Band News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Physics-based games are catnip to influencers.

We review Fozzy Football, a dexterity board game that combines american football and shuffleboard. In Fozzy Football, players are trying to score the most points by sliding a puck across the table.

This much we know to be true: If your TV show features a badass rock band, you better have some badass rock music. And Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Netflix’s upcoming animated adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s indelible comic series has released its figurative submission to the figurative “anime openings to never skip” contest.

Where's the ideal place to play MTG? A picnic bench outside? Too windy. A dimly lit basement? Too drafty. A death metal moshpit? Perfect.

The Grammy award-winning The 8-Bit Big Band and Lawrence are releasing a new cover of the Marvel vs Capcom 2 song “I Wanna Take You for a Ride.” It’s been covered many times by the VGM community, but in this instance, new verses and a bridge accompany the admittedly repetitive tune.

Dungeons & Dragons has a new book coming out—but you'll have to wait a while longer for the physical copy. The release of The Deck of Many Things core rulebook has been delayed thanks to a streak of bad luck (or poor manufacturing, depending on how charitable you're willing to be). On October 28, the official D&D Twitter account made the following post: 

Quordle 643 answer for October 29: Tenth day in a row and yet another easy puzzle. Players really have a chance to create a high streak. But it should be remembered that we use the word ‘easy' quite loosely. Whether the game is easy or not depends entirely on the first two guesses you make. And because the risk of losing exists with every puzzle, no matter whether easy or hard, that is why you need to check out these Quordle hints and clues to ensure that your streak is always protected. These hints and clues will give you information relating to today's words so that you don't have to make wild guesses. And if you need even further help, just scroll to the bottom for the solution.

The first Ghostrunner was a perfect example of no-frills excellence: a lean cyberpunk parkour-based platformer in which you and your enemies both died in one hit. The controls were tight, the story was basically nonexistent, and the environmental design was sparse and utilitarian. Every part of the game felt like it was built around Ghostrunner’s stellar kineticism. Levels were finely tuned so that each encounter pushed the game’s difficulty exactly one step further than the last, always providing a new challenge without ever feeling out of reach. With Ghostrunner 2, developer One More Level tries to build on the bare-bones approach of the original, but every addition feels like it gets in the way of the simple wall-running, jumping, dashing, and killing that made the original great.

The new Ultimate Universe kicked off earlier this year with the Ultimate Invasion limited series. It continues next week with Ultimate Universe #1 - a one-shot from writer Jonathan Hickman, artist Stefano Caselli, and colorist David Curiel that's designed to set up a whole new line of Ultimate comics. 

League of Legends publisher Riot Games debuted another in-universe music group called Heartsteel, and their debut single “Paranoia” dropped earlier this week on October 23. Alongside the single, several new skins are being added to the MOBA.

Tom DeLonge can’t believe he’s still relevant — but why wouldn’t he be? After building Blink-182 up into a rowdy, ridiculous pillar of the pop-punk era, DeLonge left the group to excavate his own obsessions. He formed his transmedia musical collective Angels & Airwaves, wrote children’s books, and started apparel lines. Then, in a move that would eventually rattle world governments, he founded To the Stars, a company aimed at uncovering the truths about Earth’s UFO encounters. DeLonge did not take his reputation as a high-profile paranormal theorist lightly, and in 2020, his advocacy for transparency about so-called extraterrestrial encounters led to the declassification of UFO videos and an official report from the Pentagon.

Next week, The Beatles—yes, the legendary rock band from the 1960s—will be back with their first new song in decades, thanks to an AI algorithm. 

There's always a refractory period when a new wave of Apple products come out, where retailers measure demand for the new stuff, inventory of the old stuff and do the mental arithmetic for how to keep things moving. The winners, of course, are smart shoppers. We're always looking out for unexpected price drops like this, and it's a good one. Right now, you can get a first-generation Apple Watch Ultra for just $659 at Amazon.

We have heard Apple talk about the durability of the Apple Watch Ultra at the launch event. Many reviewers have also affirmed the claims by putting it through tough outdoor routines. However, in a recent event, the Apple Watch Ultra marked its biggest durability test when a user accidentally dropped it in a lake. While the Apple Watch Ultra does come with water resistance up to a depth of 100 meters (twice that of the Apple Watch Series 9, at 50 meters), not many would have expected it to survive in a lake after staying underwater for three entire months. But, according to a report, that is exactly what happened.

