Riot games have committed to a series of new measures to curtail harassment and hate-speech in the Valorant community. In a video entitled ‘Keeping Our Community Healthy // Dev Updates,” studio head Anna Donlon took to Xitter to outline the new measures for the competitive FPS. Below is a graphic detailing the changes, which include new penalties such as hardware bans for offenders, and an expanded role for the game's Voice Evaluation tech, which monitors chat for bad behaviour. “If you want to make evil statements under the guise of '[naughty word SEO doesn't like being in the first paragraph] talk', you aren't welcome here,” writes the official Valorant account.
]]>On June 27th, Riot's hero shooter Valorant will get a team deathmatch mode. Teams of five will be able to do battle without the need to buy weapons at the start of each round, Counter-Strike-style, as they do in the main game. There will also be three new maps to play on.
]]>Riot Games are joining Game Pass next week, bringing free-to-play games including Valorant and League Of Legends with the benefit of having all characters unlocked. Other games will have other perks on Game Pass, including Riot's mobile games—a novelty for Game Pass. Sadly this offering does not include Riot's paid games, like the League spin-off RPG Ruined King. Read on for more details on what Riot are bringing to Game Pass.
]]>Valorant and League Of Legends developers Riot Games have completed their purchase of Wargaming Sydney, a support studio that’s previously worked on World Of Tanks and World Of Warships. The studio, which has been part of Wargaming since 2012, will be renamed Riot Sydney. They’ll be switching to work on Riot’s live-service games, including Valorant and League Of Legends.
]]>Valorant is getting a new map with the release of Episode 5 Act 1 on June 22nd. It's called Pearl and it's set in an underwater town in Portugal. That sounds interesting, but the same update will also see the removal of Split, one of Valorant's original three levels.
]]>Here's a thing: Riot's games are coming to Game Pass, including League Of Legends, Valorant and Legends Of Runeterra. Those are free-to-play games, which means what you'll really getting for your subscription is access to some of the bits that would normally be locked behind real money or the grind. In League Of Legends, for example, a Game Pass subscription will unlock all 160+ of the MOBA's champions.
]]>With NFTs in games proving unpopular with almost everyone who doesn't plan to get rich by fleecing other players, even appearing to support them is controversial. This is a situation Riot Games found themselves in after a lighthearted tweet about one of the Valorant wizards visiting an art exhibition on a day out. Turns out, the picture seen by Killjoy is an NFT. Cue Riot scrambling to make clear it was unintentional and say, literally, "Whoopsie!"
]]>Valorant Episode 4 has kicked off, bringing with it new agent Neon who - like that famous blue hedgehog - goes fast. They're able to sprint and slide around maps at blistering speeds, which might seem at odds with the game's tactical pace, but they fit into the roster nicely. Thing is, you've got to be brave enough to get the most out of their move set, which rewards ballsy plays over careful corner turns. It's safe to say I struggled to break out of my tentative shell, but when I did? Hoo boy, what a thrill.
]]>Riot Games, the makers of Valorant and League Of Legends, have agreed to pay out $100 million (£74m) as part of a proposed settlement to a class-action suit brought against them for "systemic sex discrimination and harassment". Money will go to current and former female employees and contract workers. The suit started in 2018 following widespread allegations of a festering workplace culture, and was originally due to be settled for $10 million (£7m) until California state authorities raised objections that it wasn't enough.
]]>This week's episode of the Ultimate Audio Bang is both festive, but tinged with sadness. It's Imogen's final run of the pod and I'm very sad about it. But we (I) gather ourselves and chat FPS news, like how PUBG is going free to play, Overwatch actually has something new, and lots of Halo Infinite stuff. We also get one final update on Imogen's Apex Legends rank. I'd love to say it's positive, but it's actually quite crushing. Merry Christmas.
]]>I arrive at this episode of the Ultimate Audio Bang thoroughly shootered. Both big FPS releases of the month, Call Of Duty: Vanguard and Battlefield 2042, have been at my fingertips this week and I've got some thoughts. Of course, Imogen hits us with news too. Valorant has another new character coming out, Fortnite pulls Travis Scott, and Imogen gives us the lowdown on just how much she's enjoying Apex Legends' latest season.
]]>The reason I enjoy Riot's FPS Valorant so much is because it has an excellent mixture of fun abilities and tactical gunplay, which is why I'm not sure what to make of its new character. Chamber is a French weapons designer who's set to arrive in the game's next Act on November 16th, and his abilities mostly involve spawning weapons. Not weapons you can buy normally in-game, but special weapons that he's made himself. Somehow, this feels like cheating.
