Valve has a new Steam Machine on the way next year, but if you have a long memory, you'll remember that this isn't the first time that the company has attempted to bring PC gaming to the living room. The original line of Steam Machine mini-PCs launched back in 2015, but poor sales eventually saw these devices fade quietly into the background. So what's to stop history from repeating itself? According to Valve, a better video game catalogue and an effort to give developers an easier time when porting games over to the new Steam Machine are some of the key factors that the company has focused on.

"We learned from the first Steam Machines that we needed to make our developers’ lives a lot easier. So now we have Proton, right? Which is essentially just a compatibility layer that lets games run on Linux that are originally meant for Windows," engineer Yazan Aldehayyat said to Rock Paper Shotgun.

"Yeah, I think it's really about the games catalogue," fellow engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais added. "Being able to control your TV, boot directly into the game, launch games, and install them in a way that meant you didn't have to install drivers, or that you didn't have to clean up your system after you installed and uninstalled a couple of games--all of those elements were there. We just didn't have a really compelling games library."

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It has been 18 long years since the last Metroid Prime. Nintendo has not produced one since Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, so the question lingering over the announcement of Prime 4 has been: Does anyone still know how to make one of these? A lengthy hands-on ahead of its release in December reassured me that Retro Studios has the look and feel of Metroid Prime well in-hand, but more importantly, has its objective marker set on expanding the world with new psychic powers that feel just as natural as Samus's other abilities.

Our first taste of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, playable at the debut event for the Switch 2 itself, was composed of an initial tutorial section--an action spectacle as Samus comes to the aid of Federation forces under assault. That initial mission was meant to be a showpiece for both the game and the new hardware, and I walked away suitably impressed. This second hands-on event took place shortly after that slice of the game, still early enough to walk me through some of the core pillars of Prime 4, but more open-ended and familiar to Metroid fans.

In the midst of Samus lending aid to the Federation, she gets transported to a strange planet, cut off from communications and not entirely sure where she is--and of course, missing some key pieces of her equipment. At that point she discovers a psychic crystal, which fuses itself to her helmet and imbues her with the ability to interface with the planet's technology. The Lamorn, an ancient race native to the planet, believes Samus is their people's Chosen One, as the crystal chose to fuse itself to her. So in a way similar to how Samus has traditionally found Chozo artifacts that augment her suit, now she's finding psychically imbued Lamorn power-ups. It's familiar territory for Metroid Prime.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is finally here, and one of the main pieces of feedback from players thus far is around the game's aim-assist feature. Aim-assist is nothing new in Call of Duty (and many other games), but people are saying developer Treyarch went too far with the changes to aim-assist following the beta. Other people say it's great.

What Treyarch said about aim-assist changes

In a blog post, Treyarch said its goal was to "create a more balanced and competitive experience for all players, regardless of input choice." Another important element for Treyarch was to "preserve the core feel of Call of Duty controller gameplay."

Based on feedback from the beta test, Treyarch said it learned that people playing on controllers have a slight advantage to win shootouts at close range. Keyboard and mouse setups, meanwhile, displayed a statistical advantage at long ranges.

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The PS5 is celebrating its fifth anniversary, and Sony has released a whole lot of statistics to celebrate--including the most-played multiplayer and single-player games on the console. Perhaps unsurprisingly, battle royale monolith Fortnite took out the top spot for multiplayer, while launch game Assassin's Creed Valhalla still holds the lead in single-player titles.

Sony revealed that PS5 players have logged a cumulative total of 100 billion hours of gameplay, engaging with a library of over 7,500 published games. Of all those games, Sony revealed which came out on top when it came to playtime--after Fortnite, the most popular multiplayer titles on PS5 were Grand Theft Auto V in second place, with 2022's Call of Duty Modern Warfare II beating five other PS5 COD titles to claim third place.

When it comes to single player games, the top spot goes to Assassin's Creed Valhalla--one of the PS5's major third-party launch titles that released with the console back in 2020. Coming in second for single-player is 2022's God of War Ragnarok, a console-exclusive title for PlayStation, while the third most-played single-player game is 2023's Hogwarts Legacy--the most recent release on the list.