The Halloween and Thanksgiving season is around the corner which rings the bell for the biggest sale of the season, the Black Friday sale 2023. We still have a little time left till the sale kicks off, however, multinational retailer Walmart is now offering an early Black Friday deal on the Apple Watch SE (Gen 1). So if you are someone who's been wanting an Apple smartwatch to keep track of physical activities then check out this huge price cut which might save you a lot of money.

Stardew Valley’s precious Iridium is a sought-after resource and for a good reason – you can use it to improve each one of your tools and quickly get rich in the game.

A few weeks ago I wrote about about Grand Theft Auto players describing the movement of planes in random GTA promotional art as evidence of a forthcoming GTA 6 reveal, timed to intersect with the waning gibbous moon. I thought that the furore might die down after GTA 6 failed to materialise in accordance with the lunar cycle, but it turns out this rabbit hole has no bottom.

Legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk has joined the band Goldfinger on stage to perform a track from the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series.

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

15 years after the release of the original, the producer of the original Mamma Mia! movie confirms that despite delays, a third installment is well on the way.

Apple is not new to testing weird products that never make it out of the prototype stage. The list of patents filed by the Cupertino-based tech giant is even weirder, with gadgets like a foldable iMac, MacBook-integrated iPhone, a windowless car, vibrating VR socks, and self-adjusting bands for the Apple Watch being proposed. However, a new leak has surfaced showcasing an Apple device that could very well make it to the market - a HomePod with an LCD display. Know all about it.

Amazon sale 2023: In today's fast-paced world, having a reliable pair of wireless earbuds can enhance your listening experience, whether it's for music, podcasts, or calls. Amazon is offering some fantastic deals on premium earbuds, during the Amazon Sale 2023. Check out these 5 premium earbuds:

Microsoft ran an Xbox advertisement on Las Vegas’s new Sphere venue on Thursday, filling the city skyline with its own spherical logo.

Overwatch 2 is following Fortnite’s footsteps and holding its first-ever musical collaboration, this one with K-Pop group Le Sserafim.

Devices are so ingrained in our everyday lives now that it makes perfect sense to want to jumpstart your kids’ tech skills at an early age. The only question is how to do it safely and in a way that encourages STEM learning while still being fun.

League of Legends is host to many alternate dimensions, including one where its champions are incredibly successful and popular musicians. The experiment started with Pentakill, who have put out some respectable metal albums, and continued through to bands like the hip-hop group True Damage and the K-Pop sensations K/DA. There’s a new kid on the block, and it’s Heartsteel, a boy band made up of a collaboration between League of Legends champions and real world musicians.

The WarioWare series is still going strong, with a new title on the horizon for early next month. The shoes are not yet empty, but Onion Soup Interactive is looking to fill them anyway with Super 56. That’s bold, but while they’re doing some heavy lifting to the formula, they’re bringing along their own drinks to the party. To be fair, it isn’t even WarioWare’s party. Puzzle & Action: Tant-R has been dancing since ‘93, but even I’m not certain they were the first to arrive.

Patch 27.6, launching today, is a huge patch that introduces Hearthstone’s next expansion, Showdown in the Badlands, brings Un'Goro to Twist, makes Battlegrounds mid-season adjustments, and includes goodies for Blizzcon and Hallow’s End festivities!

The Bloodrock Mining Company found powerful Azerite in the Badlands. They’re digging deep and bleeding the land dry, disrupting the Badlands and awakening slumbering elementals! Now mysterious outlaws are riding into town to set things right. Tumbleweeds roll by and high noon looms. Grab your horse and your hat, it’s nearly time for a Showdown in the Badlands!

Cyberpunk 2077, especially since the launch of Phantom Liberty, has one of the most vibrant and vivid visual styles in gaming. You take all that – the neon lights, the chunky guns, the endless miles of wires and cables – and strap it to the close-quarters, tactics-driven strategy of Firaxis’ iconic XCOM 2, and then add a dash of Payday 3, and its focus on robberies and heists, and this is the result. If you want a beautiful new Steam strategy sim, centered on stealth and cerebral planning, this is for you.

League of Legends is undoubtedly a behemoth, standing tall as one of the biggest games on PC years after its release. The community is ever-expanding, and Riot Games isn’t slowing its flow of improvements and new content any time soon. While LoL continues to grow, its long list of changes does as well. From more instant, minor bug fixes to phasing out a system that replaces players’ Summoner Names, Riot makes regular adjustments to its work.

Now that the release of Sonic Superstars is upon us, we can take a good look at just how many levels will be appearing in the hedgehog's latest 2D adventure.

