MrEveningtstar @ LCS

Brentford are close to agreeing a deal worth £12m, plus a further £4m in add-ons, to sign defender Jannik Schuster from Austrian club Salzburg. The 19-year-old is expected to undergo a medical in west London before joining the European hopefuls in the summer. The Austria Under-21 international has made 28 appearances for Salzburg this season, including a substitute outing in Champions League qualifying stage and several starts in the Europa League. Salzburg are competing in the Austrian Bundesliga end-of-season title play-offs and face LASK Linz on Sunday evening, with the club still in contention for the title. Meanwhile, Brentford travel to Manchester City in the first of their final three Premier League matches. They remain in contention for a club-record finish and European qualification for the first time in their history, in Keith Andrews' first season as manager. Link: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/ce9p2p5l9gpo

Manager Hansi Flick will take charge of Barcelona in Sunday's El Clasico against Real Madrid despite the death of his father. Tributes will be paid at the Nou Camp, with a minute's silence before kick-off (20:00 BST) and players wearing black armbands during the game. Announcing the death on Sunday afternoon, Barcelona said: "FC Barcelona and the entire blaugrana family wish to send all our love to Hansi Flick after the passing of his father. "We share in your sorrow and our thoughts are with you and your family during this difficult time." Flick, 61, can deliver back-to-back La Liga titles for Barcelona with a win or draw against Real. The former Bayern Munich and Germany manager has won four trophies with Barcelona since replacing Xavi in May 2024. Their fierce rivals from Madrid said in a statement: "Real Madrid, its president and its directors deeply regret the death of the father of Hansi Flick. "Real Madrid wants to express its condolences and affection to their families and all their loved ones. Rest in peace." Link: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cgepgr2nn7vo

MMOs stop being games where you go kill mobs for XP and chase fat loot when you discover player housing. Once that bug nips you, they become 3D diorama creation software with a bunch of useless RPG crap tacked on for a few days, or maybe forever, depending on your capacity for rotating couches. I've never been so lost in the sauce that I've recreated entire zones from other games inside an MMO's player housing feature, but then again, I'm just not built for this like X user Miya Shikhu. Shikhu shared their latest creation in a post on X Wednesday, and it's an uncannily good recreation of the shelter from hack 'em up third person shooter Pragmata. If you haven't played that game, the shelter is a hub you return to between checkpoints to upgrade your stats and equip new build items. It's got a sleek, futuristic aesthetic and walls of computer screens, all of which have been approximated using Final Fantasy 14's housing props. "I was playing a different game for a while, but I've come back to FF14," said Shikhu in the post (via X's machine translation). "Everkeep-style furniture is the best! Increased placement limit is the best!" Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/final-fantasy/final-fantasy-14-player-harnesses-the-power-of-furniture-slots-to-make-their-in-game-house-look-like-pragmata/

Fangamer's videogame tie-ins have drawn our attention multiple times in the past, from the Stardew Valley boxed edition complete with farm-ownership deed, to the angry psychic squid from Into the Breach in huggable plushie form. They recently released a fancy vinyl edition of the soundtrack to Myst sequel Riven, but this time the response has been divided. As noticed by multiple commenters in a thread on the Myst subreddit (via Time Extension) the gatefold art by composer Robyn Miller, depicting the mysterious Age 234, has the look of generative AI. Miller replied to confirm he'd used AI tools in the art, but defended his use of them to finalize art he says began with old-fashioned pencil sketches of the concept: "The tools are advanced enough that, once one has a concept, especially a sketch, arriving at a final image is not so difficult. This involved iteration after more iteration, adjusting small parts of the image, and shifting portions of the image. Even once the final design was complete, I could shift elements such as the angle, type of film that was used, the age of film, film grain, time of day, weather, lens on the camera, camera used, ISO, etc... changing the image slightly each time. It's a process of two steps forward, one step back. Dozens of iterations." Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/riven-co-creator-defends-his-use-of-ai-art-any-artist-can-take-a-brush-and-without-thinking-an-artist-can-create-slop/

