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Multiplayer Competitive

Multiplayer Competitive

The Finals on PC: genuinely awesome destruction tech without sacrificing performance

Embark Studios is a game development house with a lot of promise. Founded and staffed by many ex-DICE Frostbite tech gurus in 2018, the studio has exhibited a hardcore tech focus since its inception with tech demos and presentations into machine learning for animation and AI, open-source code repositories and of course ray-traced graphics. I always wondered what kind of game they were really making with all of this technology, and now I have the answer with The Finals. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the heritage of its designers, this is a class-based FPS in the vein of Battlefield with objective-driven combat, released free-to-play on current-gen consoles and PC shortly before the holiday break in 2023. Its focus on level-busting destruction makes it a rather unique game from a tech perspective, so it seemed only natural to focus on the PC version for this article. I’ll cover what it does differently to other games, which optimised settings we recommend and how it compares to the PS5 console version. Before I get into any comparisons, let’s go over the basics of the game’s mechanics. In The Finals, the levels you play through are typically made up of prefabricated buildings that can be cracked open and destroyed with explosive weapons or abilities, clearing a path to maneouvre or deny an opponent cover and concealment. The game is about staying on the move to get to the next objective area with your team, and sometimes the best way forward is to just tear down the wall right in front of you. You can start a match with a pristine level and end with one where buildings are collapsed, burnt-out husks of what they used to be. Read more

The Finals on PC: genuinely awesome destruction tech without sacrificing performance

Embark Studios is a game development house with a lot of promise. Founded and staffed by many ex-DICE Frostbite tech gurus in 2018, the studio has exhibited a hardcore tech focus since its inception with tech demos and presentations into machine learning for animation and AI, open-source code repositories and of course ray-traced graphics. I always wondered what kind of game they were really making with all of this technology, and now I have the answer with The Finals. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the heritage of its designers, this is a class-based FPS in the vein of Battlefield with objective-driven combat, released free-to-play on current-gen consoles and PC shortly before the holiday break in 2023. Its focus on level-busting destruction makes it a rather unique game from a tech perspective, so it seemed only natural to focus on the PC version for this article. I’ll cover what it does differently to other games, which optimised settings we recommend and how it compares to the PS5 console version. Before I get into any comparisons, let’s go over the basics of the game’s mechanics. In The Finals, the levels you play through are typically made up of prefabricated buildings that can be cracked open and destroyed with explosive weapons or abilities, clearing a path to maneouvre or deny an opponent cover and concealment. The game is about staying on the move to get to the next objective area with your team, and sometimes the best way forward is to just tear down the wall right in front of you. You can start a match with a pristine level and end with one where buildings are collapsed, burnt-out husks of what they used to be. Read more

Tekken 8’s eye-grating colourblind mode is causing concern among accessibility experts

The director of Tekken 8 has responded after a video of the upcoming fighting gameā€™s colourblind mode was reported to have caused migraines and vertigo among players, with accessibility experts expressing their worries that the filter could cause even more serious side effects among those with epilepsy and other photosensitive conditions. Read more

Here are Eurogamer’s favourite games of 2023

Listen. There have been a lot of great games this year. Maybe more than in any year we can easily remember. Because of this we’ve handled our top 50 list of our best games a little differently. Below you’ll find two groups of games from 2023. Going backwards, at the bottom you’ll find our top 10 in an ordered list. And above that you’ll find the other 40 we really, really loved, but we’ve arranged these alphabetically. Honestly, that’s because, with a year like this, if we’d tried to order them all we’d still be arguing over it. And in a year this great – and a year this painful for the people who make games and work around them – that would be no good. So here are our favourite 50 games of the year. We hope you can find something in here that passed you by and will make for a lovely discovery. Read more