From 2010 to 2014 Richard Cobbett wrote Crapshoot, a column about rolling the dice to bring random obscure games back into the light. This week, there’s only one language some people understand—the language of fear. Welcome to the ESL course Frank Miller would approve of. Mean City. Don’t worry, they said, it’s just a name. Maybe they’re just proud of their mean population density, or they make a mean curry. What did they mean? There was was only one way to find out, and while nobody had specifically said it would be an idea to bring a fedora, I figured…

Nvidia set gamer hopes alight earlier this month when a leaked GeForce Now database “revealed” games including Titanfall 3, a Half-Life 2 remaster, and a PC version of God of War. Nvidia quickly shot it all down, though, saying that the titles in question were speculative, for “internal tracking and testing.” In all likelihood, in other words, developers needed placeholders to test various functionality and decided to have a little bit of fun with them. Using inside jokes for internal testing purposes is a risky business—there’s a famous story about a local newspaper that was published with one of the…

Want to know the best skills for each of the Tales of Arise characters? Bandai Namco’s latest game in the long-running series continues the tradition of bombarding you with dozens of moves and a dizzying array of effects. There are hundreds of possible combinations you could use, but not all of them are worth your time—or the effort it takes to unlock them.  The best Tales of Arise Artes help extend your combo chains or play to your chosen character’s unique strengths. Sometimes that means sacrificing style and raw power for function and fluidity, though. Regardless, this guide outlines the…

The best PC joystick will make a huge difference to both the level of control and the level of immersion you feel playing any flight or space sim. Whether ripping the wings off a Cessna in the expansive Microsoft Flight Simulator, exploring the far reaches of the galaxy in Elite Dangerous, or bulls-eyeing thermal exhaust ports not much bigger than a womp rat in the action-packed Star Wars Squadrons, you can live out your flyboy fantasies right at home. We also recommend a good wireless gaming keyboard and gaming mouse combo since it’s a good way to navigate a game’s…

Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot more sixty percent keyboards enter the fold. As someone who’s been an enthusiast for years, having a smaller keyboard isn’t abnormal—I happen to be typing on one right now, but more on why later. Where things become intriguing is the reasoning for the sudden explosion of nifty sixties onto the market. For instance, Razer’s Huntsman Mini features its all-singing and all-dancing optical switches that are usually reserved for its high-speed gaming boards. For me, this presented an intriguing conundrum: do people really use sixty percent keyboards for gaming and if so, how does it…