PC Gaming ThreadsAge of Empires II: Definitive Edition DLC - Mentalist - Out April?AoE 2 DE is coming to PlayStation. The console version will include ALL the content released to date, making it basically the best strategy game value EVER. But fro those of us on PC, an insane balance overhaul/update patch is coming. Along with a new...Read more

Perhaps one of the more unexpected announcements to arrive out of the Nintendo Switch Direct is that the Nintendo Switch 2 will have a camera peripheral to supplement the consoles new group chat feature. While the Switch 2 will be compatible with third-party USB-C webcams, the peripheral manufacturers at Hori are already producing their own adorable version of a camera for the Switch 2 modeled after the Piranha Plant.Specifics surrounding the carnivorous camera are a bit slim. It isnt currently advertised on the manufacturers website, and it has only been spotted in the wild at European retailer Mediamarkt, which has the product listed for around $44, about $6 cheaper than the first-party model advertised by Nintendo. It appears that the stem will be detachable from the base and is flexible, to ensure you have the best possible angle. However, the coolest feature is that its mouth can be closed as a privacy shutter for the camera when not in use. Nintendos official camera for the Switch 2 has a similar feature, but Im glad were already starting to see weird peripherals for the new console taking root.

Marvel Rivals is almost ready for its second season, and developer NetEase Games just revealed the theme: Hellfire Gala. The developer released a new trailer on Thursday giving players a preview of the season, including what heroes and villains are on the way, a few skins we might be able to expect, and even who the main bad guy will be this time around. As dedicated X-Men fans will know, the Hellfire Gala was originally a one-time in-universe event (but went so well, it came back in each of the next two years) where the residents of Krakoa opened up their enclave for a single evening to show off mutant culture and a new team of X-Men. It also happened to feature some incredible fashion in the style of the real-world Met Gala. In other words, we should probably expect a few X-Men heroes and villains with this new season, but nearly everyone on the roster should be getting some fancy new threads.And the trailer for the new season seems to back up this guess. The starsof the preview is undoubtedly Emma Frost, who usually puts the Gala on in the comics as well, but we also see several members of the Marvel Rivals roster decked out in some fancy new outfits. Theres Wolverine in a suit, Magneto looking like a military general dressed for a ball, and even Doctor Doom seems to be hanging out in the background of a few shots. However, all the festivities are cut short when Ultron himself appears with a robot army, ready to take out everyone attending the Gala.Marvel Rivals Hellfire Gala season is set to begin on April 11.