]]>This week's episode of the Ultimate Audio Bang is marked by competition. Imogen and I quiz each other on all things shooter trivia, and someone knows more than the other. Anyway, before that, there's plenty of news to catch up on. Call Of Duty: Vanguard has fixed a weird dognado glitch, time-loopy shooter Lemnis Gate is out, Halo: Infinite tech preview number two arrives very soon, and Overwatch 2 announces some reworks. Spoiler alert: Bastion now has a hat.
]]>If you play Valorant, you undoubtedly know one of those Jett players. The sort that will very un-tactfully launch all three of their smokes in a messy line so they can dash into or out of fights, bamboozling their teammates just as much as the enemy team. It should be a little harder for these speedy knife-slingers to perform such daft feats in the future, because Riot Games have taken away one of Jett's smokes, and they've nerfed her knives to boot.
]]>Predictably, Imogen and I begin this week's episode of Ultimate Audio Bang by getting excited about Deathloop before realising that there's plenty of other newsy bits to cover. Listen to get our hot thoughts on the Call Of Duty: Vanguard reveal, Battlefield 2042's delay, the Overwatch League using an early build of Overwatch 2 in 2022, and plenty more shootery things.
]]>Valorant has a new map now, its name is Fracture, and it scares me. Unlike any of the other Valo maps in Riot's tactical FPS, Fracture is designed so the defending team starts in the middle, and attackers can come at you from either side - and they can slide under the map on cool ropes too! On top of that, there are a few tweaks to character's abilities and more in the game's latest act.
]]>The next Valorant act kicks off on September 8th, and it's bringing a new map with it. Fracture is a H-shaped battlefield where the defending team will start out in the middle, with the aim of protecting a site on each side. From the sounds of things, attackers will be able to choose which side they head in from too, which sounds rather stressful and a bit confusing.
]]>On this week's episode of the Ultimate Audio Bang podcast Imogen and I chat EA sharing Apex Legends' ping system with other companies, Call Of Duty: Vanguard things, and the fact Destiny 2 is adding a big lady. I for one am a fan of this big lady, as her getup reminds me of a candelabra, which is nice.
]]>This week's episode of the Ultimate Audio Bang podcast kicks off with some chat about ice creams, which Imogen then sprinkles with some news shavings. We talk Apex Legends cross-progression, Titanfall hacking drama, and nice buffs. Also, Back 4 Blood is a bit good isn't it? PUBG has naked zombies, Splitgate is doing very well, and one Valorant Agent's feeling a bit stuck.
]]>FPS games are a classic PC gaming staple, and whether you've been playing them since the 90s or started your journey more recently with the boom in battle royales, there are plenty to choose from when it comes to the all-time greats. To help you narrow down what to play next, we've created this list of the best FPS games to play right now, from single-player epics to team-based shooters you can play with mates. Heck, some don't even necessarily have guns in them at all, and you may find the odd boomerang or bow in here too.
]]>On this week's episode of the Ultimate Audio Bang, the video game drought continues, but Imogen managed to pluck some news from the parched earth with her special news detector. The first find - Warzone's huge mid-season update. It promises trucks, which is always a good thing in my books. There's also some chat over Apex Legends new Arena map which is messy, chaotic, goodness.
]]>Now that we're over the E3 hump, Imogen and I thought we'd catch a break on this week's episode of the Ultimate Audio Bang. But no, the online shooters simply do not stop reloading. PUBG dropped a new map on its test servers, Warzone fixed its murder door, and Valorant's new agent sounds very overpowered.
]]>Valorant Episode 3 Act 1 arrives tonight, and it comes with tweaks to almost all the agents, as well as changes to gun and ability prices that will likely shake up the game's economy for the foreseeable future. Before we get to that, however, the biggest news is that the new ability-suppressing robot KAY/O is joining the roster. Apex Legends has a cool killer robot, Overwatch has a pretty floaty robot - it was about time Riot's tactical shooter joined the club.
]]>There's a lot in Valorant that feels like Counter-Strike, but Counter-Strike could never do trailers where they introduce new robot killing machines. That's what Valorant's latest character is. Called KAY/O, his main ability is to suppress his enemy's abilities. He'll join the game alongside the beginning of Episode 3 on June 22nd, and the trailer is below.
