of the "this is an Xbox" strategy, and most recently, a reduction of Game Pass pricing—and the removal of Call of Duty games on day one.

Now, thanks to a joint message from Sharma and newly-installed chief content officer Matt Booty that was sent to Xbox employees and subsequently shared publicly, we have perhaps a tiny little bit of a better idea about where it's all going. Beginning with a name change: Microsoft Gaming, which was adopted in 2022 as an overarching title for Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, Activision. Blizzard, and King, is out, and to replace it, the old Xbox name has been brought back.

That change is actually noted near the end of the post, following a lot of words that don't actually say a lot about Microsoft's plan for its future in gaming: "Games should bring people together through shared experiences," and "Xbox will be where the world plays and creates"—the sort of empty, rally-the-troops mush that can simultaneously make your eyes gloss over and your soul rage. Or maybe that's just me.

Still, there are some rather frank admissions of failure to be found in there. Some of it has been expressed previously in the 'we know we have to do better' way, but it's kind of stark when all rolled together as it is here:

"Players are frustrated. New feature drops on console have been less frequent. Our presence on PC isn't strong enough. Pricing is getting harder for people to keep up with. And core experiences like search, discovery, social, and personalization still feel too fragmented. Developers and publishers are asking for more, too: better tools, better insights, and a platform that helps them grow faster."

There's also a nod to the proverbial "War for Attention" that's become a popular thing to wring hands over in 2026 and "a new generation of players" who "expect more content in familiar places, want to shape the worlds they play in, and want to create and socialize together, not just play together."

The trouble is that while there are certainly challenges a-plenty, most of what it offers in the way of solutions to these challenges are vague promises and platitudes. To wit:

"Xbox will be built to be affordable, personal, and open. We will offer flexible pricing so it's easy to get started and keep playing. The experience will adapt to you, letting you customize how you play, helping you find what you'll love, and connecting you with the right people. And we will be open to all creators, from individuals to the largest studios, giving anyone the tools to reach a global audience and keep their games growing over time.

It's interesting, though, that underneath all that muck is a tacit acknowledgement that PC may be where the future lies. The admission about Xbox not being "strong enough" on PC is obviously telling (and also conjures memories of Microsoft's long history of half-assing its approach to PC gaming), but there's also a deeper segment dedicated to broader PC-driven shifts in the industry.

"Windows now represents more players and more hours and is increasingly where competition is most intense. Players have access to more games than ever, even as the cost and time to build blockbuster titles continues to rise, putting pressure on what gets made and how risk is taken. Some of the biggest recent hits are coming from small teams or even single creators, and places like Roblox are producing experiences that rival major franchises in scale. More players are also choosing subscriptions and services as their primary way to play, with expectations set around instant access, ongoing value, and libraries that evolve continuously."

That part of the memo brings to mind comments made by Google Cloud global director for games Jack Buser, who said in a recent interview that "the only real growth [in games] is coming from Roblox and China." His proposed solution is to go all-in on AI-powered game dev, which—allowing for conversations about how exactly we define "AI"—I think is a terrible idea. But while Sharma promised to steer clear of "AI slop," AI in some sense will, inevitably, play a role in the future of Xbox: The memo says Xbox leadership "will reevaluate our approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI, and share more as we learn and decide."

And yes, it sounds like games-as-platforms are going to take a more prominent role in Microsoft's plans as well: An oddly isolated line in the memo states that "our new north star will be daily active players."

I can't say the memo gives me any more, or less, hope for a successful future for Xbox than I had yesterday. Microsoft remains the underdog on the console front, and it's never been able to convert its operating system dominance into success in the world of PC gaming. All that can be turned around, sure, but it will take serious time and effort, at a juncture where Microsoft seems to have its mind on other things: The company also launched an early-retirement buyout program for employees today, the first in the company's history, as it continues to focus on AI.

Others are more upbeat about it, though: Industry analyst Mat Piscatella, for one, called the memo "excellent" and said it sets "a strong foundation and a vision for the future."

This is excellent.The read on the current market is spot on. The goals are made clear, and the tactics laid out.It's no guarantee for success, but it does set a strong foundation and a vision for the future.news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/0...

— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-04-23T23:56:41.747Z

Whatever your take on it, at this point it doesn't seem that Sharma—herself a former AI executive at Microsoft—is quite the "palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night," as original Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley predicted when she took over from Spencer. At the very least, Microsoft is making a lot more noise than you'd reasonably expect if it was actually looking to pull the plug on Xbox.

The issue for now is that while this memo admits that a lot's gone wrong, it doesn't have much of substance to say about how it will be fixed. And without that, it really doesn't say anything at all.

Masters of Albion has Peter Molyneux's paws all over it. The art style and arch British humor channels Fable, and it's even set in a place called Albion (not the same Albion as Fable, of course). It's all very gentle, very quaint, like I've just opened an Enid Blyton or Jill Barklem picture book.

