Baldur's Gate 3's Patch 8 is so big, it needed its own patch before it even released, and we're one step closer to a Permanent Booming Blade Economy - Related to baldur's, permanent, blade, gets, one

Baldur's Gate 3's Patch 8 is so big, it needed its own patch before it even released, and we're one step closer to a Permanent Booming Blade Economy

Larian has 's Gate 3 Patch 8, which isn't actually out yet and is still in stress testing. The revision includes a few tweaks to the balance of new sub classes in addition to the expected bug fixes, but notably absent among them were any significant changes to Booming Blade, a new cantrip that's set to seriously shake up the game's balance and crown a new subclass king⁠.

The modification fixes a number of crashes, bugs, and scripting errors introduced with all of Patch 8's changes, including some tweaks to Baldur's Gate 3's long-awaited crossplay. It also functions a number of quality of life improvements to BG3's upcoming photo mode. On the balance side, some bugs and unintended interactions have been cleaned up. The modification has ever so slightly buffed the Death Domain Cleric's new cantrips while nerfing its Reaper passive, making it so you have to target two creatures with your double cast and can no longer hit the same one twice.

That last one really stands out to me because it's a balance change, and one that contrasts with pre-existing abilities like the Swords Bard's ranged Slashing Flourish, which can target the same enemy twice, unlike in tabletop. I was surprised to see a balance change of this nature pushed out without any similar tweak to tune down the power on the new Booming Blade cantrip.

As it stands, Booming Blade is effectively a free Paladin smite that can be used as many times per turn as you can attack. A unique interaction with the previously-underwhelming Eldritch Knight subclass allows them to attack three times per turn by level seven, four by the end of the game, and all without expending any resources like spell slots, superiority dice, or channel divinity charges.

I'm definitely conflicted by all that pure power having no drawbacks, and the Baldur's build sickos over on the BG3builds subreddit are similarly torn on whether it's the best or worst thing to happen to the game's meta. On the one hand, it seems fun as hell to be a super-powered thunder-smiting spellsword. On the other hand, there's an anxiety that the relatively simple, risk-free character build of Hexblade 1 / Eldritch Knight 11 could eclipse just about everything else in the game, particularly the incoming spellsword class Bladesinging.

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Square Enix's Chocobo Steam Deck is cute, fluffy, and unfortunately gets in-KWEH-dibly warm

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second game in the classic RPG remake trilogy, is finally playable on PC. To celebrate the release, Square Enix has made three feathery Chocobo Steam Decks for UK-based charity Special Effect to give away. 'In-KWEH-dible,' indeed.

Special Effect is primarily known for their work crafting bespoke control set-ups for those with physical disabilities that mainstream gamepads otherwise exclude. The giveaway is in aid of the accessibility charity's upcoming Game Blast fundraising weekend, and at time of writing you've still got one week to get your entries in for a chance to win (so long as you're based in the EU or UK). However, you won't just be entering a draw to win one Steam Deck, but two.

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's Instagram posts, the Chocobo Steam Deck can overheat due to all that fluff and feather. So, winners of the giveaway will receive not just the big bird handheld for display purposes, but another more standard Steam Deck to play as well—though you probably wouldn't want to dive into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on either one anyway.

Queen's Blood cards on the table, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth left us far from convinced in either our review or performance analysis. However, we still rate Valve's handheld, even if it remains one of the bulkier handheld gaming PCs out there—a chunky form factor not helped by swaddling it in faux fur fabric and fake feathers. Still…there's just something about fluffy hardware that compels me, no matter how heinous.

For visitors to Square Enix's offices, it is generally frowned upon to cuddle up with their life-size chocobo statue—don't ask me how I discovered this—so an appropriately themed Steam Deck is the next best thing. Granted, you definitely wouldn't want to use it as a hot water bottle replacement, but pettable tech isn't unheard of. What I'm sure my colleagues would prefer to hear far less of is my own Chocobo impression which, though finely honed over years of practice, still has no volume control beyond 'Maximum KWEH.'