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Where Winds Meet is an interactive open world game featuring action, adventure, and martial arts developed by Everstone Games. It takes place during the twilight of the Ten Kingdoms, the very era when an entire dynasty could crumble in a blink of an eye. As a swordsman, the player has grown up amid this era of war and conflict and must face the many tough choices in a swordsman's destiny, as division and unrest are about to come to an end on the stage of the Northern Song Dynasty. Facing the unknown paths ahead where blood and swords are intertwined, what will the player choose? - follow his heart and mind and fight for justice: or choose to safeguard the empire with the inevitable consequence that his kind, swordsmen, will fade from prominence and prosperity; or will he choose to protect the innocent by sticking to the moral code of chivalry imbued since childhood, and use his martial skills against laws and rules till death?

Embrace the darkness in Dark Atlas: Infernum, a first-person horror experience where you must remember who you are, stop the apocalypse, and face your demons. As Natalia Asensio, Grand Master of an ancient esoteric order, society collapses around you with the appearance of ghosts and the shattering of dimensional barriers. Trapped in a dusty basement, drugged and barely remembering your identity, you must engage in a battle of wills that could open the gates of hell.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops games lean into fantasy and often surprise with a mind-bending narrative, and the Black Ops 7 campaign is no exception. It's themed around the enemy using fear as a weapon, and you're dropped into a storyline filled with hallucinations of monsters, trippy locations, and bizarre scenarios. This is a specific flavor of Call of Duty story that only developer Treyarch has shown the capacity to tell, and despite a few stumbles, the Black Ops 7 campaign does enough to leverage the potential of its more psychological narratives, while also moving the satisfying shooter gameplay into a new framework.

Confusingly enough, Black Ops 7 takes place over 40 years after the events of last year's Black Ops 6 and 10 years following the events of Black Ops 2. The story is set in 2035 as a direct sequel to Black Ops 2, and it brings back David Mason from that game as the main protagonist. In Black Ops 7, you see the effects of Black Ops 2's canonical ending, where Mason kills villain Raul Menendez and an uprising occurs. The world is now ravaged by violent conflict and psychological warfare, and The Guild, a global tech corporation, has stepped in to "protect" humanity from the chaos created by Menendez's followers. But uh-oh: Menendez seemingly returns despite his apparent death.

David Mason looks slightly different in Black Ops 7, as he is now played by Milo Ventimiglia (Gilmore Girls, Heroes) instead of the original actor Sam Worthington. Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy) is back as Mike Harper, a role he played in Black Ops 2. Eric Samuels also returns from Black Ops 2, and the fourth member of the squad is Leilani "50/50" Tupuola, who is a new badass soldier with advanced bionics. This squad of four is known as Specter One, and they're guided by a much older version of Troy Marshall, played by Y'lan Noel (The First Purge), from Black Ops 6.

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GameSir G8 Plus Galileo Controller

$47.49 (was $80)

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GameSir G8 Plus Galileo - Incredible Hulk Edition

$70 (was $100)

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GameSir G8 Plus Galileo - Thanos Edition

$70 (was $100)

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Several notable and highly rated multiplatform controllers by GameSir are steeply discounted as part of Walmart's Black Friday Deals Event that's running November 14-16. The most enticing deal is the GameSir G8 Plus Galileo for $47.49 (was $80). This dedicated mobile controller works with iPhone, Android phones, small tablets, and Nintendo consoles, includin Switch, Switch Oled, and even Switch 2. If you're a Marvel fan, you can grab officially licensed editions themed Hulk or Thanos for $70 (was $100).

The G8 Plus has an extendable bridge that cradles your device. It's compatible with iOS and Android phones as well as small tablets up to 8.46 inches. But unlike most dedicated mobile controllers, the G8 Plus also works with Nintendo consoles. The G8 Plus works well on Switch and Switch 2 and has several features that make it a compelling Joy-Con alternative: improved ergonomics, back buttons, Hall Effect sticks, dual trigger modes, a traditional D-pad, and swappable joystick caps, face buttons, and faceplates.

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