Riot's approach to League of Legends lore has always been a bit… flexible. Champion backstories have been repeatedly retconned, and the entire premise of the game has changed a couple of times since launch (remember when it was a literal sport?). More recently, as the Runeterra universe has expanded with books, spin-off games, and the TV show Arcane, inconsistencies have flourished, and it's been increasingly difficult for fans to point to an actual canon. 

Upcoming RPG In Stars and Time has a particularly clever spin on the classic setup of a band of adventurers fighting against a great evil. As the spirited, rag-tag party of misfits journey to face off against the big bad plaguing the land, they each fall in the climactic battle, one by one, in humiliating defeat. However, the main protagonist, Siffrin, is revived shortly after, brought back to the beginning of the doomed grand adventure as the only one with any memories of what occurred. But now, the hero has a faint idea of how to do things right the next time.

Five years after turning four of its characters into a pretend K-Pop group, League of Legends has a boy band now. The six-man group is called Heartsteel, and it features «re-imagined» versions of the LoL characters Ezreal, Kayn, Aphelios, Yone, K'Sante, and Sett.

Yet another wireless service jumped into the US market last month, but while the pricing on World Mobile’s lineup of travel eSIMs doesn’t stand out from the growing selection targeting new smartphones without traditional SIM card slots, the business model does.

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

League of Legends Heartsteel is the name of the now very real boy band consisting of six champions and a handful of real-world artists representing them, as Riot Games shows off the first artwork of the characters. The group’s first single is also on the way later this month.

Not only is The Dual-Wielding Dropkick Buckets an excellent name for a Ska punk band, it’s also the name I’ve just coined for a Lords of the Fallen character build that might be the soulslike’s answer to Dark Souls 2 ladle runs. I have no other way I can explain this than to tell you there’s a wooden bucket weapon in the new Hexworks game, and that you can do dropkicks with it.

Last time I checked on season 2 ofOur Flag Means Death, Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) and Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) were rekindling their love. But, per the SAG-AFTRA strike rules, Darby, Con O’ Neill (Blackbeard’s first mate Izzy), Vico Ortiz (Jim Jimenez), Nathan Foad (Stede’s scribe, Lucius Sprigg), Kristian Nairn (Wee John Feeney), and Matthew Maher (the sassy Black Pete) couldn’t chatter about the quarrels faced by their lovable band of pirates at New York Comic Con 2023.

Guitar Hero was so immensely popular that, between it and its rival Rock Band, the plastic instrument rhythm game scene collapsed, fizzling out as quickly as it took off. We haven't seen a brand new entry for about eight years. It's sort of good, because it means we don't have guitar-shaped controllers taking up space anymore. But, it's also kinda bad, because those games are awesome. Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotick, seemingly agrees, if recent comments are anything to go by.

Seamus Blackley, the co-creator of the original Xbox, has taken to Twitter to mock Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.

SpaceX has made a mysterious new regulatory filing for 29,888 satellites, possibly in an attempt to secure more radio spectrum to upgrade Starlink.

It’s hard to think of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas or edgy retail chain Hot Topic without thinking of the other.

Lords of the Fallen doesn't shy away from its inspirations. You have an Estus equivalent, what amounts to bonfires, and menus that feel ripped right out of Dark Souls. But it's not just From's defining series that it draws from, as LotF even has a Bloodborne-like starter class.

Civilization 6 is the benchmark for expansive, sprawling, and highly detailed strategy sims. You take its in-depth systems and attention to detail and combine them with the survival-based, often grueling aesthetic and style of Frostpunk, then maybe throw in a bit of Cities Skylines 2 and its focus on developing complex urban centers with a real sense of life. If that sounds like a mix for success – and if you want something else to look forward to, as well as Firaxis’ upcoming Civilization 7 – then Synergy, a new strategy-based city builder coming soon to Steam is precisely the game you’re after.

League of Legends may not always be my cup of tea, but its various champions, deep lore, catchy music, and aesthetically pleasing skins most certainly are. From the Sailor Moon-like Star Guardian line to the stunning Spirit Blossom collection, Riot’s lineup of skins is tempting, even to players who generally avoid dabbling with in-game cosmetics. Some of my favorite skins are from LoL’s virtual K-pop group, KDA, and it looks like we may get a boy band line to go alongside the girls’ now.