]]>Imogen and I recorded this episode of Ultimate Audio Bang last week, as I've been enjoying a few days off this week. We thought it would be a lighter episode, but in fact, we touched on many things in shooterland. Mainly, we focused on pinging, rounded up the news, and we talked about Imogen's knees.
]]>Warzone Audio Bang has been put to rest... but Ultimate Audio Bang is here to pick up the slack. In this first episode of Ultimate Audio Bang, we try to continue Warzone Audio Bang's legacy. I am channeling James' energy as the pod's new host, and I'm joined by the wonderful Imogen who has good chat and knows a lot about shooters.
And that's what this podcast is all about: online shooters. We're still touching on Warzone, of course, but we're also going to be chatting about different games that involve pulling triggers and pinging targets. You could say it's a natural evolution of Warzone Audio Bang, hence the "Ultimate" bit in the name. Makes sense, doesn't it?
]]>Riot Games seem to be experimenting with another less competitive game mode in their guns 'n wizards FPS Valorant. Replication is a new best-of-nine Spike planting mode with a rather chaotic gimmick - players on the same team will all have to play as the same agent. I know what you're thinking: 'Oh god, I'm going to be perpetually blinded by five Breaches'. But thankfully, Riot are adding in a little feature called Flashguard that should at least let you see for a couple of seconds.
]]>I played a lot of Valorant in the two weeks after its release and enjoyed myself immensely. Then I got yelled at by a teammate and never played the game again.
Now Riot say they're going to start recording in-game voice comms so they can analyse it and "take action against players who use voice comms to harass others, use hate speech, or otherwise disrupt your experience." They also acknowledge that this will pose a privacy concern for some, but that "if you prefer to not have your voice chat captured, you may turn off voice chat."
]]>It's time to take a trip to the bright beaches of the Bermuda Triangle - not in real life, I don't think I'd ever want to go to that spooky place. But in Riot Games' tactical FPS Valorant, it's the delightful setting of the new map Breeze. Moving well away from the cold corridors of Icebox, Breeze is a lush seaside location complete with a historical fort, wide open spaces for relaxing (or fighting), and some ominous techy pyramids. It's out right now, alongside a new battle pass and some pricey gun skins in Episode 2 Act 3.
]]>I love a good gimmick in my Valorant maps. Icebox and its many ziplines, Bind and its teleporters, and now Breeze and its daft trap door. Riot Games announced Breeze earlier today: it's a new seaside map coming to the tactical FPS next week. It's big, it's pretty and I had a chance to try it out early and capture some footage for you to feast your eyes on. Breeze also features a trap door that I don't full understand the function of, but that just makes me love it all the more.
]]>Lush sandy beaches, bright blue skies, a cool fort to take sweet photos next to and show off to all my pals: man I wanna go on holiday, but my excursions these days don't go much further than the local supermarket. I'll be able to get a small taste of such a lovely location in Valorant next week though, because the game is adding a new map named Breeze, which is set on a gorgeous remote island in the Carribean.
]]>Valorant Episode 2 Act 1 is done. The sneaky teleporting agent Yoru is so last season, now it's Astra's time to shine. Act 2 last night, introducing the cosmic new character, along with a new battle pass and some pretty (expensive) new gun skins. But we'll get to that stuff in a bit, because Astra is way cooler than any of it. She is, without a doubt, my new main. She's a Controller agent with smokes, concussion blasts and a scary ultimate that creates a barrier which blocks sight and sound.
]]>Next week, tactical shooter Valorant kicks off its next Act, introducing a character who I think might just be my new favourite. Astra is a space lady with an absolutely gorgeous character design, who literally astral projects into a strange starry dimension to use her abilities. I had the chance to try her out a little early, and while she's super fun to play, her unique sight and sound-denying ultimate can be trippy as hell. Astra is going to take a lot of getting used to.
]]>Valorant's current Act is nearing its end, and Riot have revealed what to expect from the next one. Episode 2 Act 2 kicks off on March 2nd, introducing a brand new character with some very cool abilities. Astra is a controller who goes into a strange space realm to place stars which she can use to activate various abilities. I reckon she has one of the best designs for a Valorant character we've seen yet, and her kit sounds a whole lot different to anything the game has so far.
]]>Valorant's new mode, Escalation, is exactly the sort of game I crave inbetween the usual tense shoot-outs the tactical FPS has to offer. It's a new Gun Game-style mode where you cycle through weapons as your team racks up kills, and you gradually get worse weapons as the match progresses. Except, Escalation doesn't just draw from Valorant's gun pool - oh no - it also chucks a few damage-dealing abilities from various agents into the mix, causing brilliant chaos when everyone gets their hands on rocket launchers and grenades that they absolutely should not have.
