What We Played #617 The Expanse, Immortals of Aveum and Mortal Kombat 1

PAX Australia is 10 years old this year, which means it is officially old enough to solve a mystery by cycling around with its friends while uncovering the town's dark secrets. It is also old enough to put on a gaming convention with a stacked lineup of exhibitors.

Yesterday, September 11, two M-class solar flares erupted on the Earth-facing side of the Sun, and the latter of the two managed to release a large coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. According to data from NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), it erupted on the notorious sunspot region AR3429 that recently came into Earth's view. The CME was noted to be in the range of Earth's strike zone and could deliver a glancing blow to our planet sparking a solar storm. But will it hit?

It’s been an awfully hot week in the UK, the kind of week that means that VR headsets remain resolutely in the box. So it’s a good thing that the massive games out this week have been of the non-VR kind.

The Kirin 9000S found in Huawei’s latest flagship smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro 5G, would not have been possible without the involvement of SMIC, a Chinese chipmaker that leveraged its second-generation 7nm process to mass produce the SoC. However, one U.S. congressman believes that stricter sanctions should be placed on both SMIC and Huawei as the trade between them should not have happened.

Microsoft has detailed Xbox’s September system update, which is rolling out this week.

By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

The fall season is upon us, which means one thing: an import of new K-dramas on Netflix.

As the school holidays wind to a close, and those heady weeks of FIFA games and lengthy RPG sessions fade into memory, my household has had one last gaming hurrah. I’ve been making my way through all of the things I saw at Gamescom, and carried on with some of them when I got home. Wayfinder has become the daily MMO hit, and I’ve been playing with my son in his first true stint of online gaming. Alongside that I’m still playing Baldur’s Gate 3, and I’m probably going to finish up just as the PS5 version appears. It’s safe to say it’s very, very good, and if you haven’t been able to play yet, you should be excited.

The Heirloom is a visually stunning paranormal game, brimming with mystery and puzzles for you to navigate and solve. Inspired by the Hebrides archipelago and Scottish Folklore, you can drive your own story with decision-based progression, which has a drastic impact on your overall playthrough.

The Stardew Valley board game is back in action as developer ConcernedApe announces pre-orders are about to begin. 

As Starfield's long-awaited launch approaches, Bethesda's Todd Howard has reportedly sent a memo to staffers that's become public. It's touching for the most part, though Howard doesn't miss the opportunity to let everyone know that he's aware people will be using the infamous New Zealand trick to play the game. 

Starfield lead Todd Howard has sent a heartfelt congratulations to the entire team at Xbox and Bethesda on the eve of the game's Early Access launch.