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Monster Hunter Wilds brings hope with newly lowered PC requirements, then dashes it with a benchmark tool

True to the word of Capcom’s German social media marketing, Monster Hunter Wilds has a new, generally less extravagant set of PC system requirements ahead of its February 28th launch. There’s also a standalone benchmark tool that you can download from the game’s Steam page, so you can see for yourself how the beast-biffing RPG will run on your hardware.

In theory, these are great developments. Lower requirements mean a more widely accessible game, and the benchmark tool – which covers a good six minutes of combined cinematics and simulated free roaming – brings reassurance and accountability to this otherwise hype-reliant prerelease period. Sadly, there are two problems. One, the benchmark confirms outright that Monster Hunter Wilds will run like stagnant goulash on low-end PCs, and two, it does so to the extent that I’m not sure that the revised minimum specs are even reliable.

Besides the remarkable drop from 140GB to 75GB of required SSD space - Dr. Weird would approve - the new min specs typically tone down their CPU and graphics card asks by one step. The minimum Nvidia GPU, for example, has dropped from the GTX 1660 Super to the standard GTX 1660, and you can supposedly get away with an Intel Core i5-10400 rather than the previously listed Core i5-10600. Cool! Except the stipulation remains that these will only manage 1080p when employing both upscaling and frame generation, which Wilds supports in Nvidia DLSS 3 and AMD FSR [website] varieties.

This isn’t how frame generation is supposed to be used, at all. Because it requires a high 'base' of ordinarily rendered frames to both insert interpolated frames and to offset its added input lag, frame gen's real use is to take games that already run well and make them look properly, bleeding-edge silky. Relying on it to artificially push a PC-melter past 30fps is daft because it will still tangibly feel, from the lack of input responsiveness, like it’s running at 20fps or 15fps or whatever. Which, in terms of 'real' frames, it is.

MHW’s benchmark tool presents this in action. Since I don’t have a GTX 1660, I was a bit cheeky and tested a GTX 1060 instead, though left in my test rig’s overpowered Core i9-13900K to help make up the difference. At 1080p with the Lowest preset and FSR upscaling working on its (hideous) Ultra Performance mode, I ended up with an average of just 26fps, with sustained drops to 17-20fps during the open world bits. With frame generation, the average rose to 45fps, but in an actual game-playing scenario that would feel crap because your controller or mouse/keyboard inputs are only registering for half the visible frames.

Moreover, the GTX 1660 is only slightly faster than the GTX 1060 on a good day, so even if you follow the minimum specs, by the benchmark tool’s own admission you’d keep getting these painful sub-30fps dips. There’s bad news here for the Steam Deck as well: the benchmark does run, but on that same Lowest/FSR Ultra Performance combination, it averaged 27fps. Which, again, puts it beyond the feasible help of frame generation.

If there’s an upside to all this, it does at least seem like MHW scales well with newer GPUs. The RTX 4060, the most affordable of Nvidia’s DLSS 3-capable desktop cards, scored a respectable 62fps at 1080p with both High graphics and High ray tracing effects (plus a hand from DLSS upscaling on Quality). Adding frame gen, which makes a lot more sense at this kind of performance level, lifted it to 98fps. And at the opposite end of the kit spectrum, the new RTX 5080 pumped out 72fps at 4K, using a maxed-out mix of Ultra graphics, High ray tracing, and Quality DLSS. Make that 110fps with frame gen too, though it doesn’t look like DLSS 4’s Multi Frame Generation is supported.

I’ll try to give the full game a more comprehensive testing once it’s ready to launch; it’ll be interesting to see what exactly you’ll need for 30fps or 60fps at 1080p without frame generation putting its thumb on the scales. Which, again, is not cool, even if these kinds of early benchmark releases often are in concept. Upscalers like DLSS are already used a bit too much like compensation for recent games’ excessive technical demands, and it would be a shame to see frame gen go the same way.

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