MenuHomeNewsHardwareGamingMobileFinanceDealsReviewsHow ToWccftechGaming7.0South of Midnight Review Boring Combat Drags Down A Beautiful And Emotional StoryDavid Alexander Carcasole Apr 3, 2025 at 12:00 PM EDTCopy ShortlinkGame InfoSouth of MidnightApril 8, 2025PlatformXbox Series X/S, PCPublisherXbox Game StudiosDeveloperCompulsion GamesSince December, or more accurately, since the release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, theres been a feeling that Xbox has turned a corner for the better. Following up MachineGames' excellent Indiana Jones adventure was Obsidian, with a more than solid outing in Avowed. Which, in a few days from the time of publishing, will be followed up by Compulsion Games latest, South of Midnight, which hopes to keep that momentum going.South of Midnight is the third game in the studios history since its founding in 2009 and the first full game the team has made primarily under the Xbox banner after it was acquired by Microsoft in 2018. After the studios last batch of DLC for We Happy Few, the six years since have been spent crafting Hazel and her mother Laceys story, complete with stop-motion animation. The Southern gothic tale begins with a hurricane far worse than anyone in her small fictional town of Prospero could have predicted and a fight between Hazel and Lacey.After storming out of the house, Hazel looks on in horror as she watches the hurricane take her home, with her Mom in it, down the river. While chasing after the floating house to try and save her Mom, Hazel is chosen to become a new Weaver. A Weaver is a person who is able to see the strings and strands that make up what the game calls the Grand Tapestry. Basically, it is the fabric of life and the world, and its now Hazels job to help untangle the knots caused by the tragedy and pain we experience in life, either by choices of our own making or at the hands of evil people.The story in South of Midnight is a bit of an odd thing. Hazels journey toward understanding her Mom better and how their story plays out is kind of the least interesting part. At the same time, the games story is one of its strengths, and that all comes from the people you meet along Hazels journey to finding her Mom. South of Midnights story constantly surprised me because, from the outside, you wouldnt guess that this game is nearly as dark or serious as it is. In each chapter, youll be charged with helping someone put the pain of their worst memories to rest by untangling the knot the bad parts of their lives caused.And in each chapter, I was taken aback with just how intense and tragic all of these memories were. It was actually what helped to keep the story grounded, especially in the moments where Hazel is wall-running on a floating wall that looks like its been ripped off the side of a building.Thats not to say the relationship between Hazel and her Mom was boring or entirely uninteresting, just that it was out-shined by every other story told, whether in a short scene of a memory you witness or an old journal entry you find along the path. It also didnt help that, more often than not, Hazels first words just after witnessing the memory of an extremely tragic event rarely fit the moment, with too many of her lines sounding like generic barks you might hear in any video game where the protagonist is constantly commenting on the world around them.But there are a few moments of real, excellent storytelling with strong performances from the entire voice cast, including the voice behind Hazel, Adriyan Rae. This only made it all the more upsetting when Hazel would have a line that felt like she wasnt paying attention to the events she just witnessed. Still, even with those disappointing moments, South of Midnight delivers an emotional story that packs a heavier punch than its bright visuals and stop-motion animation might have you expect.Speaking of its visuals, the art design and the look of South of Midnight is arguably the best part of this game. I dont mean that as a slight towards other aspects, or that its not worth playing. It often feels like if the best thing you have to say about a game is that it looks nice, then it probably has little to offer beyond that. Not the case with South of Midnight, as it definitely brings more to the table, but the design of this game and the detail poured into every corner is absolutely spectacular.Unfortunately, the stop-motion animation effect did not agree with my eyes, and I did have to turn it off after playing the opening few chapters with it. I think your mileage with that effect may vary since my issues with it could also be traced to the number of stuttering bugs I witnessed during my playthrough. I was playing an early build of the game on my Xbox Series X that did not include the day-one patch, so I can only hope that the issues I have will be sorted by the time everyone else can jump in for themselves.Speaking of jumping, good as the story and performances are, the main gameplay of South of Midnight is whats unfortunately lacking. The platforming isnt bad. But it also isnt great, and even though it evolves somewhat throughout the 14 chapters of the games story, particularly with the sections that have you running from a dark fog, it only starts to get interesting by the time youre on the last couple of chapters. And by that point, these sections had been so repetitive that I was more peeved than excited to go through another one. Even if the design of these sections was starting to get good, which shouldnt be the case in chapter 12 of a 14-chapter game.The combat is, unfortunately, the worst part of the gameplay. Put simply, its boring and repetitive, and it wouldnt detract from the game so much if you werent thrust into a combat arena every five minutes. The small skill tree you work through never adds to the combat in interesting ways; the best part about upgrading your skills is that it can help you move through these sections faster. A key issue is that theres no flow to combat. Hazel doesnt have a parry or a block mechanic, so all you can do is dash and dodge away from incoming attacks, which means youre constantly pulling yourself out of the action in order to stay alive. And whether youre locked on to a single enemy or not, the camera is awful at keeping pace with the combat, so youre almost surely going to take a few hits that you just couldnt prepare for because you didnt see them coming.Even when an enemy is in front of you, some attacks are more telegraphed than others, and you can only knock an enemy out of an animation by performing a ground-pound attack. It also doesnt help that when you do take a hit, the knock-back effect makes Hazel so slow to react that youre likely to take another hit before you can dodge to safety. Thats also where all the challenge in the combat lies, not dying from hits you cant see coming. Which makes any deaths you suffer frustrating for the wrong reasons. Even when you are performing well and not dying, the feedback on your attacks doesnt feel satisfying, as you repeat the same set of animations again and again. And while the look of each enemy is interesting, what each of them adds to combat doesnt evolve it in interesting ways or make you change your approach. This then feeds into the other issue that you dont really get many different ways to approach combat. Youre mashing attack and dodge ad-nauseam, and when its over, you get a tragic, emotional scene about something awful that happened in a characters life. The actions couldnt feel more disconnected if they tried, which adds to combat feeling like a slog.South of Midnight would be a tighter, more interesting game if the combat sections were instead replaced with gameplay akin to that of an adventure game or puzzle game, where youre piecing together the past events to properly untangle what has become knotted. The gameplay there would also more easily weave into the games narrative instead of feeling like its trying to be an entirely different kind of game the moment combat starts.If there are any combat sections I could call out as good, it would be the few boss fights scattered throughout the game. But those sections arent good because the combat suddenly becomes fun, theyre good because of the scale of the bosses youre fighting, and how well executed the presentation of each set piece is. So even though getting through to the end of a chapter isnt all that fun with how many combat sections you have to get through, at least the set piece at the end was always visually stunning and a fun spectacle.Thats also why Id say the best of these chapter-ending set-pieces is actually one that members of the press, including Wccftechs own Kai Tatsumoto, got to experience in previews. How the music tied in with the story you had just witnessed, and the complete understanding you have about this giant tree that youre climbing, still sticks out in my mind, days after seeing the credits roll. It was really beautiful, and I wish more of the game was able to weave gameplay and narrative as strongly as it was done there.Lastly, speaking of the music, that is the final aspect of the storytelling that really makes South of Midnight special. The original songs written for each of the key characters from Prospero that you meet and help out are all so well done. Its something you really have to experience for yourself, and its a big part of why Id still recommend that you play South of Midnight. On top of the other visual and storytelling aspects Ive already talked about, the music wraps it all together so beautifully.Overall, South of Midnight has excellent storytelling, excellent artistic and visual design, a wonderful cast of characters and voice actors, and an original soundtrack that punctuates each big narrative beat in a way that will stay with you long after you put the controller down. Unfortunately, the same creativity that went into the rest of the game is missing in its combat and platforming, and Compulsion Games does itself no favors by launching you into the same boring combat scenarios again and again in each level.Reviewed on Xbox Series X (code provided by the publisher).7.0WCCFTECH RATINGSouth of MidnightSouth of Midnight has some incredibly strong storytelling chops, brought together by its stunning visual design and excellent soundtrack. Unfortunately, the experience is bogged down by boring, repetitive combat and lackluster platforming, but it's worth rushing through those parts to experience everything else South of Midnight has to offer.ProsAmazing visual designStrong storytelling with a solid cast of charactersGreat performances from the voice actorsOriginal music that punctuates the storytelling in a unique way that stays with you ConsBoring and repetitive combatLackluster platforming that doesnt begin to get interesting until the very endA number of bugs that may or may not be ironed out in the day-one patch Buy for from AmazonThe links above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Wccftech.com mayearn from qualifying purchases.Deal of the DaySubscribe to get an everyday digest of the latest technology news in your inboxFollow us onTopicsSectionsCompanySome posts on wccftech.com may contain affiliate links. 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This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI), a major retailer of servers and liquid-cooled AI racks, is surprisingly still up 6 percent so far this year, despite the ongoing carnage across the tech avenue. It is hardly a surprise, therefore that Goldman Sachs recently crowned SMCI as the "best performing stock" in the hardware sphere. Today, Super Micro Computer is out with another stellar development, this time touting the AI performance leadership of its cutting-edge systems that are based on NVIDIA's B200 GPU.To wit, Super Micro Computer is now claiming that its "4U liquid-cooled and 10U air-cooled systems," based on NVIDIA's HGX B200 8-GPU, "demonstrated more than 3 times the tokens per second (Token/s) generation for Llama2-70B and Llama3.1-405B benchmarks compared to H200 8-GPU systems."The company went on to note:"Within the operating margin, the Supermicro air-cooled B200 system exhibited the same level of performance as the liquid-cooled B200 system."Super Micro Computer's NVIDIA HGX B200 systems feature newly developed cold plates and a 250kW coolant distribution unit. These new designs feature vertical coolant distribution manifolds that no longer take up valuable rack space, enabling "eight systems, comprising 64 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs in a 42U rack, and up to 12 systems with 96 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs in a 52U rack."The company added:"The new air-cooled 10U NVIDIA HGX B200 system features a redesigned chassis with expanded thermal headroom to accommodate eight 1000W TDP Blackwell GPUs. Up to 4 of the new 10U air-cooled systems can be installed and fully integrated in a rack, the same density as the previous generation, while providing up to 15x inference and 3x training performance."For the benefit of those who might not be aware, U is a standard measurement of server heights, where 1U equals 1.75 inches.Loop Capital recently disclosed that Apple has officially entered the "large server cluster Gen AI game," with the "Siri kerfuffle" prompting a strategy change at the company that now seemingly favors NVIDIA's commercial GPUs:"AAPL [Apple] is in the process of placing orders for ~$1.0B of GB300NVL72s (or ~250 servers at $3.7M - $4.0M each) comprised of both SMCI [Super Micro Computer] & DELL."This order represents another win for Super Micro Computer and Dell, both of whom are currently the leading suppliers of AI server racks.Deal of the Day

