Gaming News

For those who follow pro e-sports, the Intel Extreme Masters event at Katowice starts today. This is one of the biggest CS:GO events on the calendar and you can watch how it should be done on the ESL CS:GO Twitch stream

Feeling a bit annoyed? Maybe even a little cross? Then you've come to the right place - our WANgry WAN party starts this afternoon. Meet up on Discord, follow the schedule on the WANgry page and vent your anger!

Voting has concluded for the dates for the first full BobLAN of the year. The selected weekend is the one starting Thursday 28th April, by far the most popular choice. The usual BobLAN Page is up ready for the occasion, with more to follow on game options as the date draws nearer.

Steam have started their latest sale to mark the lunar new year. You can get games like Cyberpunk 2077, Metro Exodus, Doom Eternal and Vermintide 2 for half-price or less, although half of a lot is still quite a lot. Head over to the Steam Store to find out more.

The first remote gaming weekend of 2022 has been arranged for 10th-12th February. As usual, follow the schedule and view screenshots from the dedicated WANgry page

Microsoft have announced that Forza Horizon 5 is now available on Xbox Game Pass for both console and PC: Forza Horizon 5

They have also added both Java and Bedrock editions of Minecraft to Game Pass for PC at last - previously you could only get Minecraft Dungeons. This should allow RTX-enabled PCs to play the enhanced version of Minecraft, demos of which look amazing: Minecraft for PC

Yet another drive-filler from Activision in the Call of Duty franchise - Vanguard Zombies. It looks utterly ridiculous but I'm sure fans of CoD will enjoy it. The game is available on 5th November 2021 and you can watch the trailer on Youtube

The latest instalment of Age of Empires will be available from day one for Game Pass for PC (included with Ultimate) account holders. The game is due for release on 28th October - view details and the official trailer at Microsoft

When we pencilled in the date for this BobLAN, it was more in hope than expectation. As the day drew nearer we dared to dream, but excellent planning and a strict vaccination/testing regime meant the event went ahead with no issues whatsoever.

And what an event it was! Gaming aside, it was just great to see everyone again for the first time in nearly two years - hopefully it won't be as long to the next one!

Here are a few highlights of the weekend:

• Wednesday night as a sleep over night
• Mass testing of attendees
• Setup night curries and Friday pulled pork sandwiches
• Finding out that Bob had a crochet lawn. Who knew?!
• Trebz breaking crockery with his arse powers from 2 metres away and blaming Themy
• Themy deciding to check if the Quooker tap really did produce boiling water
• Scenes when Trebz got his first chicken dinner
• Mesmer's addiction to tea
• Quatoria discovering he wasn't Russcky's favourite victim
• Pup bringing 20+ bottles of DFC branded hand sanitiser
• Daz awarding Pup his very own Dobby the House Elf crochet set
• Shenanigans with crisps and keyboards
• First Pup Quiz physical award
• Revelation that Lynda runs the BobLAN from a spreadsheet
• Themy calculating that if you spend the same amount on petrol but at a higher price per litre, you get...less petrol
• The inception of BobLan Premium, which may or may not include ladies
• Finally playing CoD Warzone - on about our 4th attempt, only for it to last around 15 minutes
• Themy's DayZ disaster
• The takeaway deliveries actually being accurate
• Bob's internet and electrical circuits holding up the entire weekend

Of course none of this would have happened without Bob and Lynda - huge thanks from all of us for a special weekend! Don't forget - £25 per day to Bob to cover costs please!!!

BobLAN 2021.4 setup day starts today. Well, for some it started yesterday :) First breakfast done, now onto the beer and gaming...

A 30 minute gameplay demo of FarCry 6, due for release next month, is available on Shacknews. The demo shows the early parts of the game and some of the NPC interactions, including an alligator that's thankfully on your side! Needless to say, the game looks stunning, and is all the better for returning to its usual island setting with plenty of foliage and water effects.

View the demo over on Shacknews

With a month to go until BobLAN gets underway, the rules regarding entry have been agreed:

• Only those double-jabbed are allowed
• Take a lateral flow test before setting off
• Further LFTs will be taken during the weekend
• Undervoltage your RTX30xx to avoid excessive power draw :)

The group stages for the Intel Extreme Masters in Cologne have completed this weekend and the playoffs lineup has been set. View group stage results and the playoffs draw on the IEM Cologne page

The playoffs are due to start on Friday 16th July at 3pm and will be streamed live on Twitch - esl_csgo

It is a well known fact that the new Nvidia 3000 series graphics cards run hot. That's not a good thing - heat means faster, louder fans, more ambient heat which may affect the CPU, and fluctuations in core clock as it gets throttled and unthrottled. There is a simple way to reduce heat without sacrificing much performance - undervolting.

We've seen this work very well on recent Ryzen chips, and it also works well on graphics cards. Following the instructions in the link below, I have reduced core temps by about 6-7 degrees, fan speed never exceeds 50% and even the coil whine seems to have been eliminated. I ended up with 825mV at 1800MHz which has so far proved stable in Port Royal, Control (RTX+DLSS) and Battlefield V (RTX). It takes a couple of hours, although most of that is letting the Port Royal stress test run to completion several times.

Follow the guide on bjorn3d.com

The annual Steam Summer Sale is now on and runs until 8th July. Spend your CS:GO crate earnings on the Steam Store

QWAN started yesterday with a mix of Assetto Corsa for those who like driving games, and PUBG for those who don't. The evening was rounded off with some CS:GO and a return to Team Fortress 2 in Mann vs Machine mode.

Today marks the start of QWAN - hopefully the final virtual WAN party ahead of a return to BobLAN proper. Follow the event on Discord and here on our QWAN page.

Quite a long read and bits of this will likely have been seen before, but Shacknews have published interviews and commentary from staff at iD software in the early 90's to give an insight into the thought processes behind Quake and how it evolved from their earlier creations. Have a read over at The Making of Quake Part 1

Nvidia recently announced the RTX3070Ti and RTX3080Ti cards, which will sit in between existing cards in the 30xx range. Prices for the FE editions will also be in between others in the range, however AIB manufacturers may charge a lot more.

The 3080Ti is due for release on 3rd June 2021 with the 3070Ti a week later. Good luck!

You get a Youtube channel, so what do you do with it? You convert all your old QuakeWorld demos of course! We have a mix of MCW matches and friendlies with Mere Mortals in our QuakeWorld playlist