But then my in-game mentor, who instructs me in all things being-a-god, goes hell for leather: "Fuck off it's a fucking zombie!" she cries. It's a response commensurate with the severity of the situation—midnight zombie attack—but it's the funniest case of tonal whiplash I've experienced in a game for a while. Imagine if Maru in Stardew Valley called you a cockhead every time you proffered a snow yam. That's how it felt.

Masters of Albion is a funny thing and yes, it kinda feels like the explicit, unadulterated version of previous Molyneux games mashed together. It's a god game, because I play as a godly hand in control of everything. It's a management and production line sim in ways that recall both Theme Park and Dungeon Keeper. It also has some light action RPG elements. It definitely feels like Molyneux and his team are making a game designed to be widely played rather than as an experimental commercial gambit, possibly for the first time in 22cans' existence.

God hand

The first order of the day is to revitalise the little hamlet of Oakbridge. In Masters of Albion the protagonist—the god, the hand—is also the mouse pointer. I can construct buildings out of pre-fabbed blocks, all the better to get a little bit of industry going on in this backwater. My farm keeps a nearby mill supplied with wheat, and the mill keeps a nearby factory supplied with flour. At first my town's specialty is making weird sandwiches, which I'm tasked with making manually, by way of learning how the mini in-game economy works. From a selection of ingredients—stale sourdough, moldy white, lettuce, tomato, rat—I click and drag ingredients onto a plate, and the customer delivers their verdict.

It's a wholesome way to live. But the problem with this revitalisation plan is there's a graveyard nearby and it tends to spawn vicious undead by night. Masters of Albion is also, therefore, a tower defense game of sorts. I can fix or mend fences, build catapult sentries, and eventually open a heroes guild where the heroes I employ bed down.

I really love this aspect of the game. My heroes automatically fight zombies by night and I can even help out from the firmament, at first with lightning rods but later with fire. I can also inhabit my heroes and wander the world as them, effectively turning Masters of Albion into a third-person action RPG (you can inhabit workers as well, but no thanks).

Not a very good action RPG though, or at least, not yet: this being early access, my heroes traverse the terrain awkwardly, and the land is rife with weird invisible walls. But inhabiting one of my heroes means I can explore chunks of Albion that my godly hands have yet to win dominion over, and it also falls to them to reconstruct towers that can extend my divine reach, all the better for me to take control over more of Albion. Each of my heroes levels up independently and, eventually, once I've built an armory and weaponsmith, can be kitted out with better gear.

Rat sandwich

The management elements are fine but a little tedious at times. At one point, hundreds of pounds in debt, I needed to build a bunch of new worksites and homes for incoming workers. The only way I knew how to get out of debt was to manufacture 28 "balanced" sandwiches, the problem being that my wheat field was depleted and I needed more than a grand to irrigate purified water to the plot. Thankfully my mill was stocked up with plenty of flour already, but once my supply was depleted I still needed to make 15 pies with only 37 pounds at my disposal.

Manufacturing is slow too: needlessly so, because Masters of Albion doesn't pit you against any clock. Days will run forever until you choose to end them, the idea being that you should be well-equipped to take on the night's zombie incursion. It's possible to speed up production on my farms, mills and factories by double clicking on them—think of it like a foreman's stern tap on the shoulder—but this is still pretty slow as well.

Anyway, I ran out of money and wheat before I could fulfil this task and felt at a loss until I realised I could go adventuring for coins. Sidequesting as one of my heroes is actually a pretty effective way of making money, or at least it is until all sidequests are done. Manufacturing sandwiches is pretty lucrative, but so is bashing hornet nests from trees, and kicking chooks back into their run (it wouldn't be Molyneux without fowl cruelty).

Once I got the money I bought my stupid water purifier, only to struggle endlessly with its placement, which raises the problem of building in general: it's awkward. I want my town to look nice, but it's usually more expedient to just stack required blocks one on top of the other until I have a veritable skyscraper of, say, farmer workshops, all the better to employ workers and boost production. It's also annoying how willing new blocks in hand are to snap to buildings I don't want to be a part of.

The UI, in general, is a bit of a mess. And performance is pretty woeful: my laptop sits pretty much exactly on the recommended specs, but even on minimum settings the game would often lurch, especially when on foot as one of my denizens. 22Cans also writes that the game is Steam Deck ready, and it kinda is, but you're going to need to be comfortable with frame rates that hover around the 22 fps mark on the lowest possible settings.

Yep, it's an early access project alright. But through the mid-development murk I can see huge potential. It's full of fun touches, like the ability to pick my subjects up and drop them into the ocean, though maybe that stands out because there aren't a heap of other ways to assert my divinity. The writing is often superb, and despite the ropey performance it looks really nice on high settings.

