I don’t think it will be a surprise to anyone that Diablo 4 in the short period of time that it has been out has been extremely popular. It is Blizzards fastest selling game and I know early on the login queues were crazy. It is also by far the most popular game that supports DLSS 3 of the current 37 games on Nvidia’s always helpful game listing. With that, I can’t think of a better game to check out DLSS 3 performance on to see what kind of performance improvement you can expect. This also means I will get a look at how the new RTX 4000 Series cards perform on the game as well. So let’s dive in and see what the numbers look like.

Nvidia’s 4000 Series of cards has seen big performance increases, especially the RTX 4090 flagship card but you do pay a premium for them. Nvidia makes up for that when it comes to ray tracing performance and especially with DLSS which the 4000 Series cards are the only way you can get DLSS 3. DLSS 3 has improved on the already popular tech and with frame generation it offers huge performance improvements on the games that support it. That game list has been growing quickly and the latest is Redfall. Redfall is the latest game from Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda. Arkane Studios is known for the Dishonored series and Prey. Redfall is a first-person shooter with single-player and four-player co-op and is based around vampires who have blacked out the sun and cut the citizens off from the outside world. I’ve been playing it some over the weekend ahead of the launch and wanted to check out how DLSS 3 performs on the game so I put it to the test on the new cards.

There is a good chance that by now you have been playing Cyberpunk 2077 or you have it on your list of games that you plan on playing in the future. It is without a doubt the most hyped-up release of the year and everyone has been talking about it. It is an extremely demanding game and amazing detail. On top of that, it also has DXR or DirectX Ray Tracing capabilities as well as support for DLSS from Nvidia as well. Nvidia sent over a copy of the game and I’ve already seen a lot of outlets test out performance in the game. Rather than go that direction again, I just want to check out what ray tracing features it has and see if it's worth the investment to make sure your GPU supports them.  So let's dive in and take a closer look!

Okay, I’m going to look a little old here, but back when I was a kid I spent a lot of time playing the original Bigfoot game on NES. It had upgrades and boosts which looking back seem so ahead of their time and later fueled my love for Gran Turismo. Prompted me to end up at any local monster truck show as well. But eventually, things got a little too crazy, or I drifted away from it all. But when I received an email about an upcoming game called Monster Truck Championship all of that came back.  It isn’t the only monster truck offering, but smashing cars, doing tricks, drag races, and normal races all piqued my interest. Especially with it being supported on Steam as well as PS4, Xbox One, and the Switch. Today is launch day (for everything except the Switch) and I’ve been playing it, lets take a look at how things went with Monster Truck Championship on the PC.

It may come as a surprise, but Call of Duty and Modern Warfare specifically goes WAY back for LanOC. I wrote about the original Modern Warfare March 17^th 2008, 11 and a half years ago and it was our first article. I’m embarrassed when I look back at my writing then, but between that multiple other COD game reviews, and MW and MW2 playing huge roles in our LAN events over the year's Call of Duty holds a special place in my heart. Of course my heart has been “newb tubed”, camped, and stabbed from across the room more times than I could ever count because of that as well. But I was still excited about checking out the new game. Nvidia who has been including Modern Warfare codes with most of their cards, notebooks, and PCs reached out and asked if I would like to check out how ray tracing looks in the latest installment and I jumped at the chance. So today I’m going to check out what the ray tracing option adds to the game and see if it's worth turning on when you play through the game.

Well, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands came out last Tuesday and currently has a favorable (77) Metacritic score. I’ve been seeing a lot of people playing it and I have even take a little time to start checking it out. Beyond being a great looking game it is also relatively demanding as well. Combine all of that with a built-in benchmark tool that makes testing with it easier and more consistent I was interested in checking it out to see if it might have the potential to be added to our test suites. So rather than take Friday off like I had planned after the GTX 1080 Ti launch I spent the day testing a range of video cards in just about every test configuration to see how they perform. This way if we add the game we have a few cards already tested. Well, I figured I might as well share the results as well for anyone thinking about playing the game that way you know what settings you should be running depending on your card. So let's take a quick look at the results.  

I got my hands on a key for 20XX a week or so before the demo was released for Mighty No. 9, and I remember when it was announced somewhat shrugging, and starting a new run in the formerly mentioned title. The similarities between the two are obvious, not only in their influence from the Mega Man franchise but also that they are both in this weird, pre-release stage that so many games find themselves in. I’m still very much looking forward to a modern day Mega Man from the original development team, but 20XX has managed to scratch an itch that has otherwise been delayed.

Only a few months have passed since Ubisoft announced at E3 that Terrorist Hunts would be returning in Rainbow Six Siege. Messages immediately blew up between our small gaming group. The three of us have been gaming together for a long time; at least a decade, if not more. When Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 released in 2008, we networked together a couple of Xbox 360s and played Terrorist Hunts endlessly. Eventually we migrated to the the PC and spent countless hours progressing our characters, unlocking weapons, and hunting terrorists all over again. Ubisoft would stop officially supporting online matchmaking, but it’s still possible to play online (we had to try after hearing the announcement).

Ever since the fantastic teaser trailer Ubisoft dropped in our laps from seemingly out of nowhere at E3 2012, the world has been waiting to get our collective hands on Watch_Dogs. Seven months removed from the financial and critical success of GTA5, (PC owners are still waiting) Ubisoft has seen fit to finally let us dive into the networked world of Chicago. The time for anticipation is over, join us as we take a look at Ubisoft’s new open world IP and see if all this hype was worth the wait or if we will be found wanting.

