The Microsoft Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 is pricey, but also one of the best PC controllers out there, and it’s currently on sale for $159.99 on Amazon for Prime members (you can grab it with a free Prime trial). Series 2 improves on an already great controller by adding Bluetooth, a built-in rechargeable battery, and a USB-C charging case. We fell in love with the Elite Series 2 when we reviewed the controller late last year. The hair-trigger locks are back and still among one of our fa

You can find a million old, oddball things you never expected to be preserved on the Internet Archive, and along the way stumble upon a million more you never knew existed. At present, I’m smitten with this collection of 5 ¼ floppy sleeves put together by archivist Jason Scott. As a kid I played Zaxxon and Montezuma’s Revenge on my dad’s old IBM-compatible PC, which I’d load software into from true floppies. The disks themselves were almost universally plain black plastic, with a sticker to iden

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)Path of Exile will continue to grow in 2020 despite last year’s announcement of a sequel, studio Grinding Gear Games has confirmed. Though information is thin at the moment, a new blog post assures that the free-to-play ARPG will get four new expansions this year on its usual quarterly schedule. The first expansion, 3.10.0, will “probably” be detailed late next month, with reports early last year suggesting it’ll likely release in March. As for Path of Exile 2,

(Image credit: Mega Crit Games)Slay the Spire just got bigger with the official roll out of patch 2.0, which finally adds a new character, the Watcher, after months of beta testing. The Watcher has been in testing since September, and naturally has her own cards and relics. According to Fraser writing last year she’s “a blind ascetic who is paying the Spire a visit so she can ‘evaluate’ it”. Finally, there’s a new Potion Lab, providing an easy-to-access resource on all spells available in the ga

Final Fantasy Tactics still hasn’t been released on PC, despite our best efforts, but it’s now possible for PC gamers to enjoy it in a different sort of way. The basics are simple: Pick your team—Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, White, Black, Purple, or Brown—and then use the “!bet” command to put down your money. Once the betting window is closed, teams will throw down until only one is left standing. Successful wagers will also earn you experience and levels that will increase your gambling floor and

(Image credit: Bohemia Interactive)Arma 3 is one of the best FPS games on PC, especially if you find most other shooters a bit fanciful. There are definitely no jetpacks or double jumping here: just tactical, team-based, boots on the ground military combat. If you’re yet to try it, it’s currently free on Steam for the next four days until January 19. “Sometimes, like some sort of weird mom commander, I inspect their backpacks to see that they’re storing enough C4 and medkits. In these moments, y

In late November, we reported that Valve’s Index VR headset was selling out in a hurry, leading to shipping delays on most Index packages—headset-only, controllers-only, and headset and controller bundles—in the US and Canada. Now, according to Road to VR, it’s sold out everywhere, and may not be back in time to handle the demand for Half-Life: Alyx. Alyx, as we all know, is one of the big factors behind the pre-release popularity of the Index. The one place that apparently still has some Index

They’re calling it UK III-V memory. Non-volatile memory is not new by any stretch, but the key differentiator here is speed. UK III-V memory is fast enough to replace DRAM, and uses a fraction of the power. This is what makes UK III-V memory so intriguing. On the technical side, UK III-V memory uses a floating gate to store memory just like flash.

The latest model, the DeathAdder V2, figures to be the best one yet. The DeathAdder V2 is also lighter than previous versions. For anyone interested, the DeathAdder V2 is available now for $69.99. (Image credit: Razer)Razer also upgraded its Basilisk mouse in similar fashion with a new V2 model. Like the DeathAdder V2, the Basilisk V2 is ergonomically designed for right-handed users.

The Radeon RX 5700 XT is currently AMD’s most powerful graphics card, and if you’ve been waiting to upgrade your PC (or you’re in the middle of pricing out a new build), one version of the card from Gigabyte is down to just $379.99 from Newegg. That makes it one of the cheapest RX 5700 XT cards available right now. This model has a base clock of 1650 MHz, a boost clock of 1905 MHz, 2560 Steam Processors, and 8GB of GDDR6 video memory. Enhanced cooling is the main selling point of this card: you

VIDEO: Tim and Jarred discuss the PC hardware of CES 2020. PC hardware isn’t the focus of CES like it was in the 90s. But that doesn’t mean that PC hardware has been squeezed out: It’s still there, humming along with the phones and magic fridges. Get a full recap of the important CES 2020 announcements in the video above. We’d love to hear your thoughts on CES 2020 in the comments or in our new forums.