]]>Team Deathmatch is a bit vanilla isn't it? Personally, I like the edge of rum and raisin, something with a bit of flavour. Valorant's new game mode, Escalation, should do the trick. It's a team-based affair where players are given powerful guns at the start of a match. As they rack up kills, their weapons are downgraded to make things trickier. And it arrives tomorrow, Thursday the 17th of February.
]]>Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent is being sued for sexual harassment by a former executive assistant who alleges she was fired from her job for refusing his advances. Riot Games have said they are investigating the claims and have hired an external law firm to lead the investigation.
]]>Competitive gaming attracts cheaters, and Riot’s esportified FPS Valorant was always going to be a target for those who want to win at any cost. The solution is simple: you ban them and tell their mums. But cheating is often not just a solo activity. There is an interesting phenomenon where people who play in the same team with cheaters will benefit from the hacker's unfair advantage. They'll even recruit cheaters to help out. Riot’s solution? Boot them out the game for 90 days.
]]>Do you ever play Valorant and just do a little sigh when you see what map has been picked from the pool for your next match? For me, that's Split (and also Icebox actually, but this post isn't about that freezy fiend). Split's always been a tough one for attackers, with its annoyingly tight choke points you'd need to funnel down, and far too many 50/50 angles for defenders to hide in. But last night, Riot Games released a patch with tons of little changes that should make Split a whole lot less frustrating to play.
]]>What's up gamers? It's 2021 and that means it's time to round up the team's favourite games of 2020. You'll already know our selections if you read our annual Advent Calendar, but this post gathers all those words and games together in one convenient package.
]]>Riot Games are dropping a sneaky new character into Valorant later tonight. His name is Yoru, and not only can he go invisible, but he can fake the sound of teammates' footsteps and teleport to get the drop on everyone. He sounds like a lot of fun to play, and a lot less fun to play against. He's arriving with the tactical shooter's second Episode, along with a new battle pass, and a host of balance tweaks for agents like Omen and Brimstone.
]]>Riot Games and Bungie have teamed up to sue a pesky cheatmaker who's been selling hacks for their games, Valorant and Destiny 2 (amongst others). In a joint lawsuit filed by the companies on Friday, they accuse GatorCheats of selling and distributing "malicious software products designed to enable members of the public to gain unfair competitive advantage."
]]>It looks like the leak was right: Valorant's next agent is a tricksy teleporter named Yoru. The character was unofficially revealed by a Russian YouTube channel earlier this week, but now Riot Games have made him official. Edgy lad Yoru is set to debut in the tactical FPS next week on January 12th, which just so happens to be the start date of the game's new Episode and Act to boot.
]]>With Valorant's current season (or Act) finishing up next week, you might find yourself wondering what new stuff is in store for Riot Games' magical tactical FPS. Well, according to a Russian leak, a new character is on the way. It looks like Agent 14 will be a new sneaky teleporting lad named Yoru, who can fake footsteps and turn himself completely invisible. I already don't want to fight against him.
]]>Some days, you just wanna play a bit of Valorant, you know? But occasionally you're a bit too tired or not in the mood for the tense competitive matches Riot Games' tactical FPS typically has on offer. Which is why the new winter mode is great. Yesterday, Valorant introduced the limited-time Snowball Fight, and I think running around pelting people with snow is exactly the sort of chilled-out social mode this game needed.
]]>On December 15th, Valorant will see its first ever Christmas update, and what better way to celebrate than to pelt your pals with snowballs in a new limited-time game mode. Of course, no snowball fight is complete without a grenade launcher and knives, right? In Valorant's Snowball Fight, you'll be loading up some snowy doom into a rigged molotov launcher, and you'll have your trusty knife to finish the job if the frostbite doesn't take down your enemies.
]]>"Lads, let's wrap this up. I've got banana bread in the oven." Words I foolishly typed into the text chat of my Valorant match to inform my teammates that I did not have time to mess about - I had baked goods at stake.
I made many mistakes on Sunday. The first was thinking I could get in a quick round of Riot's tactical FPS while my loaf was baking. The recipe said 50 minutes, Valo matches usually last up to 40. Reader, my match did not last just 40 minutes.