While it's great to see tabletop RPGs get turned into videogame RPGs—that's how we got Planescape: Torment and Shadowrun: Dragonfall after all—it's also interesting to see them be adapted into other forms, shapeshifting like some kind of, I don't know, werewolf? What I'm saying is the newly announced Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Rageborn takes the World of Darkness TTRPG where you play a metalhead ecoterrorist furry who rages against the machine, and transforms it into a top-down metroidvania. It's the kind of bold choice I can only be intrigued by, especially when it's revealed with the kind of gameplay-first trailer that suggests a degree of confidence in the actual game. "The game is very inspired by classic action-adventure," says Louis Lamarche, president and creative director at Crea-ture Studios, "and what really inspired us to use the Werewolf: The Apocalypse brand was the fact that the character itself comes with his own metroidvania elements due to his shapeshifting design. In a classic action-adventure your character has tools. In our case, our character has tools plus forms, and you can dynamically constantly shapeshift between those forms in order to complete exploration and combat challenges." Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/the-next-world-of-darkness-game-to-be-revealed-is-a-werewolf-metroidvania-and-i-respect-the-hustle/

Facepunch Studios may have only just released S&box, but the launch of its spiritual successor to Garry's Mod has done nothing to slow down its monthly Rust update. It is as predictable as the tide, or having your base raided by your half-naked neighbours. This month's "Upgrade hard, raid harder" patch brings a major overhaul to one of Rust's key systems, though personally I'm more interested in the addition of mortars, sicko for explosions that I am. We'll eat our vegetables first, however. The headline change affects workbenches, which according to Facepunch have received "a whole new upgrade system". This includes nine new upgrades, each of which provides a different bonus to a workbench's functionality. Crucially, these upgrades cannot be crafted and are relatively rare, so you'll need to brave the wilderness to find them and ensure they are well-protected in your base. This is clearly another attempt by Facepunch to encourage competitive play, to coax players out of their bases and into the sights of other survivors. Given that friction is precisely what makes Rust special, let's hope it works. Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/rusts-latest-update-adds-mortars-but-no-visual-guide-to-help-you-land-shells-so-get-ready-for-some-chaos/

I'm a big fan of Two Point Museum, the latest and greatest of Two Point Studios' revival of the Bullfrog-style management sim. But I am also a fan of how the developer has approached the release of its DLCs. You can pay for expansions like Zooseum and Fantasy Finds to get a big chunk of extra stuff to build, but you also get a portion of the DLC for free with each of the game's updates. Such is the case with Two Point Museum's latest add-on, Arty Facts. As the name implies, this expansion lets you add an art gallery to your institution. The pack adds 27 new art exhibits for your guests to gaze meaningfully at, but it also adds a new "art studio" room where your experts can create paintings of their own. According to the expansion's launch trailer, the art studio facilitates "millions of potential outcomes", thus providing an "endless" stream of custom art. I was curious about how this system works, particularly whether it used any generative AI given it's filtering into games everywhere these days, often without clear disclosure. So I posed the question to Sega, which publishes the Two Point games. Sega got back to me pretty quickly with a thorough rundown of how the art studio works, the upshot of which is there is "no generative AI involved". Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/two-point-museums-latest-dlc-features-a-buildable-studio-where-artists-can-create-millions-of-unique-artworks-and-theres-no-generative-ai-involved-whatsoever/

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Lenovo a prezentat noul ThinkPad T1g Gen 9, un laptop premium de 16 inci destinat segmentului multimedia și utilizatorilor profesioniști. Modelul aduce procesoare Intel Panther Lake și noua placă video Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 cu 12 GB VRAM, marcând o actualizare importantă pentru această serie exclusivistă. O evoluție a unei serii premium ThinkPad ThinkPad T1g a fost introdus anul trecut ca parte a gamei dedicate clienților business, fiind considerat un succesor spiritual al seriei ThinkPad X1 Extreme. Dispozitivul împrumută designul de la ThinkPad P1, dar utilizează plăci video Nvidia GeForce în locul soluțiilor profesionale RTX Pro. Modelul anterior, lansat la IFA 2025, a fost apreciat pentru performanță și construcție. La doar câteva luni distanță, Lenovo pregătește deja noua generație, listată recent în baza de date oficială PSREF. Link: https://www.go4it.ro/content/laptopuri/lenovo-lanseaza-thinkpad-t1g-gen-9-cu-rtx-5070-si-procesoare-intel-panther-lake-19268938/

