Gaming News

The list of nominees for the 2019 BAFTA Games Awards have been announced, with the ceremony being held on 4th April, hosted by Dara O'Briain. I don't think any of them are BobLAN games, but you'll be familiar with some of the SP games in the list.

The BAFTA site itself is crap, so the best bet is to view the list on Shacknews

The Champions Stage final takes place at 18:00 today, between Astralis and ENCE, the surprise winners over Na'Vi. Follow the action on the ESL CSGO Twitch channel

One for CS:GO fans here - ESL are hosting the finals of the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2019 event this weekend. The first two quarter-finals took place yesterday, with Na'Vi and ENCE both winning 2-0 against FaZe and Liquid respectively.

Re-runs of yesterday's matches followed by live coverage of today's games (MIBR vs Renegades and Astralis vs NIP) are streaming on the ESL CSGO Twitch channel - well worth a watch as we hone our skills ahead of BobLAN 2019.1. There were well in excess of 250,000 live viewers of the first quarter finals!

Good Old Games, aka GOG, have reportedly laid off a number of staff. It would be a shame to see one of the few sellers of legacy games in financial trouble. I know a few of us have bought stuff from GOG in the past, however for me, prices are often an inhibiting factor for what are sometimes poor quality games by today's standards, especially if they don't support resolutions above HD.

You can read more on this on the Shacknews site.

I've finally got round to grabbing the photos from last November from Keith - thanks fella! You can view them on our Photo Gallery

The dates for the first BobLAN of 2019 have been agreed. We will be starting after lunch on Thursday 16th May, and finishing on the afternoon of Sunday 19th. That's 80 days to get yourselves ready :)

Respawn Entertainment, best known for Titanfall, have ventured into the somewhat crowded Battle Royal arena with Apex Legends. The game is a bit cartoonish in nature (Fortnite-like), is first person and set on an island (PUBG-like). There are also nods to Titanfall, for example the running slides. You play in teams of three, either of your choosing or randomly assigned.

It is a testament to the stature of Respawn and their marketing that they have already achieved 25 million players within a couple of weeks - quite an amazing start.

Read the required tech specs plus some news and guides, both courtesy of Shacknews. One to watch for BobLAN!

Fans of id's cult classic Rage will be happy to hear that the follow-up is due for release later this year. The story is set 30 years after the original, however a few of the characters will make an appearance. As before, the weight given to driving in the game remains high, and there are races available to earn upgrades and open up opportunities for NPC dialog.

You can read a great article about it all on Shacknews

Capcom have made the brave move of recreating a gaming classic, namely Resident Evil. Early reviews are looking favourable, so it could be one of interest to the 3rd person zombie shooter fans in the clan. The game is due for release at the end of the week, 25th Jan 2019.

Read a full review on Shacknews.

Our Twitch feed has been updated to switch to some other channels when ours is inactive (which is all but 8 days a year). The one that seems to be streaming all the time (both live and reruns) is the ESL CS:GO channel. This one covers CS:GO e-sports events and championships, and is really worth a watch - there are no beer runs, Gold bars or bowls of Bombay Mix in sight!

This feature doesn't work in the embedded player on our site, so you will need to go directly to twitch.tv/desertfoxclan

Nvidia have confirmed that with the next driver version, G-sync on selected Freesync monitors will be supported. Over 400 monitors were tested, with only 12 being given certified status. Whilst top end gamers will still likely go for G-sync monitors, it does open the door to variable refresh rates for those with a smaller budget.

Read more in these articles:

• Shacknews
• Eurogamer

The author of the Merlin firmware for Asus routers has written his usual annual review. It's a mix of changes made during 2018 and what to look forward to in 2019. Read the full review on SNB Forums

Major changes to CS:GO were implemented this week. As well as the game going free-to-play (with perks for existing game owners), Valve have also added a Battle Royale mode to challenge the likes of PUBG and Fortnite.

Whilst it shares the same principles of last-man-standing with the existing games, it does differ in other ways. There are only 16 players per game (18 in team mode) and each player picks a pre-defined starting point. You can find weapons, ammo etc, but you can also find/steal money with which to buy equipment. Your goods are delivered by drone which can be seen (and shot down) by other players, which will be interesting.