Amazon has revealed the PC games that'll be coming to Prime Gaming in April, and this month, there's a rich selection of gangland drama, sci-fi adventues, and fashion crimes to check out. In total, there'll be 23 games on offer this month. As a reminder, all of the free games that you claim through Prime Gaming are yours to keep forever, even if your subscription expires. If you aren't a member, you can sign up for Amazon Prime for as little as one month to take advantage of the subscription and the freebies offered through it. Sign up for Amazon Prime One of the highlights this month is Mafia 3: Definitive Edition. Compared to the previous Mafia games, Mafia 3 offers a busier sandbox to explore while you embark on a tale of revenge. After his surrogate family is wiped out by the Italian Mafia, protagonist Lincoln Clay embarks on a mission to take down the Mafiaso responsible, while building a new family and crime syndicate in the process. The Definitive Edition comes with a lot of post-launch story content and various cosmetics bundled in as well.With the Minecraft movie launching this week, you can also check out one of the spin-off games through Prime Gaming. Minecraft Legends is an action-strategy game that places a heavier emphasis on story, multiplayer, and tactics. While the combat mechanics can be a little rough, the attention to detail, cute character designs, and environments will likely make it a hit with younger members of the family looking for more Minecraft entertainment.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Every now and then, GTA Online players get to suit up as a rare sasquatch, and Rockstar Games revealed the April 3 update adds the option to do so once again.Rockstar has released a new update for GTA Online, bringing new shop discounts, nightclub bonuses, and the chance to shapeshift into the game's elusive Sasquatch. This is not an opportunity that happens often, but for a limited time, players can once again find the psychoactive peyote plants in GTA Online.For those unfamiliar, a special Peyote Plant can be found in the hills above Grapeseed and allows players to morph into the elusive Sasquatch, assuming all of the weather conditions and prerequisites are met.Continue Reading at GameSpot

