Gaming News

A new feature of CS:GO has been revealed today - Operation Shattered Web will allow you to earn the ability to use any of the CT or T player models on any map, rather than being forced to use the default ones on each map. You can also earn new weapon skins, knives, graffiti and other pointless stuff. Needless to say, you have to pay for it. You can achieve the rewards without paying, but won't be able to actually use them until you have.

The announcement is here on Steam and full details with some pretty graphics are on the Shattered Web page.

The roundup this time comes courtesy of Pup's post to the BobLAN Geeks group:

Awesome BobLAN as always.

Great to see lots of smiley faces. Really enjoyed the gaming:

• Wrestfest (apart from my unlocking strop)
• RocketLeague (Unstopable partnership with DBoy as ever)
• Battlefield 1 (that bloody last room!!)
• Counterstrike (fine... but losing its appeal)
• Jedi Whatsit (you need a bit of single player to chill out to)
• Ticket to ride (Wij getting upset that someone else would possibly dare to take his route)
• Table football (great blast from the past)
• THE PLANK (oh my god!!)
• and I'm sure a couple more.

Pleased that day of defeat didn't show its face. Felt odd not to play any Grid!

Food. Great breakfast. Loving the haggis. Shame about the pizzas. Chinese excellent.

Fastest clean up for a while - even if it did sometimes seem like a never ending vacuuming task for T-Dog

The second BobLAN of the year is in full swing. By far the most dominant game so far has been Wreckfest, I think largely due to its accessibility for everyone. Not much in the way of team games so far - a bit of CS:GO and that's about it. More to follow in the post-LAN roundup.

No BobLAN preview would be complete without looking back at the poetic masterclass that is 'Twas the Night Before Easter. It may not be Easter, but it's still a great read at any time of year :)

Numbers are looking good, again the Thursday "setup" session looks like it's going to be well attended. The attendees list is at the bottom of the BobLAN page.

There is now less than a week to go until the second BobLAN of 2019. Get all those upgrades and software updates finalised, and make sure the usual games are all working - CS:GO, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Wreckfest, Grid etc

As always, you'll be able to follow the LAN at our dedicated BobLAN 2019.2 page.

It has been revealed that Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order will be available on Steam on launch day, November 15th. It will also be available on Origin, but this is the first time in years that an EA game will be offered on a platform other than Origin.

For full details and a hands-on preview, visit Shacknews

Just in time for BobLAN, Wreckfest received its first major update in a while. Alongside improvements to gameplay, graphics and interface are two new maps.

Head over to the Steam Community for all the details.

Psyonix have confirmed that the existing three DLC packs will soon be rolled into the base game, meaning that everyone will get them free of charge. It looks like this will be in December, so a bit late for the November BobLAN, however it should give us something new to play with in the spring LAN.

Details of the DLC packs are provided on Rocketleague.com and Shacknews and

The developers behind PUBG have announced some of the changes coming in the 5.1 patch. Of interest will be a race track on the Miramar map, along with some general tidying up. How you will be able to race on a race track with people shooting at you is a bit of a mystery, but should be fun.

As usual, further details can be found on Shacknews

This site now supports the standards of a Progressive Web Application, which means that it can be installed as a native app on Android devices. You should see the Add to Home Screen message at the bottom of the screen - just hit that to install.

The next iteration on Codemasters' GRID franchise releases in 3 weeks' time on 9th October. It will be available on PC, Xbox and PS4, and should bring the series up to date in terms of utilising the performance of the modern platforms.

Have a look on Shacknews for more info and the latest gameplay trailer.

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, slated for release on 14th November on the Microsoft Store (Xbox Game Pass for PC) will also be on Steam. As a bonus, the original Age of Empires: Definitive Edition which was released in 2018 on the Microsoft Store, is now also available on Steam.

You can read the full details on PC Gamer and Shacknews

The developers of PUBG have announced that the forthcoming Autumn update will enable cross-platform play between Xbox One and PS4 players, but not PC. There was no indication that they will ever support PC - maybe because of the obvious advantage keyboard/mouse players have over controller for games like this.

You can read more about this on The Verge and IGN

A vulnerability has been discovered in Nvidia's graphics card driver that has been rated as highly severe. Installing the latest driver (431.60 or later) will fix the issue.

You can read more on the issue on IT Pro and LifeHacker plus the many other techie and hardware related sites.

The final of the Intel Extreme Masters Chicago 2019 starts tonight at 8pm UK time. Team Liquid will play ENCE in a best of five match. Keep up with all the action on Twitch

Update: Team Liquid won the final 3-0, with both teams having come through the earlier rounds unbeaten. Watch it via the Twitch archive

The group stages, semi finals and final of the Intel Extreme Masters Chicago 2019 take place later this week. The schedule can be seen on the ESL site and as usual, full live coverage will be available via Twitch

The closed qualifying rounds for the Intel Extreme Masters event in Chicago next month are currently under way. Catch the action on the ESL Twitch channel

Following the voting session, the dates for the next BobLAN have been announced. It will run from lunchtime on Thursday 14th November through to early afternoon on Sunday 17th November. Get those holidays booked!

A couple more publishers have presented their offerings for the coming year - Ubisoft and Square Enix...

• Watchdogs Legion - the third installment is set in a London that's been taken over by extremists. I thought game settings were meant to be works of fiction?! Release date 06/03/2020
• Ghost Recon Breakpoint - can be played single player with AI team mates, or multi. Beta due 05/09/2019
• Rainbow 6 Quarantine - another installment in the Tom Clancy franchise. No release date yet
• Marvel's Avengers - four player online co-op, initially featuring Capt America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow and the Hulk. Release date May 2020

Here are some of the highlights so far from E3 2019

• FIFA 20 - improved realism, street football - release date 27/09/2019
• Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order - gameplay footage of the player as Cal Kestis, a Jedi in training. No release date yet
• Apex Legends - new content and a Season 2 preview
• Battlefield V - new maps scheduled June, July and August. Additional gameplay updates in Q4 2019
• Gears 5 - five game modes, and the biggest single player campaign to date. No release date yet
• Fallout 76 - the Wastelanders update will include a new quest, a Battle Royale mode and new human NPCs with full dialogue trees
• Rage 2 - major update and a new expansion Rise of the Ghosts