After today, Windows 7 officially becomes a legacy OS, leaving hundreds of millions of users with a decision to make. “After January 14, 2020, security updates or support for PCs running Windows 7 will no longer be provided. What that means is Windows 7 PCs will stop receiving monthly security patches going forward (today is Patch Tuesday, so Windows 7 gets one last hurrah), and no more technical support. Market data is fuzzy business when it comes to the numbers, though, so estimates of just ho

YouTuber and Minecrafter Dream talked his friend GeorgeNotFound into wearing a shock collar on his arm while they attempted to beat Minecraft together. The collar was hooked up to the game in a way that ensured whenever George took damage in Minecraft, he would get a real, no-joke, electric shock. There’s also a moment where Dream deliberately hits George simply because he hadn’t been shocked in a while. They don’t actually beat Minecraft during their playthrough, as after George takes some fall

Control and Death Stranding lead the nominations for the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ 23rd annual DICE Awards, which will be handed out at a ceremony that will cap off the week-long DICE Summit in February. If those headliners sound oddly familiar, it’s likely because Control and Death Stranding are also leading the nominations for the Game Developers Choice Awards, which were announced last week. A total of 65 games were nominated for the 2020 awards, which will be sorted through b

Razer’s Huntsman Elite is the best gaming keyboard to actuate at the speed of light, thanks to the use of opto-mechanical key switches that are a pleasure to type on. These premium switches come at a premium price though, so nice to see the Huntsman Elite offered up at a discount. Admittedly, that is still a premium price for a mechanical keyboard. Opto-mechanical key switches take a slightly different approach to the standard mechanical key switch design. You can read our review of the Huntsman

The Fallout 76 Wastelanders update promises to do big things for Bethesda’s multiplayer survival sim through the addition of NPCs and companions, a new story quest, dialog options, and other options that will hopefully make it, you know, more Fallout-like. A “small number” of Fallout 76 players will soon have an opportunity to see what the big update will deliver, by way of a Private Test Server that’s set to go live later this week. Testing will take place on a Wastelanders-specific development

(Image credit: Ubisoft)Two of the biggest things to happen in the videogame industry over the last couple of years are battle royale and Auto Chess, known more generically as “autobattlers.” If you’ve ever wondered what might happen if someone were to mash them together in some sort of “autobattler royale,” January 30 will be your lucky day, because that’s when Ubisoft will officially launch Might and Magic: Chess Royale, the first 100 player autobattler. Unfortunately, the Chess Royale announce

Fallen London, the browser-based progenitor of Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies, is celebrating a decade of weirdness and wonderful prose. It’s a big achievement given the declining popularity of browser games, and the trickiness in making them profitable. “We can’t say much about future games right now, but at least the next few that we make are likely to play very differently to FL, Sunless Sea, and Skies,” he said. The latest game, Sunless Skies, is set after people venture out into space in imp

If you are in the hunt for the best gaming mouse, you might not have considered a model with a built-in joystick, though not necessarily from lack of interest—it’s a rather sparse field. It also just got a little big bigger with the introduction of the Asus ROG Chakram. Our first impression of a mouse with a built-in joystick came by way of the Lexip PU94, and thankfully the production model we reviewed improved upon the initial design. On the wireless side, you can connect it via RF (2.4GHz), o

Nevertheless, Cherry, arguably the biggest name in mechanical switches, wants to put another nail in the coffin of rubber dome planks by launching a new Viola mechanical switch for the value segment. You can compare those details to other switches in our mechanical key switch guide. “The resulting characteristic curve enables Cherry Viola to offer ergonomic overtravel and fast reset. Name brand mechanical keyboards that use Cherry MX switches can be expensive, but there are also cheaper options