I enjoyed my time with Masters of Albion despite its myriad problems, though for anyone less than fanatic about Molyneux' work or the god genre in general, I'd probably advise to wait for further updates. Of course, this being a Molyneux project, you're justified in worrying whether it'll ever be completed. Assuming that it is—22cans predicts a 12 month dev cycle—it's shaping up to be the best Molyneux game since the Fable years. Is that a high bar to cross? Not really, but I'll definitely be coming back.

If you've grown a bit weary of survival games where a stick and a rock can automagically be combined to make a tree-felling axe and you can build a comfortable base in a matter of minutes, how about something a bit more authentic?

Wordless Forest is a FMV (Full Motion Video) survival game that could wind up feeling more realistic than most of what you'll find on Steam—because its creator actually went out into the woods for weeks on end to make it. Solo developer Dogus Cagrici both stars in the game and recorded all the footage himself while hiking alone deep in the real wilderness.

That makes the creation of the game sound like a survival experience in itself, with Cagrici recording footage of himself "in the dense forests and wilderness of four different cities across Turkey for 40 days. Without a production vehicle, I hiked for kilometers carrying heavy camera gear on my back just to reach remote locations," Cagrici says.

"Operating out of a remote forest pension as my basecamp, I hiked deep into territory actively shared with brown bears and wild boars every single day. The danger shifted with the geography; in Muğla, I waded into freezing rivers and worked in soaking wet clothes, while in Antalya, I filmed alone on the edge of treacherous cliffs where a single misstep could have been fatal."

I suspect this is true: "The exhaustion on screen is 100% real," Cagrici says.

The Steam page and trailer for Wordless Forest definitely demonstrates that: we see Cagrici's character drinking from puddles, eating raw fish, and attempting to start a fire and cross icy rivers. Players will be able to make choices to determine what the character does next in life-or-death situations, such as choosing to approach or ignore a mysterious noise in the woods at night. (I wish it showed a third option: run away screaming, because that's how I'd handle it.)

Some of those choices aren't gonna end well: the trailer shows a few of what I assume are game-enders, such as when we see the character falling off a cliff and landing on the rocks below or being dragged lifelessly down the rapids.

If you're wondering why it's called Wordless Forest, it's because the game is completely dialogue free. That's a selling point for me: as a fan of survival films where the dialogue is at a minimum, like Cast Away, All is Lost, and Inside, there's something deeply fascinating about watching someone try to survive while absorbing all the information visually rather than having it plainly spelled out in dialogue or voice over.

I'm also intrigued because Wordless Forest may be the first game of its kind: an FMV survival game. I know there have been a few FMV survival horror games (Phantasmogoria leaps to mind), but I can't think of any straight-up survival games with an FMV format. A search of SteamDB for survival games with the FMV tag only brings up four hits, and none of those look strictly like survival games.

Cagrici says Wordless Forest has been in development for nearly three years. It's due out in August on Steam.

In February this year, Turkiye's Family and Social Services Ministry announced draft legislation to impose various restrictions and overweening oversight on Steam, Epic, and other gaming platforms. The country's parliament has now approved the bill, with some minor changes, which will mean tough times ahead for such platforms, and newly limited access for Turkish players.

The bill is part of a wider legislative push which, the government claims, is about protecting children by restricting access to things like social media. Some of the requirements of the new legislation are pretty boilerplate, such as clearly displaying age ratings and offering "clear [and] easy-to-use" parental tools, but the platform-holders will surely breathe a sigh of relief that the regulator will not have the authority to ban them (though it can throttle traffic after certain violations).

Any gaming platform that has more than 100,000 daily users in Turkiye must now appoint a local representative (though they don't have to open an office). This rep's contact info must be easily accessible on the platform itself, declared to the authorities, and they have to respond to government requests within a strict timeframe.

If the platforms breach the new rules, first up is a warning and one month to correct the violation. If they fail to fix the issue to the authorities' satisfaction within that month, then it's a 10 million Turkish lira fine ($223,000), and after another month of non-compliance the fine trebles to 30 million Turkish lira ($668,000). Should the fines not have the desired effect, this is when the regulator would begin limiting access speeds to the platform in question.

But next to the social media companies, gaming platforms arguably got off lightly. Many more draconian proposals were rejected. The bill no longer grants authorities the power to shut down gaming platforms, and it removes a requirement for mandatory data-sharing with the government, as well as one for maximum playtime limits. A proposal to ban unrated games was rejected, though they will now be automatically assigned an 18+ rating. Individual developers no longer have the duty to verify a user's age: it's down to the platforms.

The large social media firms, on the other hand, got it in the neck. First up, all social media for children under 15 is now banned in Turkiye. In addition, these platforms must now comply with content removal requests that involve national security or public safety within one hour, as well as ensuring any deleted material cannot be re-uploaded. They'll also be required to provide data to the authorities on-demand with a 15-day deadline for compliance, and to fund risk assessments on the social impact of their platforms.

