11 standouts from Steam Next Fest’s thousands of free game demos
Let Ars help you find some needles in Steam's massive haystack of game trials.
Kyle Orland and Kevin Purdy
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56
Gaming // Gaming & Entertainment
Framework’s first desktop is a strange—but unique—mini ITX gaming PC
Ryzen AI Max and its gigantic integrated GPU power this Xbox Series S-sized PC.
Andrew Cunningham
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156
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti review: An RTX 4080 for $749, at least in theory
It's hard to review a product if you don't know what it will actually cost!
Andrew Cunningham
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127
Twitch’s new storage limits will purge huge swaths of Internet gaming history
Amazon-owned platform says "costly" historical archives don't drive "engagement."
Kyle Orland
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113
Microsoft shows progress toward real-time AI-generated game worlds
Despite improvements, Microsoft's new model is still mainly useful for low-res prototypes.
Kyle Orland
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50
Valve releases full Team Fortress 2 game code to encourage new, free versions
Other Source games also get the Half-Life 2 anniversary update treatment.
Kevin Purdy
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44
Nvidia’s 50-series cards drop support for PhysX, impacting older games
The 32-bit tech on older games can't bring snazzy effects forward.
Kevin Purdy
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110
Streamer completes hitless run of seven FromSoft Soulslikes without leveling up
So, what's your excuse?
Kyle Orland
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88
Most Read
Review: Asus’ ROG Flow Z13 tablet takes the asterisk off integrated GPUs
Performance like an RTX 4060, but it's packed into a slightly heavy Surface-like.
Kevin Purdy
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106
How Diablo hackers uncovered a speedrun scandal
Investigators decompiled the game to search through 2.2 billion random dungeon seeds.
Kyle Orland
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140
What we know about AMD and Nvidia’s imminent midrange GPU launches
Will the GeForce RTX 5070 and Radeon RX 9070 achieve the dream of affordable 4K?
Andrew Cunningham
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112
Avowed review: Wait, are we the baddies?
Obsidian's new fantasy RPG asks you to be the unwelcome face of a hated occupying force.
Kyle Orland
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149
Handful of users claim new Nvidia GPUs are melting power cables again
At this point, it's unclear whether the issues are one-offs or systemic.
Andrew Cunningham
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199
Dragonsweeper is my favorite game of 2025 (so far)
The quick-hit Minesweeper-style RPG has just the right mix of logic and luck.
Kyle Orland
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97
Punch-Out’s Mike Tyson has been defeated in under two minutes for the first time
After 75K attempts over 5 years, Summoning Salt is hanging up the virtual gloves.
Kyle Orland
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71
The Sims re-release shows what’s wrong with big publishers and single-player games
Opinion: EA might be done with single-player games—but we're not.
Samuel Axon
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135
Football Manager 25 canceled in a refreshing show of concern for quality
Developer's big overhaul of long-running franchise is a brave, long process.
Kevin Purdy
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61
Donkey Kong’s famed kill screen has been cleared for the first time
New method exploits a ladder-climbing glitch, emulator tools, and a bit of luck.
Kyle Orland
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37
Nintendo patent explains Switch 2 Joy-Cons’ “mouse operation” mode
Users can access thumbsticks, shoulder buttons while sliding Joy-Cons on a flat surface.
Kyle Orland
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100
AMD promises “mainstream” 4K gaming with next-gen GPUs as current-gen GPU sales tank
9070-series Radeon GPUs were announced at CES, with plans to launch in March.
Andrew Cunningham
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164
What the weak yen might mean for Switch 2 pricing
Amid rising exchange rates, Nintendo prez looks to "affordable price that customers expect."
Kyle Orland
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38
Civilization VII review: A major overhaul solves Civ’s oldest problems
Not all changes will be popular, but it's a great launching point for a new age.
Samuel Axon
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250
VGHF opens free online access to 1,500 classic game mags, 30K historic files
Come for the classic GamePro, stay for the raw Myst film footage.
Kyle Orland
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29
Sony removes PlayStation account requirement from 4 single-player Steam games
In-game goodies still provide incentives even though the requirement is gone.
Samuel Axon
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52
GOG revamps its “Dreamlist” feature to better pry old games out of publishers
Community demand played a role in getting Dino Crisis games approved by Capcom.
Kevin Purdy
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59
Review: Nvidia’s $999 GeForce RTX 5080 falls disappointingly short of the 4090
A good 4K card, a decent value on paper, but not the upgrade it could be.
Andrew Cunningham
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156
New FPGA-powered retro console re-creates the PlayStation, CD-ROM drive optional
Works with original PS1 accessories and supports other MiSTer FPGA cores.
Andrew Cunningham
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119
Nvidia starts to wind down support for old GPUs, including the long-lived GTX 1060
Nvidia last dropped Game Ready driver support for older GPUs in 2021.
Andrew Cunningham
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114
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 costs as much as a whole gaming PC—but it sure is fast
Even setting aside Frame Generation, this is a fast, power-hungry $2,000 GPU.
Andrew Cunningham
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231
Way more game makers are working on PC titles than ever, survey says
80 percent of game devs are working on a PC project, up from 66 percent last year.
Kyle Orland
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97
Doom: The Dark Ages wants to be more like the original Doom
Preview: A more grounded game than Doom Eternal in more ways than one.
Kyle Orland
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117
All the things Nintendo didn’t tell us about the Switch 2
Some informed speculation on everything from price to battery life.
Kyle Orland
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67
RIP EA’s Origin launcher: We knew ye all too well, unfortunately
End of 32-bit Windows support offered an excuse to put the nail in the coffin.
Samuel Axon
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119
Switch 2 sports ~7.9-inch screen, 33% bigger tablet surface—Ars video analysis
Joy-Cons are about 18% wider, with bigger buttons and joysticks too.
Kyle Orland
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110
Intel Arc B570 review: At $219, the cheapest good graphics card
Competitive with a 4060, with 10GB RAM and a lower price (if you can get one).
Andrew Cunningham
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89
Civilization VII preview: The most complete package since IV
15 hours in, it seems like an improvement on Civilization VI's missteps.
Samuel Axon
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158