Icecrown Citadel launches on October 12 at 3:00 PM PDT and that means players will soon be able to level their Ashen Verdict Reputation for both a Ring and Profession patterns! We've prepared a guide and tables that break down all the rewards with the Ashen Verdict Reputation! Ashen Verdict Reputation Guide The The Ashen Verdict faction is associated primarily with Icecrown Citadel in Wrath of the Lich King Classic. Building reputation with The Ashen Verdict is primarily achieved by killing mobs and bosses within Icecrown Citadel while not wearing the tabard of another faction. Upon achieving Friendly status, Ormus the Penitent will offer a quest for an epic Ring that can be upgraded by improving your reputation further. Quartermaster Alchemist Finklestein also offers a large number of profession patterns for Blacksmithing, Engineering, Leatherworking, and Tailoring.

If Sony’s not going to make a sequel to LittleBigPlanet spinoff Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Dreamworks’ Trolls seem more than happy to fill the void. The musically inclined, up-combed little weirdos from the Trolls franchise are starring in a new game, Trolls Remix Rescue, that launches later this month. The game’s cooperative 3D platforming and character customization look very much in the vein of Sackboy’s games, as does its plush, cozily textured environments.

It's raining offers on Samsung smartphones at this year's Amazon Great Indian Festival. Bring home the smartphone of your dreams this festive season as Samsung announces the biggest discounts of the year on its best-selling smartphone models.

The desire to see how the other half lives has gone on with humans since time immemorial. That goes especially for seeing what everyone else is buying. We’re here to make that easy for you. Behold, the top 10 products PCMag readers have been buying from the deals posted for Amazon Prime Day (so far). Now you’ll know just what cool tech to buy based on everyone else’s purchases.

While there have been an immense variety of items available in games over the years, there have also been several cool items developed that never made it into the final products. Of course, items aren't the only things to be left behind in development; entire beta Pokémon have gone unused in the past, for better or worse. But beyond the potential additions to the world, these cut items also often hint at encounters and mechanics which could have made playing their respective games very different experiences.

SpaceX has launched a new website dedicated to promoting its upcoming Starlink service for mobile phones. 

As Darkheart Thicket enters the Season 3 Mythic+ dungeon rotation, the Corrupted Knot is a new weapon dropped by Oakheart in Dragonflight Patch 10.2, giving collectors another chance to collect a rare one-handed mace model which currently has only one chance to drop per character in Exile's Reach! The new Corrupted Knot has purple wrappings, and lighter colored bands around the head. Avid collectors may recognize Tunk's Lil' Whomper as one of the more elusive one-handed models in the game, one of several items that can drop from the Ogryn boss Tunk during the Darkmaul Citadel mini-dungeon.

The Minecraft mob vote is in hot water as players have banded together to demand the end of the annual activity. 

Apple's iPhone and Apple Watch are two of its products with an annual upgrade cycle. The company recently announced the iPhone 15 lineup alongside the Apple Watch Series 9 with a plethora of notable changes on the inside. Now, it is being reported that next year's Apple Watch models will bring little to no changes while marking the tenth anniversary of the wearable, potentially no iPhone X moment.

By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

Amazon Sale Live Updates:: HP Laptop 15s available at a 23% discount

Baldur's Gate 3 presents players with a moral dilemma pretty early on, one that will more than likely set you down a path of good or evil depending on your choices. You can either band together with Halsin and take down the Goblin Camp, saving all of the stranded Tieflings from being exiled to slaughter, or you can do the slaughtering yourself by allying with Minthara to attack the Grove with her Goblin army.

Dungeons of Eternity will bring its endless dungeons to the Meta Quest Store today as the virtual reality role-playing game debuts on all three Meta Quest VR headsets.

Command and Conquer. Ages of Empires. Company of Heroes. The RTS is one of PC gaming’s defining genres, delivering some of the greatest experiences to ever grace our beloved gaming rigs. But between strategy sims, city builders, 4X games, and more, it feels like the RTS has fallen a little out of favor in recent years. Thank the giant, hovering mouse cursor in the sky then that one of the best and most beloved real-time strategy series ever is finally making a comeback. Commandos Origins, a long-awaited prequel to Commandos, Commandos 2, and Commandos 3, is coming to Steam.

The first look at Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' World War 2 drama Masters of the Air has landed. 

Diablo 4 is coming to Steam on 17th October, following a period of Battle.net PC exclusivity.

During the Season 2 Developer Update livestream, Blizzard announced that Diablo 4 is coming to Steam with the start of Season 2, October 17! After Overwatch has been added to Steam earlier this year, Diablo 4 will be Blizzard's second game to be available through Valve's game library. Diablo 4 Season 2 Liveblog Official Diablo 4 Page on Steam

The gates of the Burning Hells have opened once more, welcoming more of Lilith’s children home.