If you still have your triple captain chip left in Fantasy Premier League then Manchester City, with two home games this week - against Brentford and Crystal Palace - could prove your inspiration. Erling Haaland is the top goalscorer in the league with 25 goals, and top points-scorer in the game with 219 - 10 more than Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes (209). City midfielder Antoine Semenyo (183) has the fourth-highest points tally, with team-mate Marc Guehi having the 11th best return at 162 - the second best-scoring defender behind Arsenal's Gabriel (191). FPL expert Holly Shand and members of the FPL podcast team assess the situation before gameweek 36. On this week's podcast Alistair Bruce-Ball, Chris Sutton and Statman Dave are joined by host of Fantasy Football Hub, Jack Ukiah. Statman Dave: "Looking at the data over the last five games and it all points to picking Erling Haaland as captain. He has the most xG [expected goals] for City and had seven big chances. "It just makes sense. Nico O'Reilly is interesting if you get double clean sheets." Palace are the only other side playing twice in this gameweek, against Everton on Sunday and City on Wednesday, but may not field their full-strength team as they prioritise the Conference League. Chris Sutton: "I've got two free transfers and I've already got my three from Manchester City but thinking of Crystal Palace?" Jack Ukiah: "Oliver Glasner has admitted he plans half-time transfers and the [Premier] league is not his priority." Statman Dave: "You want to go with [Daniel] Munoz and [Maxence] Lacroix. It's hard to see what Oliver Glasner will do with his attack - [Jorgen] Strand Larsen would be the big gamble." Link: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c202lg07wq8o

Former England captain Wayne Rooney says it is "mind-boggling" that Trent Alexander-Arnold was not included in Thomas Tuchel's final squad before the head coach makes his World Cup selection. Alexander-Arnold has featured regularly for Real Madrid since recovering from a thigh problem in January but was overlooked for England's friendlies against Uruguay and Japan in March, despite Chelsea right-back Reece James being absent through injury. Arsenal full-back Ben White started both those games, scoring England's opener in the 1-1 draw with Uruguay. "No disrespect to Ben White – I think he's a fantastic player – but for him to be in the squad and playing ahead of Trent is mind-boggling," Rooney said on the Wayne Rooney Podcast. Newcastle's Tino Livramento, Tottenham's Djed Spence and Aston Villa's Ezri Konsa were all picked ahead of Alexander-Arnold in Tuchel's 35-man selection for England's final home friendlies before the World Cup. The former Liverpool star, who has been left out of Tuchel's last four squads, has not played for his country since appearing off the bench in a World Cup qualifying victory over Andorra in June last year. However, Rooney's ex-Everton team-mate Phil Jagielka feels Alexander-Arnold deserves a place in the squad for the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the USA. "I think he probably still makes it," Jagielka said. "You need your best players. "If [Alexander-Arnold] proves he can play half as well as he played for most of his time at Liverpool, he's definitely worth taking on the plane. If Reece James is fit, you put him in [at right-back]." Rooney would also start James on the right side of defence this summer, despite calling the 26-year-old "unreliable" as a full-back. "Reece James isn't the most defensive," Rooney said. "In terms of the lads who are there, you wouldn't say they're the best defensively anyway, [any] of them." Link: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cn7pv5nrvglo

Manchester City's trophyless 2024-25 season was derailed by a series of injuries to key first-team players - none more important than Rodri. The Spain captain sustained a serious knee injury that ruled him out for most of the campaign and City endured the unthinkable under Pep Guardiola by ending the season without any silverware for the first time in eight years. The midfielder was awarded the Ballon d'Or in 2024, which not only confirmed his status as the best player in the world but also highlighted his importance to Guardiola and City. Although he has returned to fitness and featured in 35 games for club and country this season, Rodri has spent additional time on the sidelines with a hamstring injury and now a groin issue. Guardiola said Rodri's fitness will be assessed before making a decision on whether he can face Brentford on Saturday (kick-off 17:30 BST). "We have survived without him for many, many months," he said. "He still doesn't feel completely comfortable. He will be ready when he is fit - we will see on Friday afternoon or on Saturday." Link: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cj3pev7y2kzo

Manchester United have won the most points in the Premier League since caretaker boss Michael Carrick took over in January, so it seems a no-brainer to give him the job on a permanent basis. But dig a little deeper and the decision is not so obvious as the stats warn that, as brilliant as results have been, they're unlikely to continue in the long run. On the surface everything looks hunky-dory under Carrick. As well as his side taking the most points during his tenure, only Arsenal have a better goal difference, with no team scoring more goals. United's attack has been running blisteringly hot under their former midfielder, which is obviously fantastic in the short term, but slightly worrying for the future when it inevitably cools down. Eight teams have been better at creating chances based on expected goals, but having the best shot conversion rate in the league means United have scored seven more goals than a team historically would from the chances they've had - more than any other side. Looking at attack and defence overall, the only side to have overperformed their xG numbers by more than United since Carrick took charge are Nottingham Forest, who are enjoying their own 'new manager bounce' under Vitor Pereira. Link: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/czd2nel67n4o