There's also a new framework of fines for social media platforms, and much more onerous consequences if their new obligations are not met. If a platform does not act on an issue within 30 days of being asked, the regulator can now prohibit any new advertising on the platform. Should the authorities still be unhappy, they can then impose bandwidth reductions of 50 percent that can rise to 90 percent.

The problem being, of course, that what's a matter of "public safety" or "illegal content" is very much in the eye of the authoritarian beholder. This bill was introduced under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose government is routinely accused of authoritarian media censorship and information suppression: it says this is all about ensuring child safety, but being able to squeeze these sites in such a way is a big stick that can be waved at them for all sorts of reasons as the Turkish government sees fit.

Although the law has been passed, it has not yet come into effect. When it does, Steam and everyone else will have six months to comply with the new regulations.

The Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake is just over yon horizon, scheduled to dock this summer, nevermind the leaky hull that Ubisoft always springs when trying to keep a secret. The fourth mainline Assassin's Creed game was an unequivocal pirate game favorite in the years before we had Sea of Thieves. It's still got a place in a lot of hearts thanks to roguish pirate protagonist Edward Kenway and his antics rallying a bunch of pirate legends to a haven in Nassau.

When is the Black Flag Resynced release date?

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced launches on July 9, 2026 on PC (via Steam or Epic), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S for $60 / £50.

What's new in Black Flag Resynced?

Remake or remaster?

Ubisoft says that Black Flag has been "rebuilt from the ground up" in the latest version of its Ubisoft Anvil Engine, the version it used for Mirage and Shadows. So let's call it a remake, then. Ubisoft says that the upgrade is bringing modern tech like ray-traced lighting, water rendering, and weather simulation.

Who's making it?

Ubisoft Singapore is leading development on Resynced. Yup, that's the studio that did Skull and Bones, for better or worse, "with many of the original game’s developers returning to bring the game to the latest generation of hardware," Ubisoft adds.

Combat and stealth got a rework

Ubisoft was big on highlighting the way that combat has been updated: mostly the ability to do parries and takedowns. On the stealth side, it highlights how Kenway can now freely crouch whenever as a stealth approach.

That plays into all those many tailing missions, which it says have been updated so that being spotted doesn't just instantly fail the mission and instead just means you'll transition to head-on combat to resolve the situation. So stealth is encouraged, but perhaps not required.

What else is new?

• New story scenes, including one with Edward's wife Caroline
• 3 new recruitable crew officers (Lucy Baldwin, "The Padre", and Tobias "Deadman" Smith) with their own story questlines
• The modern day segments connecting to the animus feature "new moments that focus on Edward's internal struggles"
• 10 new sea shanties featuring French artist Woodkid
• New weapon upgrades for your ship
• Cat or monkey pet to live on your ship (Jackd—awwwww, right?)

What's staying the same?

What's NOT in Black Flag Resynced?

When I first opened the warlock skill tree while reviewing Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred last week, I spent a good 20 minutes just reading through all the different skills and upgrades Blizzard stuffed in there. And that was just one of the new classes in the expansion; the other six have been reworked too.

I glanced at the sorceress skill tree and saw all kinds of transformative options in there, like being able to turn your burning meteors into icy comets. However, I should've taken a peek at druids and necromancers—two classes I don't normally play—because they got bigger upgrades than the rest of them.

Druids skills are no longer tied to specific shapeshifting forms. Instead, you select which form you want the skill to transform you into. You can finally decide to live out your fantasy as a purely human druid for storm and earth skills, for example, and all you have to do is select which form you want in the skill tree (for free). This is a big deal for creating builds around items that give you bonuses for sticking to one form, and for anyone, like me, who really isn't a fan of playing as a bear the entire time.

Necromancers might be the biggest winners of the expansion: Blizzard has promoted them to undead generals who can command more minions than ever before. Not only can they finally direct their skeletons to attack targets, they can gather up to what looks like 28 of them, all at once, with the right items.

All their minions now live in the skill tree and work slightly different from before. Skeletal mages are summoned with the necromancer's version of mana, essence, and skeletal warriors show up passively when there are monster corpses nearby. Golems are in the tree, too, if you want one big brute to smash everything apart.

Spoilers for the Lord of Hatred campaign in the video below!

The first thing I thought of when seeing these changes is how much less spamming you have to do to keep your minions summoned during boss fights where they get repeatedly squished. But I'm sure necromancer players will see this and get excited about what the skill tree will let them do to their little bone buddies.

The Book of the Dead, the necromancer's unique, minion-focused class mechanic, will still let you sacrifice your minions for powerful stat bonuses, but won't stop you from still summoning weaker versions of them in combat. This allows you to use them purely as tanks instead of damage-dealers or to activate specific effects on your gear.