After what feels like a lifetime of hearing various rumors and leaks, it's finally been confirmed that Elden Ring is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 this year. Officially titled Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition, this Switch 2-exclusive version comes with both the award-winning base game and last year's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, giving players roughly 150 hours of premium FromSoftware content to play through on their shiny new Nintendo handheld.

There are many things that will change with Path of Exile 2's first major patch since its early access debut, coming out tomorrow with the new Dawn of the Hunt release alongside the new Huntress class, several Ascendancies, and much more. As is customary for action RPGs, Path of Exile 2's Dawn of the Hunt update will come with a balance pass to the current items, skills, and classes while also adding several more (namely, 5 Ascendancies and over 100 Unique Items, as well as Support Gems). What is unusual is that existing elements are outright removed, but this is the case for one Skill Gem that was previously one of the best in the game, if not the.

The Nintendo Switch 2, unveiled April 2, takes performance to the next level, powered by a custom NVIDIA processor featuring an NVIDIA GPU with dedicated RT Cores and Tensor Cores for stunning visuals and AI-driven enhancements.With 1,000 engineer-years of effort across every element from system and chip design to a custom GPU, APIs and world-class development tools the Nintendo Switch 2 brings major upgrades.The new console enables up to 4K gaming in TV mode and up to 120 FPS at 1080p in handheld mode. Nintendo Switch 2 also supports HDR, and AI upscaling to sharpen visuals and smooth gameplay.AI and Ray Tracing for Next-Level VisualsThe new RT Cores bring real-time ray tracing, delivering lifelike lighting, reflections and shadows for more immersive worlds.Tensor Cores power AI-driven features like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), boosting resolution for sharper details without sacrificing image quality.Tensor Cores also enable AI-powered face tracking and background removal in video chat use cases, enhancing social gaming and streaming.With millions of players worldwide, the Nintendo Switch has become a gaming powerhouse and home to Nintendos storied franchises. Its hybrid design redefined console gaming, bridging TV and handheld play.More Power, Smoother GameplayWith 10x the graphics performance of the Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch 2 delivers smoother gameplay and sharper visuals.Tensor Cores boost AI-powered graphics while keeping power consumption efficient.RT Cores enhance in-game realism with dynamic lighting and natural reflections.Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) via NVIDIA G-SYNC in handheld mode ensures ultra-smooth, tear-free gameplay.Tools for Developers, Upgrades for PlayersDevelopers get improved game engines, better physics and optimized APIs for faster, more efficient game creation.Powered by NVIDIA, Nintendo Switch 2 delivers for both players and developers.