More details can be found on Arstechnica

And so another BobLAN draws to a close. It really says something when you look at the distances some people travel to attend - Scotland, South-west England and this time Austria! The most we had in-game at any one time was around 16, which is impressive. Food was top-notch throughout, from Bob's legendary breakfasts through to the equally legendary pulled pork, setup-night curries and the obligatory takeaways. Beer and snacks were in plentiful supply - we never looked like running out, which was impressive.

Tech-wise, Scott set up a local Steam cache. I don't know how many downloads it served over the weekend - performance stats to follow. Also, thanks to Max for donating his spare 980Ti to the BobLAN spare kit appeal - greatly appreciated as it meant Keith could actually play on my old PC at a decent frame rate!

Game-wise, we dropped a few old favourites and tried some new ones:

• Battlefield 1 - this made its proper debut, largely thanks to Dan sorting out a private server. We had some really close games, and as everyone commented, the visuals were stunning. A real hit that will no doubt reappear, although they need to be a bit more realistic on the amount of damage a horse can take!
• CS:GO - the go-to game during breaks from other games. With the local server being always-on, it's an easy choice but still a great game.
• GRID Autosport - lots of time on this one as usual, and it still plays very well.
• DiRT 3 - this game has potential, but was let down by intermittent network issues. Still, the Cat and Mouse mode was really good fun when it worked.
• Rocket League - we played a small tournament which was entertaining. That was about it though, no additional games played.
• Titanfall 2 - this returned after an absence last time. Again, some close games which everyone enjoyed. Hopefully it will return again next time.
• Unreal Tournament - not as much time on this as in the Spring BobLAN, but fun nonetheless.
• Rockband - the usual late night racket to entertain the neighbours!
• Dungeons and Dragons - a newcomer to BobLAN, and was enjoyed by all who played.

Games we didn't play this time:

• Darwin Project - despite this being one of the hit games last time, it just didn't feature this time.
• Day of Defeat - shame, as the objective mode maps are still great when you have decent numbers.
• Jousting Genitals - just, because
• PUBG - we had one very short-lived game, so hardly worth mentioning.
• DOOM - I think UT has taken its spot as deathmatch game of choice.

Finally, a roundup would not be complete without a huge thanks to Bob and Lynda - once again you put hours and hours into preparation and cleanup for which we are all incredibly grateful! (reminder to all those who attended - make sure you have paid up!)

The second LAN of the year begins this Thursday. Please make sure you update all your gaming apps and versions before you pack up:

• Steam - lots of games. Look out for queued updates, and force them through


• Origin - Titanfall and Battlefield games


• Epic - Unreal Tournament


• Bethesda - Quake Champions


• Blizzard/Battle.net - Destiny 2 (it's free)

The latest Nvidia drivers were released on 8th November and seem fine so far (the release notes say they provide optimisations for Battlefield V)

Activision are giving a copy of Destiny 2 to anyone who claims it before the November 18th deadline. This is a great deal for players who don't already own the game, as they get the base game (short campaign plus multiplayer) and one of the smaller expansions. Activision are hoping that players will become hooked and buy the most recent expansion, Forsaken.

The only requirements are that you have a Battle.net account, and that you opt in for their SMS two-factor auth mechanism.

If you fancy a copy for BobLAN, head over to Blizzard to claim the "free gift". The game takes up 80GB, and allow yourself half an hour for account creation and Battle.net application installation.

With the Xbox beta out last week and the PC version due tomorrow, more details of the game and gameplay are beginning to emerge, all courtesy of Shacknews:

• Live action trailer


• Fast travel


• Trading with other players


• Earning more caps


• World map


• Co-op play


• Unlocking PVP play

The developers of Fallout 76 have made allowances in the game for those who want to play it alone, rather than the intended team play. Killing another player who is minding their own business results in you becoming "wanted" and that makes you a target.

Read more and watch an early gameplay demo on Shacknews

Bethesda's multiplayer game set in the Fallout universe goes into beta later this month. The Xbox version of Fallout 76 will be available on Tuesday 23rd October, with the PC version following a week later on 30th October.

More details and a teaser video can be found on Shacknews

Valve have released a massive update for Team Fortress 2 today. A whole host of new features have been added, alongside many bug fixes and improvements.

Read the full list of change on Steam News.