]]>I cried when I first saw Sombra at the 2016 BlizzCon opening keynote. I remembered feeling uncomfortable as a child when I saw Tetra transform into Princess Zelda in The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker; I saw how the change was framed as an upgrade from an unremarkable brown pirate to an ethereal pale princess worth Herculean and Hyrulian efforts alike to save. Any pride I could’ve had in a heroine whose skin resembled mine was taken from me. I could find comfort in neither my skin colour nor my ethnicity as a brown Latina, for there were no Latina characters I knew of.
But in 2016, here was Sombra, a brown woman highlighted on stage at one of the biggest conventions in the industry. After over a decade, I could finally play as someone who looked like me and wasn’t an amalgamation of stereotypes.
]]>Well, that didn't stick. Earlier today, Valorant began rolling out version 1.11, adding animal-yeeting Aussie hero Skye and a frosty new Icebox map. But following a host of bizarre hiccups, it now looks like Riot have decided to slam the pause button, calling the update a "technical nightmare" and delaying the update's proper arrival 'til later this week.
]]>Today, Riot's tactical FPS Valorant says hello to a new agent. Australian healer Skye will not just treat your wounds, but she'll throw various animals at your enemies to blind and stall them while she's at it. She's also very cute, and looks a bit like Artemis from Hades.
This patch, version 1.11, comes with a bunch of changes to some of the other characters, too, and even plonks the new map Icebox into competitive rotation.
]]>Valorant's third Act drops today, and it's bringing a bounty of lovely new things to Riot's guns and wizards first-person shooter. The first and most notable of these is a cold new map called Icebox. Then there are updates to ranked play and the deathmatch game mode. And to top it all off, later in Act 3 we'll see a new wizard arrive, too. Her name is Skye, she throws animals at people, and she looks a bit like Artemis from Supergiant's Hades.
]]>It looks like Valorant is getting a new healer that might take some of the pressure off of all you Sage mains this month. Last night, Riot Games gave us our first proper look at the upcoming agent, Skye. Her kit comes with a big old area heal, as well as various animals she can throw at people to blind them, and she's arriving in the tactical FPS on October 27th.
]]>Riot Games have announced Valorant's next agent will be arriving a little later than planned, so they can prioritise getting their cold new map ready for the beginning of Act 3. This Act kicks off on October 13th, with the new character joining the tactical FPS a couple weeks later on October 27th. The devs have even given us our first look at her - at least, I'm pretty sure that's her above. It'd be weird for them to just whack in an image of a rando.
]]>For all their supernatural shenanigans and high-tech military kit, there aren't many sweaters in the Valorant cast, are there? Well, it looks like they'll need 'em sooner rather than later. Riot are gifting their tactical shooter a new map sooner than expected, tossing their murderbuds into Icebox with the Act III update.
]]>If you're invested in the competitive side of Valorant, you probably know how it feels to be dropped by an Operator time and time again. If a player was good enough with the sniper rifle, they could nab it early on and effectively dominate a match singlehandedly. When it came to countering them, it felt like there just weren't enough options. Well, Valorant's latest patch has nerfed it heavily to help alleviate this problem.
]]>Valorant can be a pretty tense game. Not that that's a bad thing - the tension in competitive games is what brings most of the excitement, but it usually comes hand in hand with a fair amount of stress. Now, Riot's tactical FPS has already got a couple of slightly less competitive modes if you aren't feeling up to a full match, but it would still be nice if there were more options for those of us who fancy a more chilled out Valo experience.
It's a good thing, then, that game director Joe Ziegler says they'd like to add in some modes where players can have a bit of "social downtime".
]]>If you’ve not tinkered with your Valorant video settings you might be missing out on some buttery frames and boosted performance. And it’s these things which will give you a competitive edge over your opponents.
]]>Valorant is home to many agents which cater to a variety of playstyles, but which ones are the strongest? In the sections below we’ll rank all the agents in the game based on their strength in the closed beta.
]]>Valorant's latest big patch is live, with loads of buffs, nerfs and tweaks for agents and gameplay mechanics alike. Riot's tactical FPS has had a few issues with hit registration since it came out, and this update has some changes to the game's visual effects to give a bit more clarity as to where your bullets are actually going.
We're also getting buffs for characters like Viper and Breach, and nerfs for the likes of Sage and Killjoy. On top of that, Omen has also bagged himself an... unintentional buff (read: bug) that allows him to go invulnerable sometimes after using his Ultimate.