All the other classes have lots of new skill variants in their trees as well, but they don't have unique mechanics like druids and necromancers that would need to dramatically change to fit this new era of customization. I'm glad Blizzard put in the extra effort to make sure druids and necromancers can fully take advantage of all the updates to loot, crafting, and skills in Lord of Hatred.

The expansion is launching on April 27 (April 28 for some regions), and will have all of this available from the moment you start the new campaign. Don't listen to the NPCs yelling at you to stay after Mephisto and his army of brainwashed devotees: Saving Sanctuary can wait while you poke around your skill tree and imagine the most creative ways you can take the demon lord down.

Fake messages asking for cryptocurrency to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz have been sent to multiple ships and shipping companies. The Greek maritime risk management ‌firm MARISKS issued the warning, which was first reported on by Reuters, saying that unknown scammers, claiming to represent the Iranian authorities, had sent various messages demanding transit fees in Bitcoin, Tether and other cryptocurrencies in exchange for "clearance."

Hundreds of ​vessels are currently stranded west of the Strait, which Iran has blockaded in response to the US blockading Iranian ports. In normal times around a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas passes through the shipping channel.

The scam has clearly been inspired by the fact that Tehran has suggested instituting tolls on ships to ensure safe transit (the Iranian authorities have made no comment on the messages). It trialled the plan earlier this month, per the Guardian, requiring tankers to provide their cargo list, destination and ownership before paying a toll of around $1 per barrel of oil: to put that in context, the average oil tanker will be transporting two million barrels. Then the kicker: Iran accepted payment in either Chinese yuan or cryptocurrency.

On April 18 ⁠the strait was temporarily opened subject to Iranian checks, but at least two ships that tried to pass through were fired upon by Iranian warships and reversed course. MARISKS said ​at least one ​of these vessels, ⁠which was hit by gunfire, was a victim of the fraud, adding that "these specific messages are a scam."

MARISKS also gave an example of the messages being received by ships:

"After providing the documents and assessing your eligibility by the Iranian Security Services, we will be able to determine the fee to be ⁠paid in ​cryptocurrency (BTC or USDT). Only then will your ​vessel be able to transit the strait unimpeded at the pre-agreed time."

That ship may not be alone in falling for a crypto scam while seeking safe passage. On April 22 the cargo ship Epaminondas, owned by the Greek company Technomar, was fired upon after apparently receiving a message promising safe passage. Ekathimerini reports the authorities are investigating whether the message in question "may have been fraudulent.".

The Iranians have fired upon ships in other incidents, while since April 12 the US Navy has also been sticking its oar in with a blockade, all while President Donald Trump claims it has "total control" over the Strait, adding the Navy will "shoot and kill" Iranian mine-laying boats.

Crypto-scammers being their scummy selves is the last thing this seemingly intractable situation needs, but here we are. It already feels quaint to look back just a few years to early crypto scams and NFT game rug pulls, now that we've reached full Neal Stephenson novel territory.

Vampire Crawlers may be in a completely different genre than Vampire Survivors, but the progression path still has that signature Survivors DNA. With the right upgrades, you can become an unstoppable force of nature that shreds enemies like paper.

Picking the wrong upgrades can seriously slow you down in the early stages of Vampire Crawlers, though, so you should spend your hard-earned coins wisely. There's thankfully a refund button in the shop, but some of the game's best upgrades have to be unlocked the old-fashioned way. Here's what you should be chasing first as you dive into Vampire Crawlers' dungeons.

The best Crawlers to start with

Crawlers are the cornerstone of your build. Broken runs and crazy stats start with them, so filling the empty seats at the Inn should be your number one priority when starting out. You can have a great time with any of the game's characters, but there are two Crawlers in particular that you should rush toward.

Pasqualina Belpaese is the first truly broken Crawler you can recruit, increasing your hand size when purple cards are played and increasing your Area stat whenever her Crawler card is played.

To get Pasqualina, you need to reach level 20 with Imelda Belpaese on the Inlaid Library stage. You'll unlock Imelda after your first run in the Mad Forest—the very first stage—so you can get Pasqualina in under an hour if you're just starting out.

Pasqualina's whole kit is designed around crowd control, clearing huge waves of enemies with ever-increasing splash damage. Since she boosts your hand size when purple cards are played, you can stuff your deck with a bunch of cheap cards that you can spam to easily clear encounters. Add in a few stronger cards with combo potential to take out bosses and you've got a bulletproof plan of attack!

Next up on the priority list is Gennaro Belpaese, another broken Crawler who overwhelms enemies by increasing your Amount stat instead of Area. He also deals bonus damage whenever red cards are played, making Gennaro a very easy character to win with.

To unlock Gennaro, you have to defeat the Mantichana in the Mad Forest. The Mantichana is the final boss of the Mad Forest stage, so you have to win a full run to add Gennaro to your roster.