Full disclosure, I typically loath doing game reviews. Testing hardware typically can be done along side of me working on something else, for example, I can test the comfort of a headset while benchmarking a video card, while also writing when tests are running. Games on the other hand require days and sometimes weeks of gameplay for testing. I know some of you might think I’m crazy, because playing games and getting to call it work sounds amazing. But when we have to publish multiple articles a week, it’s just impossible. That being said, a new game called Banished launched just a few days ago and has so far had been extremely popular on steam (it is as I write this the top selling game over a half priced Call of Duty: Ghosts and a whole bunch of games that are 75% off from Ubisoft) and Reddit. I have been playing it non-stop and many of you hit me up on Facebook and on steam asking for my thoughts on the game. Why not put it all together for everyone to see!

With the success of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series it is easy to forget that they have another widely successful stealth-action series up their sleeve. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell has been around since 2002 when it caught our attention with those ever recognizable glowing green trifocals. While the series hasn’t had the annual release attention since 2006, Ubisoft Montreal still kept the series strong with the release of Splinter Cell: Conviction and this year Ubisoft Toronto take the reins with Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Promising to deliver the same stealth-action we’ve come to enjoy, it is time to take a look at the latest installment in the Splinter Cell series.

The action-adventure genre has been getting a decent amount of attention lately with the Batman Arkham games as well as more recent titles like Tomb Raider and Devil May Cry. Remember Me is a title in this same mold from Capcom and Dontnod Entertainment that looks to balance the standard mix of platforming, exploration and combat along with a few unique tricks up its sleeve to deliver us an entertaining experience in a sci-fi dystopia based around the interesting concept of memory transfer. Will this offering prove memorable or fall flat in its attempt? Join me as we take a look.

With Dead Island: Riptide on the horizon it only seems appropriate to revisit the original to see what all the initial hype was about. Released in 2011, Dead Island had already generated its fair share of publicity due to the eye-catching logo and the nice bit of cinema that was the announcement trailer before it even hit shelves.  From that first trailer to the assurance of a full on zombie survival RPG with four player co-op, Dead Island promises players a unique experience they enjoy on your own or with a friend. However with so many zombie games out there nowadays, does Dead Island do enough to distinguish itself or end up dead in the water?

With the first-person shooter genre all but locked down by staples like the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises sometimes it is refreshing to get the chance to see something new. The release of 4A Games’ Metro 2033 in 2010 was one such breath of fresh air so much so that a sequel was in the works almost immediately. Mired in delays that had very little to do with the game itself, however, it isn’t until now that we have gotten the chance to play it. It is finally time to see if Metro: Last Light stands up to the amazing visuals and story-driven single player that the original did so well.

Trion Worlds is no newcomer to the MMO market. They have earned a rapport with gamers with their traditional fantasy MMORPG Rift holding strong as one of the few subscription based games still around, but Defiance is another thing entirely. When I first read about the concept for Defiance I couldn’t help but be even the slightest bit skeptical. Designed to run in conjunction with an original TV series of the same name airing on the SyFy Network and set within the same larger world, changes in either the game or the show will be reflected across both mediums. Join me and the Ark Hunters to see if the game portion of this ambitious undertaking stands up.

Tomb Raider is one of those franchises that has been around forever. Whether you are a lifelong fan, or someone who buys different installments periodically, there is always something to do with Lara Croft on her insane adventures. This time we take a look at the plainly titled Tomb Raider, a reboot by Crystal Dynamics that hopes to bring the franchise back to level of glory it had on the original Playstation. I can only hope that there is something as silly and exciting as locking the butler in the freezer to keep me entertained.

Dinosaurs and rifles are a dastardly duo. Putting them together in a game is an interesting combination to say the least. It has been attempted before in games like Turok and Dino D-Day. Fans have shouted for a Battlefield 3 expansion with dinosaurs and Lukewarm Media may be here with the answer. Their new game Primal Carnage is a class based first person shooter that pits humans and dinosaurs against one another in an all-out slaughter fest.  Let’s take a look at Primal Carnage and hope that much like John Hammond, Lukewarm Media spared no expense.

I will admit that when Wes first told me I would be reviewing Gunblitz I was nervous. This is because I don’t consider 2D shooters to be one of my favorite genres. This is because I tend to get frustrated and rage at games very easily. I cannot tell you how many controllers I destroyed trying to beat a high score on Geometry Wars Evolved! I am excited to do this review though, because not only is it a game developed by Rapture Studios, a place we recently toured and reviewed here but also because it will be a nice relaxing way to get back into the genre. Let us take a look at Gunblitz, and hope that I don’t break any keyboards in the process.

When Wes first asked if there were any games that I had in mind to review, I immediately thought about Far Cry 3. It’s a game that looks like a blast, but not one that I would be likely to purchase. This is due to problems I had with the second Far Cry, which were mostly PC related issues. However it is with an open mind and heart that I take a look at Far Cry 3, but with shooters being a dime a dozen, and open world games starting to run their course, let us hope that Far Cry 3 has that something special, that little extra “uhmph” to make it something that I will enjoy reviewing rather than regret.

Innovation is a tough thing in the gaming industry. Not just coming up with something new and exciting that will get fans of all ages to line up to play, but once you have those fans you must innovate to keep them. This is something that the Assassin’s Creed franchise has had great success with. With the original release of Assassin’s Creed, it was something that gamers had never seen before and it was awesome. The gameplay got a bit repetitive and bland at times, but Ubisoft quickly improved on it with the next installment in the series giving gamers more things to do and a more in depth storyline. After that followed multiplayer and countless hours of online fun. I am extremely excited for this review of Assassin’s Creed 3 because it is set around the American Revolution, a time that has not been looked at before in the franchise and an interesting piece of history in my eyes. Sit back and grab your muskets because “The British are coming, the British are coming!”