]]>Killjoy is Valorant’s third Sentinel Agent and one which shares great similarities with Raze and Cypher. Take both of their playstyles, splice them together, and you’ve effectively got Killjoy.
]]>If you've played as or against Valorant's explodey agent Raze, you'll know that her ultimate ability is pretty darn strong. It's basically a massive rocket launcher that fires off a single shot, but one so powerful it can instantly kill all enemies in a decent-sized blast radius. As you might expect, it can be pretty hard to avoid, so in yesterday's Act 2 patch Riot Games put in a small nerf for it. Except, something went very wrong with said nerf, because after the patch went live, she was able to fire multiple rockets at her poor unsuspecting foes.
]]>A team? Abilities? Economy? Pfft, get rid of it. Valorant's second Act is dropping this week, bringing with it a brand new free-for-all deathmatch game mode in which you'll have to rely on your shooting prowess alone to guide you to Victory. It's coming to Riot Game's guns n' wizards FPS on Wednesday 5th August. The day before that, however, Valorant Act 2 launches, with a new battle pass and some funky cosmetics for you to buy and unlock.
]]>Valorant’s Act 2 Battlepass launches August 4th alongside a new set of premium Glitchpop skins. On top of all this, a new free for all deathmatch game mode is arriving a day later on August 5th.
]]>I've already posted about Valorant's new upcoming agent, but now she's official. Following an accidental leak, Riot have unveiled Killjoy in the way they meant to: with a trailer that looks like one of those commercials for stupidly expensive gadgets you don't need. She's a turret-packing, grenade-chucking, robot-deploying hacker who looks a bit like ex-RPS vidbud Alice Liguori.
I'm being snarky but I do quite like the trailer. And Alice Liguori.
]]>Killjoy is definitely Valorant’s next Agent. If you didn’t catch the news earlier this week, Riot accidentally leaked her abilities page before today’s planned reveal. So, err, we had a very good idea of what she can do.
]]>Riot have accidentally leaked footage and ability details about Killjoy, Valorant's upcoming twelfth agent. She's a turret-loving engineer type looking to show up Brimstone, according to the enthusiasm with which she's pitched her talents to the murder squad. Her reveal page briefly went live a few days ago, you see, and we got a peek at Killjoy's portfolio.
She's got area denial coming out the wazoo.
]]>Since Valorant's official launch, Riot's has slowly trickled in new features and updates to keep the game moving in the right direction. One of these features is a much anticipated ranked/competitive mode for those who want to get serious, climb a ladder, and prove that they're the best out of all their mates.
]]>Turns out Riot accidentally leaked it’s next Agent with a webpage called “Enter Killjoy” that almost certainly wasn’t meant to go live just yet. It displayed all of the Agent’s abilities in video form, alongside text descriptions which went into further detail.
]]>Some of the biggest stars in esports are battling it out in the PAX Arena Valorant Invitational, including the likes of Ninja, Mang0, and sinatraa. It’s going to be pretty heated.
]]>Apparently, Viper is one of the least-picked characters in Valorant because, apparently, her kit wasn't very strong. She's near the bottom of a lot of tier lists, yet here I am thinking she was pretty good. She has a big wall thing and a good smoke that both decay enemy health, as well as smelly little floor grenades that damage enemies. But that just wasn't enough to make her more viable than other agents, I suppose. Not any more, though, because Riot Games have given her some beefy buffs in the most recent patch to up that decay damage, and bring down the cost of her toxic fuel.
]]>Riot Games might be adding a replay system to their free-to-play tactical shooter, Valorant, so at some point you may be able to rewatch all your sick plays. Replay systems are so useful, not just for the cool strats, but for watching matches you've played from various perspectives and assessing how you play if you're trying to improve. They're also very satisfying to use to dunk on friends who say things like, "I was covering you!", providing you with video evidence to prove that they were, in fact, not doing that.
]]>Halloo, gentle reader. Since we're half way through the entire year of 2020 (yet somehow it is also still March?), we decided to run down, lasso and tie up some of our favourite games from the last six months, and force them into a nice list for you.
2020 still has plenty of new PC games to come, of course, but these are the ones closest to our little hearts so far. We've got strategy, we've got card games, we've got systematic reclamation of scraped spaceships. And, since Nate Crowley is one of the contributors to this list, we've got fish. Statistically speaking, there's bound to be at least one game on here that you'll ruddy bloody love too!