Gennaro is all about spamming low-cost cards and filling the screen with a bunch of random attacks. He gets Knife and Spinach cards in his starting deck, so spam Knives and combo with Spinach to boost your Might and make the Knives even stronger. Might also affects Gennaro's bonus damage from red cards, so all these little buffs start to add up fast. Slotting Gems onto those Knife cards will only ramp up the chaos, too.

Splurge on these upgrades at the shop

A returning feature from Vampire Survivors, the shop lets you spend coins to unlock permanent stat upgrades that'll help you survive harder stages. The same upgrades from Vampire Survivors are sold in Vampire Crawlers, but the best game plan is a bit different here.

The first thing you absolutely must buy in Vampire Crawlers is the Recovery upgrade, which restores one HP after every encounter for only 500 coins. The second and third upgrade levels get pretty expensive, so you can hold off on those for now.

The Reroll upgrade is just as important as Recovery—if not more. For only 250 coins, you can unlock the ability to reroll rewards so you can kickstart honing your build. The next upgrade levels are fairly cheap, but you should be fine with just one level at the start of the game.

Next up, you should buy one or two levels of the Duration upgrade. Crawler buffs are so important to the best builds, so you want to maximize the amount of time they're active. It's another cheap upgrade, so you can buy it after just a few runs.

After that, you should buy the first Might and Luck upgrades. They'll increase your stats by 20%, which is a huge boon when you're just starting out. These upgrades will carry you through the early stages of the game, letting you save up coins for the more expensive stuff like armor and Growth.

Add an Arcana to your kit

The Fortune Teller's Arcana tent is a huge upgrade that can drastically improve your builds, but you can easily miss it if you choose the wrong dungeons.

To unlock the Fortune Teller's tent, you need to find the Polentir Relic in the Furious Forest stage. It may seem tempting to go straight to the Inlaid Library after clearing the Mad Forest, but doubling down and trying to clear the harder Furious Forest is worth the effort. After exploring the Furious Forest for a while, the Polentir will eventually drop.

The Fortune Teller's tent lets you equip an Arcana, which provides a big passive buff of your choosing. These are unlocked just like weapons and items, and you can check the required challenges to unlock new Arcanas by hovering over each card.

One of the best Arcanas is Over the Top, which returns a Crawler to the top of your deck once they leave. You can unlock it by playing Crawler cards 100 times, so you'll end up with it sooner or later after a few runs. With Over the Top equipped, you can rack up constant bonus damage with a Crawler like Gennaro or gain a ton of XP with a character like Imelda.

Another strong early-game Arcana is Your Shield My Liege, which lets you keep armor between turns. It unlocks after you've gained 2,000 armor over the course of your adventures. With this Arcana, you can focus entirely on offense and build up armor across encounters over time. There's even a Gem that deals your armor value as damage, so slotting that into a cheap card is an easy path to victory.

Nab these Relics ASAP

Relics are game-changing passive upgrades that unlock new gameplay features in Vampire Crawlers. You'll get some great ones like the Combo Stack and Gem Hammer in the tutorial, but the best ones are hidden in harder dungeons.

As mentioned above, the Polentir should be your first priority once you're out of the Vampire Crawlers tutorial. You'll find it on the Furious Forest stage, accessible after clearing the Mad Forest for the first time. It unlocks the Fortune Teller's tent and the Arcana system.

The Grim Grimoire is another early-game priority. Found in the Library West Wing, it gives you a list of discovered weapon evolutions so you can keep track of the items you need in order to get the strongest cards. You can access the Library West Wing after clearing the Inlaid Library for the first time.

You should also try to clear the Teeny Bridge as soon as possible. It's a tough, combat-centric dungeon that pits you against a long line of enemies, but the reward is the Stardust Anvil. This Relic unlocks the Blacksmith's Shop, which lets you add gem slots to cards in your deck. This is the last major upgrade you'll get for the Village, so don't neglect this dungeon!

After a year of leaks and horsing around that Ubisoft probably didn't find nearly as funny as I did, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced was finally given the official curtain-lifting today. The reveal of "gaming's worst-kept secret" was pretty much what we expected—it's a remake of Black Flag—but hidden in Ubisoft's big announcement roundup is a fun little bit of trivia: Development is being led by Ubisoft Singapore.

Ubisoft Singapore is one of the many studios Ubisoft has around the world, but it's notable in this particular context because Singapore is also the developer of Skull and Bones, Ubi's other big pirate fantasy adventure—the game whose well-documented difficulties enabled me to do this:

Skull and Bones was the victim of its own Ubisoft curse, you see. Where Black Flag Resync was destined to leak, Skull and Bones was doomed to delays, at least one of which happened less than two months ahead of its planned release in 2022. That date was itself the result of multiple prior delays: Skull and Bones was announced in 2017 and was originally supposed to be out in the fall of 2018. Missed it by that much.