Blood Vial, a self-described "retro-inspired micro-FPS" that hit Steam earlier this week, is a lot like Splatoon—except instead of starring charming squid teens swimming through the ink spread by their paintguns, you play as a leaky, gun-toting vampire diving through the freshly-spilled gore of murderous pseudo-Catholics on a blood-soaked quest for revenge.So, really, it's only like Splatoon in the one way. But that passing resemblance makes for a fast-moving, bite-sized (sorry) shooter that's well worth its $5 price tag. Blood Vial, a self-described "retro-inspired micro-FPS" that hit Steam earlier this week, is a lot like Splatoon—except instead of starring charming squid teens swimming through the ink spread by their paintguns, you play as a leaky, gun-toting vampire diving through the freshly-spilled gore of murderous pseudo-Catholics on a blood-soaked quest for revenge. So, really, it's only like Splatoon in the one way. But that passing resemblance makes for a fast-moving, bite-sized (sorry) shooter that's well worth its $5 price tag. Central to Blood Vial is—wait for it—the blood vial, which serves as a health meter by collecting the spilled lifeblood of my enemies that I, as a vampire, need to survive. Unfortunately, my blood vial's busted: It's constantly leaking, and the only way to keep it topped up is by blasting holes in vampire-hating priestfolk and swimming through the gore that's splashed around in the process. Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/this-bloody-vampire-fps-with-splatoon-movement-tech-is-the-best-usd5-ive-spent-on-steam-this-week/

Slay the Spire 2 has quietly been one of the most-played games on Steam since it launched in March. Even in early access, it's a bigger game than the original (both in terms of popularity and content), but it's far from done. Among the incoming additions teased in developer Mega Crit's latest update are: Alternate versions of Acts 2 and 3 (the first act already has two forms, Overgrowth and Underdocks) Steam Workshop support "Experimental game modes" A new character New "cards, events, relics, and potions" And, eventually, "true victory" and "everything that comes with it" That's on top of the expected bug fixes, refined audio and artwork, balance tweaks, additional languages, and more. The only things missing from the roadmap are dates, which the studio says are just not its style. "You might see this and think, but where are the dates! Why can't you promise dates??" writes Mega Crit co-founder Casey Yano. "My response is: It's not what works for us. Link: https://leaguecs.ro/forum/forum/244-știri-despre-gaming/?do=add

The next big crime drama game from RGG Studio is called Stranger Than Heaven. It's a single-protagonist historical epic spanning the first half of the 1900s, following main characters Makoto and Yu as they rise in power as showmen and gangsters through mid-century Japan. That explains the codename from prior to its reveal: Project Century (well, project half-century, maybe). RGG has pulled in all sorts of famous faces from Snoop Dogg to Dean Fujioka to take on central roles in a story with all the melodramatic tear-jerking for found family and brotherhood that the series is known for. The name "Yakuza 0" already got used for the series prequel set in the '80s, but Stranger Than Heaven preceeds even that. It's the origin story of the Tojo Clan—the Yakuza series central analog to real Japanese crime families—and its fictional founder Makoto. The story follows Makoto for 50 years as he leaves behind his mixed heritage in America, becoming a notorious gang member and showman in Japan alongside his good friend Yu Shinjo. Makoto fights to carve out a place "for people with nowhere else to go," which is the kind of underdog criminal with a heart of gold story that the series has always been built on. Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/stranger-than-heaven-guide/

The banners in Neverness to Everness follow most of the usual rules established by its gacha forefathers, but it has major differences in a few important areas and some changes are more welcome than others. To get you up to speed, I've explained every gacha system and currency used in NTE below, along with what the next and current banners are. In the vast sea of gacha spending, from free-to-play planktons to indulgent whales, I am but a lowly goldfish feeding upon the occasional monthly battle pass and $4.99 bundle. I'm pretty careful with my spending, so you bet I'm studying the mechanics of every new gacha. Although admittedly, cosmetics have led me to the edge of dolphin territory in the past. Dangerous terrain to be when Neverness to Everness has so many costumes to collect. Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/neverness-to-everness-bnanners-next-current-gacha-explained/

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