]]>If you're looking to build a team to stop people hacking your game, why not reach out to the people who are trying to hack your game? That's an idea Riot Games had with Valorant and League Of Legends, hiding a little recruitment message inside part of their anti-cheat system. If you're poking around in their gameguts, they might be interested in your skills.
]]>What is a free-to-play game, truly, without super cool overpriced skins? Valorant, Riot's CS-like tactical shooter, has just revealed its new line of Elderflame gun skins, which turn your weapons into fiery, roaring, wiggly dragons. They're fully animated, swinging around to look at you after you get a kill, and you even reload them by politely handing over ammunition for them to consume. You'll be able to grab the set from Friday - but fair warning, it'll set you back a whopping £100/$100.
]]>Riot Games has announced Valorant’s first set of Ultra Edition weapon skins due to be available in the store on Friday 10th July. The set is called ‘Elderflame’ and features four dragon themed gun skins, a fiery knife skin, a card, gun buddy, and spray.
]]>Valorant is great, when it isn't making me sad. So goes my Valorant review. Friends are a key component of Riot's snazzy new wizard FPS, primarily because they won't (usually) swear at you when you do something stupid. A nice side benefit, though, is that you wind up with your own private and superior ways of describing parts of the map. These are important, because you often need to very quickly communicate where an enemy is.
It's the linguistic Wild West, and it delights me. Spawns become Oreos. Bombs get "defrosted". I asked Twitter for a peek into the private nomenclature of other friendship groups, and I'm very glad I did.
]]>Riot intended to add a ranked "Competetive Mode" to Valorant, but they found a last-minute bug and so they're holding it back - probably "for a day or two". That's OK. Numberwang can wait, because yesterday's patch also added a surrender option. That's a big deal, and I for one welcome it. It does mean you'll sometimes wind up with unpleasant teammates who insist on giving up on games that can still be won, but it also means you don't have to sit around allowing unpleasant teammates to make you miserable.
Riot have also tweaked the maps a bit, changed lots of abilities, and adjusted the slowing effect when you get shot "in part to up your chances of escape if you’re near cover". It's a big old patch, even without ranked.
]]>Valorant’s servers go offline for maintenance, hotfixes, and big patches. On this page we’ll round up all the latest on when Riot is planning to take the game’s servers offline for an extended period and when the game’s servers are likely to come back online.
]]>First and foremost, Valorant is a first person shooter. Despite having abilities to use, pulling a trigger is the game's bread and butter. The majority of your time with the game will be spent aiming your crosshair at enemies and pressing left click, successfully or unsuccessfully. It sounds so simple, but it’s actually really hard to do - especially if you’re new to a tactical, considered shooter like this.
]]>Valorant is great, but it's sorely lacking a mode where you get to make a number go up. Riot's guns 'n' wizards FPS launched two weeks ago, but the developers have held off on adding a ranked mode until non-beta players had a chance to find their feet. Not for much longer, though - Valorant game director Joe Ziegler has announced that ranked mode will "likely be out some time next week".
]]>Valorant’s Battle Pass offers a free and premium track, so anyone who plays can earn some lovely cosmetic rewards, and those who want more can fork out some cash for even more.
]]>Mere days after Riot Games publicly declared a commitment to combating racism and injustice, they've needed to launch an investigation into one of their own executives for posting some real iffy garbage about the police killing of George Floyd on Facebook. It's not the best look for a company still trying to recover from revelations of a rotten workplace culture of discrimination and harrassment. The League Of Legends and Valorant developers have tried to clean up their act and image since 2018's revelations but progress has been stuttering and here we are again.
Update: Riot now tell us that "Ron Johnson is no longer employed at Riot Games."
]]>After that beta that everyone couldn't get enough of and last week's launch, Riot are shipping out Valorant's first update. The patch notes are relatively brief: Sage has been taken down a couple pegs and some new ultimate ability orb types have been added. One thing that's not changing is the familiar "ShooterGame" directory from Valorant's Unreal Engine origins. Just a cheeky fact unearthed by some eagle-eyed folks.
]]>There are four categories of weapons in Valorant, each of which have their own tactical advantages and disadvantages. You’ve got Rifles which’ll work nicely in mid to long range fights, Snipers which’ll pick off targets from afar in one hit, SMGs that’ll shred enemies up close, Shotguns to blast opponents away with, and Sidearms for when you’ve run out primary ammo.
]]>Ascent is the latest addition to Valorant's burgeoning pool of maps. Set in Venice and aiming to ease the transition for FPS players from other games with its familiar layout, there's still a lot to learn about Ascent and how to play inside its boundaries. Our Valorant Ascent guide will walk you through the map and all its callouts, along with various tips and tricks on winning rounds and matches in this new battleground.