I'm not suggesting here that Ubisoft is going to mash the brakes on Black Flag Resynced until 2032: As much as I enjoy utterly baseless, wild speculation, I'm pretty confident it will make its July 9 release target.

But recall that work on Skull and Bones began in 2013, right on the heels of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag's release, and it was originally envisioned as a multiplayer expansion for Black Flag. After more than 10 years of tossin' on turbulent seas, Singapore finally shoves Skull and Bones out the door, and what do they get told? Yer doin' Black Flag again!

It's a living, as the saying goes, but holy cow. After 13 solid years of working on Edward Kenway and his various legally distinct spinoff adventures, I would imagine the Singapore squad is really looking forward to turning its attention to something different. Hey, maybe Ubisoft can put 'em to work on Beyond Good and Evil 2. Getting that out the door shouldn't eat up more than, oh, another 17 years.

For the record, Ubisoft Singapore isn't working on Black Flag Resynced alone. They're not included on the announcement page but mashed down in the fine print of the actual press release is a list of co-dev studios, and it's basically like someone put Gary Oldman in charge of production: The full roster includes: Ubisoft Barcelona, Ubisoft Belgrade, Ubisoft Blue Byte, Ubisoft Bordeaux, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Chengdu, Ubisoft Da Nang, Ubisoft India, Ubisoft Kyiv, Ubisoft Montpellier, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Philippines, Ubisoft Quebec, Ubisoft Shanghai, and Ubisoft Sofia.

My complaints about the generative AI bubble, and the tech industry in general, can often be reduced to the question 'What are we even doing here?'

Case in point, one of the things Google thinks will save the games industry is the ability to predict when someone is about to stop playing a game so that they can be manipulated, in ways invisible to them, into playing more. To which I have to wonder: What are we even doing here?

The concept was mentioned—not quite in those terms—by Google Cloud gaming exec Jack Buser back at the Game Developers Conference in March. His talk broadly promoted generative AI adoption, hopping across everyday game dev problems AI is being used for: tagging assets, debugging, detecting cheaters. I don't have an especially visceral reaction to those uses for AI, but my stomach churned at the mention of "hyperpersonalization."

AI is great! Here's how we're going to use it against you

AI boosters have been kicking the "hyperpersonalization" term around for a few years now. Microsoft said in a 2024 blog post that the outcome of hyperpersonalized AI marketing should be that "customers' needs are anticipated before they even ask."

When it comes to games, Buser is excited by the idea of generative AI models that invisibly adjust a player's experience so that marketing "feels like it's part of the gameplay experience."

"AI is doing this so well now that it can predict churn before it even happens in extremely robust ways," Buser said, "and it can adjust gameplay as well as offers that you put in front of your players in near real time."

If you're building software that makes Minority Report-style predictions about the likelihood someone will stop playing your videogame so that you can then manipulate them into playing and spending more, I think you should go sit by a body of water, listen to the birds, and ask yourself what the hell you're even doing anymore.

If it's truly impossible to make money selling games without using machine learning to build psychological prisons—like in that one Star Trek: TNG episode where everyone got addicted to willing discs into tubes—then there's no games industry to save. There are just software companies competing to design the best digital nicotine.

We might already describe parts of the industry that way—loot boxes, daily quests, and other tricks all predate AI—but certainly not all of it. Big and small developers are still making games that, whether or not they pay the bills, exist because their creators genuinely want to enrich our lives.

"Many people make games for money, but we make money for games," one triple-A studio founder recently told us. Balatro, despite being a certified time-devourer and one of the best-selling PC games in recent memory, came from a developer who dislikes gambling and says microtransactions make him "want to put [his] computer in the dishwasher." (He hates AI art, too).

But others, especially in Silicon Valley, have clearly decided that making numbers go up is all that matters, and expect us to be thankful that we've been deemed suitable targets for their next number extraction endeavor (or propaganda project). They tell us openly that their goal is to make more money while employing fewer people, and then act surprised when we don't applaud them for it.

Perhaps one day they'll be able to do away with the abstract idea of 'making a good videogame' altogether, designing hits purely by using AI to respond to the dictates of the numbers. They might end up with something like this self-propelled slot machine.

Little Tree Kingdom is about as instantly charming as games get. You want me to help a clan of cute little gnomes build a new town for themselves in a tree? Don't mind if I do! And may I add: "Awwww!"

As if to lull me further into a sense of security, it's also a bit of a deckbuilder—one of my favourite genres. Each turn, your hand of cards dictates what you can add to the colony. Some cards let you modify the tree, extending its roots or branches or adding leaves and flowers to it. Others will build little buildings for the gnomes, like houses to increase their population or mines to gather up underground resources.

The overall goal is to balance the "welfare" of the community across a number of different categories including happiness, security, and essence (whatever that is). Let any of those scores drop below zero, and you'll literally break the gnomes' hearts. Three broken hearts is game over.