It took Google one hour and twenty minutes to go through its electric-paced Made by Google event that launched the new flagship smartphones Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel Watch 2, new colorways for Pixel Buds, a host of new AI-powered features, Bard's integration with Google Assistant, and a small teaser for Android 14 that will soon rollout. Although Google CEO Sundar Pichai was nowhere to be seen during the event, Rick Osterloh, SVP, Devices & Services at Google, took charge and showcased everything new that's coming to consumers starting next week. And in case you missed it, don't worry. Check the 10 big announcements made during the event.

John Carney plays the hits. Ever since his 2007 breakout indie Once, which catapulted beloved singer-songwriters Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová to massive fame, Carney has made musical dramas his calling card. The Irish writer-director delights in films about people connecting with each other over music, falling in love with song as they learn to love each other and themselves.

Google has been delivering high-end technology around AI for a while now and been putting it into people’s hands with their Pixel lineup. With the original Pixel Watch, they began expanding the capabilities of their software with a brand new hardware line. This year, improvements are coming to that new hardware line, with the Pixel Watch 2.

There must be something in the water. A few days ago, we covered the GTA fans that are looking to the moon for answers about the next big GTA 6 announcement, and now it's Titanfall players' turn. What are they doing? Convincing themselves that a playlist update is actually a reference to a Red Hot Chili Peppers song that is actually a reference to the inevitable upcoming announcement of something massive, probably Titanfall 3.

Google today announced the Pixel Watch 2, a successor to its first smartwatch, the Pixel Watch, which reached consumers last year. At first glance, the two devices look remarkably similar. In fact, the size and the shape of the watch puck itself are identical to the original. However, there are lots of changes inside—much of it from coming from Fitbit—that could make the Pixel Watch 2 a much more compelling wearable than its predecessor.

Today at the Made by Google event, the company launched its new devices which consisted of the Pixel 8 series smartphones, the Pixel Buds Pro, and the Pixel Watch 2. The new Pixel Watch 2 features a sleek design which was earlier released in a teaser by Google.

With Patch 10.1.7 being a few weeks old, the community has been hard at searching for the returning Cataclysm-removed items. Collectors have been compiling a list of returning and possibly returning items with this change. As this is a community effort, there are likely missing items to these lists. If you spot something missing, make sure to join the ALL THE THINGS Discord and help with the data compilation. ALL THE THINGS Discord ServerATT Spreadsheet Compilation This change brings back many sought-after items like the original rare robes from starting zones (Violet Robes, Spider Web Robe, Snowy Robe, Scarlet Initiate Robes, and Light Magesmith Robe), Pitchfork, and Heavy Marauder Scimitar. You can see the full list below.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty players think they've found Idris Elba's Solomon Reed chilling in Night City before the DLC even takes place.

Fitbit's Charge 6 fitness tracker, a new version of its most popular product, looks almost exactly like its predecessor but promises a major improvement in terms of heart rate tracking accuracy.

I love K-pop almost as much as I love League of Legends, so when I heard that the 2023 World Championships would be taking place in Seoul this year, my heart skipped a beat. Did this herald the long-awaited return of KDA, League’s fan-favorite K-Pop band? The edge of my seat was well and truly worn away.

When Apple Inc. introduced a new material for phone cases and watchbands earlier this month, the company heralded it as a groundbreaking alternative to leather with “subtle luster and a soft, suede-like feel.”

The world of Baldurs Gate 3 is a gift that keeps on giving. For every iconic line and character, there’s an equally disturbing situation waiting to happen. Larian Studios has a history of making interesting characters and dialogue, dating all the way back to Divinity: Dragon Commander. Anyone remember that game? This time, it seems like one of the characters is either trying to get you killed or suffering from tourist syndrome with his directional advice.

French consumer electronics brand Thomson has introduced new TV products in its QLED, OATH PRO MAX, and FA Series for Indian consumers. It includes a new 43-inch QLED, 43-inch FA series TVs with Realtek processor, 55-inch Google TV with 4k display, and an all-new range of Fully Automatic Top Load washing machines.

While we wait (and wait) for Ubisoft to show more of Beyond Good & Evil 2, early footage from the project has surfaced from back in 2008.

Sci-fi thriller The Lazarus Project returns for a second season, and a new teaser trailer, exclusively shared with GamesRadar+, teases time travel chaos.