Riot Games released a pile of updates for its long-running MOBA League of Legends. One of the more noteworthy changes coming to the game is the official launch of WASD controls. This alternate option, allowing players to traverse the rift by keyboard rather than by mouse, is rolling out to ranked matches in patch 26.9. Riot first announced that it was pursuing support for WASD controls last August. The studio said it wanted to ensure that the alternate control scheme wasn't more powerful than point-and-click movement; Riot said it was targeting a low win-loss rate difference between the options before releasing it to League players. "There's still a small delta in the win-rates between the control schemes, with Point and Click having a minor advantage," according to today's devlog dedicated to this new feature. "We expect that difference will decrease over time as players gain more mastery with WASD, but we will continue to monitor this stat in the future." That blog post goes into more detail about how the team tested and gauged community responses to WASD, which is pretty neat stuff if you're a game dev nerd. League will be receiving a few new accessibility improvements, such as custom inputs for moving the mouse cursor and some new flexibility for keybinds, along with the new control scheme. Although Riot was clear to say that it's not adding official support for controllers or gamepads, players will be able to use WASD controls with a joystick.

The price of nearly every type of gaming gadget has skyrocketed recently. RAMageddon has caused the cost of memory to double or triple in the last six months, with companies like HP saying that RAM now accounts for more than a third of a new PC’s bill of materials. Meanwhile, the Xbox Series S/X and the PS5 have gotten price hikes, and a similar bump for the Switch 2 is starting to look “inevitable.” Even mobile devices are not immune, with Samsung jacking up the cost of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 nine months after release. But with the $350 27-inch QD-OLED (AW2726DM), Alienware hasn’t just created a gaming display that’s an excellent value, it’s made a beacon of hope for anyone looking to upgrade their setup without emptying their bank account. In a world where every piece of gaming gear seems to be getting more expensive, Alienware’s  $350 AW2726DM 27-inch QD-OLED monitor feels like a gift to gamers on a budget. Unlike some of Alienware’s more expensive displays, the AW2726DM’s design couldn’t be simpler. It sits on a square 8.75-inch base that supports tilt, pivot and height adjustments. Though it does require a little assembly, everything you need comes in the box. Alienware’s monitor arm attaches via a captured thumb tab, while the monitor relies on four screws and a VESA mount that can be connected using the bundled Philips wrench. (Though if you have a proper screwdriver, that would be even better.) Setup only took me a few minutes and after arranging it properly on my desk, the monitor felt quite solid. The only potential drawback is that if you have limited desk space or you’re the kind of gamer that likes jamming your keyboard as close to your monitor as possible, Alienware’s stand might get in the way. At around 4mm thick, the AW2726DM’s panel is exceedingly sleek, though naturally that expands a bit on the lower portion of the monitor where its ports are located. This brings us to one of the biggest differences between Alienware’s budget display and more premium options: limited connectivity. All you get here is two HDMI 2.1 jacks, one DisplayPort 1.4 slot and a 3.5mm plug for audio out. There’s no support for data transfer, power sharing or anything else. Heck, there isn’t even any RGB lighting, which feels weird on a product from Alienware. But given its price, I’m not upset. In fact, it’s actually kind of refreshing. Finally, there’s a handy control stick on the back of the display for navigating its on-screen menu. The AW2726DM features a QD-OLED panel supplied by Samsung that comes with a QHD resolution (2,560 x 1,440) and up to a 240Hz refresh rate. Alienware supports VRR via AMD FreeSync Premium and VESA AdaptiveSync, though sadly there’s no native option for NVIDIA G-Sync. That means if you have a GPU from Team Green and want to take full advantage of the monitor’s potential, you’ll want to rely on that DisplayPort for optimal compatibility. Regardless, for a $350 gaming display, the AW2726DM checks all the most important boxes and it looks fantastic. Alienware’s budget monitor showcases the strengths of OLED panels versus LCD, even when compared to Sony’s Inzone M9, which was a much more expensive monitor when it debuted back in 2022. Alienware offers richer colors (it covers 99 percent of DCI-P3), and thanks to its deep inky blacks, contrast is significantly better as well. The one big drawback is that, with a typical brightness of 200 nits, the AW2726DM is dimmer than more expensive rivals. That means the monitor doesn’t have fancy certifications for stuff like VESA True Black and instead relies heavily on general HDR10. Furthermore, Alienware chose a glossy (and quite reflective) finish that makes colors look even more saturated while improving perceived brightness. The one thing you need to watch out for is glare, especially if your PC or console lives in a room that gets a lot of sunlight. But if you’re like a lot of gamers that prefer to frag at night or in the dark, this may not be an issue. Outside of gaming, there’s another shortcoming of the AW2726DM. Between its QHD resolution and the arrangement of Samsung’s QD-OLED subpixels, folks with good eyesight may notice a little fringing, especially when compared to higher-res 4K displays. This means some Word docs and web pages may not look quite as sharp as you’d like, but that’s a small price to pay for some of the best visuals you can get on a gaming monitor in this price range. One of the major concerns about OLED displays when they first hit the market was the potential for burn-in, resulting in permanent damage to the panel from things like static UI elements staying on the screen too long. Thankfully, the AW2726DM comes with a three-year warranty that includes a clause covering burn-in, along with a free panel replacement in case there’s even a single bright pixel. Furthermore, Alienware uses a graphite film heatsink and an AI algorithm to prevent any sort of ghosting from appearing in the first place. The AW2726DM might not have all the fancy features you get on more expensive monitors, but it’s an excellent example of a no frills gadget done right. You get just enough ports, a straightforward design and a beautiful QD-OLED panel with a solid resolution and refresh rate — all for just $350. It would certainly be nice if it was a little brighter or if text looked a touch sharper, but those shortcomings are pretty easy to live with. For anyone looking to upgrade what might be arguably the second most important part of your gaming setup (your screen is your window into new worlds after all), this display is budget gold.