]]>Reyna is the latest and arguably greatest agent to be added to the Valorant characters roster. Hailing from Mexico, she has the highest 1v5 potential of any character we've seen so far, thanks to her aggressive playstyle and high snowballing potential. Our Valorant Reyna guide will walk you through each of her abilities in turn, with top-tier tips on how to master each one.
]]>Valorant may be a polished gem of a shooter, but its closed beta and launch has been far from steady for some players. Error 43 codes, timeout errors, and more have been plaguing a portion of the playerbase for some time now.
But our Valorant error codes guide will try to equip you with all the ammo you need to shoot down these error messages and get you back into the game as soon as possible!
]]>The Valorant Store is your one-stop shop for all the flashiest weapon skins on offer. Provided you have the Valorant Points to spare, you can kit your character out in weaponry worthy of the master fragger that you are. Our Valorant Store guide will walk you through accessing the Store, and how to purchase Valorant Points for real-world currency.
]]>Customising your Valorant crosshair exactly how you want it is far more important than you may think. Your crosshair setup is not simply a cosmetic choice; it can make all the difference in the fast-paced, low-time-to-kill battles of Riot's new tactical shooter. Our Valorant crosshair guide will walk you through how to set up your crosshair to compliment your needs - and we'll also show you the crosshairs used by many top players and streamers in the world.
]]>If you're wondering how to report a player in Valorant for their actions in a match, you've come to exactly the right place. Below we'll walk you through how to report a player whether you're in a game or out of one; and we'll also talk a bit about the kind of behaviour that might warrant sending off a report to Riot Games.
]]>Valorant's cast of characters is the game's most pivotal departure from the venerable Counter-Strike formula. Each of the 11 Valorant agents differs from the rest in their four unique abilities, which must be used tactfully and precisely if you want to turn the tide of battle. Our Valorant characters guide will walk you through all 11 agents and all 44 abilities on offer, with practical tips on how to crush the competition with each agent.
]]>Reyna is Valorant’s first ‘new’ agent and a duelist who’s risky to play, but incredibly rewarding if you get things right. She absorbs Soul Orbs from enemies she takes out, and uses them to fuel her own abilities, buffing her health, increasing reload speeds and the like. There’s a big catch, though.
]]>It's not a super difficult problem to solve, and you'll be back in the game in no time.
]]>Oh, Valorant. If you read my Valorant review, you'll know that the main emotion I associate with it is anguish. Playing in a group is grand, but playing by yourself is miserable, because of the internet. I think that feeling is crystallised in this video, where a bug fuses two players together and they get cross rather than becoming debilitated by laughter.
]]>What does a live service game need? A Battle Pass of course! Valorant’s the latest to receive the famed reward track which features plenty of cosmetic items to gear your weapons out with.
]]>After months in closed beta, Valorant has finally arrived on PC, and to help you get the best performance from Riot's new 5v5 tactical shooter, I've been testing the game to see how it runs. The good news is that you don't need a super high-powered PC to get smooth frame rates in Valorant, but just in case your PC is getting on a bit, here's how to get the best performance from Valorant no matter what type of PC you have.
]]>After a two-month closed beta, Riot's guns n' wizards shooter Valorant is now out for everyone to play. Valorant is the League Of Legends developer's first tactical FPS, pitting teams of five players against each other to capture objectives. It's very 'CS:GO meets Overwatch', and what's more, it's free-to-play. For those of you already embedded in the game, its full release today comes with some lovely new things to see and do - there's a new character, a new map, and even and a jaunty hat for a frog.
]]>Valorant’s officially arriving soon, but what time will it actually release? We’re here to help you out.
]]>Between the end of closed beta and next week's official launch, we're in something of a Valorant dead-zone. To make sure you haven't forgotten about their new tactical wizard shoot 'em up, Riot have filled this short break with a teaser for Valorant's eleventh superpowered soldier - a purple-clad disruption vampire who grows in power with each and every kill.
]]>To celebrate Valorant’s June 2nd worldwide launch, Riot’s put together a rather lovely looking piece of key art featuring a handful of the game’s gunslinging agents. We’ve got Jett at the top and Phoenix just below, Raze diving into battle in the background, followed by Cypher, Brimstone, and Sage all adopting some solid poses. Wait, who’s that on the right, though?
]]>
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