At first, that threat seems pretty mild: just plonking down whatever comes into my hand each turn seems to keep my gnomes thriving. I find myself more focused on the shape of my tree than any worries about resources. The branch and root cards allow me to grow things out however I like, and then place objects on the new segments, allowing for some creative beautification of the town.

Every now and then, a festival is held and a trader comes along, allowing me to grab up some new cards. Having not worried too much about gnome capitalism thus far, I'm pretty light on gems to buy with, but scoop up a few basic cards to keep me going. I shouldn't need any more than that, right?

Wrong. You see, the problem is, I've been ignoring a pretty big looming issue: my resources are not infinite. Cards can only be played a certain number of times before they're destroyed, and outside of buying new ones, there's no other way to replenish or expand my options. It's not long before I'm ending up regularly drawing barely useful hands that can only give me slight bonuses rather than actually developing my town in significant ways. My whimsical little shopping trips have not really been enough to keep me stocked.

With weather events and other catastrophes always threatening to chip away at my welfare scores, that means I've dug myself a bit of a hole. I'm still just about scraping by, though, until all the ghosts start appearing.

It turns out this adorable forest is home to more than just cutesy gnomes—for reasons I should probably interrogate the little guys about later, it's also full of vengeful evil spirits, who are intent on tearing down everything I've built. Past a certain point they'll periodically spawn at the edges of the map, and begin their inexorable advance towards the tree.

Keeping them at bay means building up adorable little defences: spiked walls, arrow towers, even growing thorns on the tree. I guess this is also a tower defence game?

But, again, I can't simply build those things whenever I want—I need the cards, and that means I should have planned ahead about 5 days earlier. What makes things even trickier is that defences have a very small area of effectiveness. An arrow tower, for example, will only fire at the area directly around it, making it useless against a ghost on the other side of the tree or underground. Sculpting my tree purely for aesthetics was not wise after all—now I need a more defendable shape.

As the angry dead ravage Gnomeville, I'm afforded plenty of time to ponder my mistakes. Little Tree Kingdom is not, after all, a contemplative little cosy sim. Behind its cutesy smile works a devious mind, and really the way to approach it is as a sort of puzzle roguelike rather than a city builder.

The key to success is planning for disaster and aggressively grabbing at ways to compensate for your tree's current weaknesses. That humble little merchant is a lifeline—in later runs, I focus much more on cash generation so I can reroll his store for exactly the cards I desperately need to survive another nightmarish fairytale winter.

Relaxing it is not, but it is good fun. I've played a lot of roguelikes, but I don't think I've ever tried one quite like Little Tree Kingdom before, and even from a city builder perspective it's almost like the usual formula in reverse.

Normally in the genre you're always expanding and gaining more resources. You constantly unlock more options, and you're always equipped with the tools you need to progress. Instead, this is a game about using dwindling resources effectively, and trying to live with serious limitations on what you can do. That won't be for everyone, but it's a fascinating twist that I certainly didn't expect from the premise.

And you can find out for free whether that's your sort of thing or not—Little Tree Kingdom has a demo on Steam right now.

I haven't 100% Crimson Desert, I haven't even attempted it because, if I can be frank, I'm too sleepy to deal with what ever this, this, or this is. But you know who isn't scared to take on the challenge? John "Bucky" Buckley, Pocketpair's Head of Publishing & Communications, who recently shared that he completed Crimson Desert's achievements.

"I have 100% Crimson Desert," Bucky says in a social media post. "Simply put, Crimson Desert made me feel a sense of wonder and adventure that no other game has. The only thing that comes close for me is Morrowind. A truly breathtaking experience, and one that I enjoyed ever second of. Easily my game of the year."

It's certainly impressive, but on further inspection of Bucky's screenshot my emotions shifted to a primal sort of terror. Next to the 100% metre which shows he's finished all 34 achievements you can see the play time, which is currently sat at 189.1 hours—bone chilling.

You know who else finds this impressive? The Crimson Desert devs: "Wow, in under 200 hours? That's impressive! We're glad you enjoyed the journey." I've only put hundreds of hours into a few select games, and thousands into the one which shall not be named (Overwatch). But that's over multiple years, Crimson Desert has only been out for just over a month.

But even after so many hours Bucky reveals that he's not even close to being done yet: "Ironically, 100%ing Crimson Desert actually means you completed every challenge. I still have like 20 plus hours worth of side missions still available to do. Such a fantastic game. Genuinely made me feel like a little kid again."

Like I said before, I've not given Crimson Desert a look in yet. But it sounds like an interesting game if all my colleagues are to be believed, alongside the over 5 million sales it managed to swipe up just a couple of weeks after launch. Although one thing's for sure it'll be a very, very long time until I can boast about 100% Crimson Desert.