If you love Pokémon and electronic dance music, the Pokémon Company made the perfect event for you. As part of Pokémon’s 30th anniversary festivities, the company is holding EDM concert experiences called “Pokémon Night Out” in Los Angeles and London. American DJ Marshmello, known for wearing a marshmallow-like mask on stage, will be headlining the events, with Australian DJ Alison Wonderland as a supporting act. The experiences will feature custom sets and Pokémon-inspired visual storytelling. The events will be open to fans 16-years-old and up. It will be held at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on October 24, 2026, and at the O2 arena in London on November 10. You can get tickets for both concerts starting on April 18 at 10AM Pacific time for the Los Angeles concert and at 10AM British time for the London experience. In addition to holding EDM concerts, Nintendo and the Pokémon Company re-released the Game Boy Advance remakes of Pokémon Red and Blue on Nintendo Switch Online for the franchise’s 30th anniversary. They also released a Game Boy-shaped portable Pokémon jukebox, little music players that can be loaded witha different melody or sound effect from the original games' soundtracks.

An R-rated animated film adaptation of Bloodborne is currently being developed by Sony, according to Variety. Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group held a presentation at CinemaCon, where the division’s president said that the adaptation will be “very true” to the violent and graphic nature of the game. Bloodborne was created by Japanese studio FromSoftware and was published by Sony back in 2015. The critically acclaimed title is an RPG in the style of Dark Souls, featuring heavy blood splatters during combat and other body horror elements. Its director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, said his biggest inspiration for the game was HP Lovecraft’s works. Bloomberg had reported in February that Bluepoint Games, the now-defunct Sony studio behind many PlayStation remakes, wanted to work on a new version of the classic Gothic horror RPG for modern consoles. However, FromSoftware blocked the project. Miyazaki reportedly wanted to work on the remake himself. Despite being too busy to do it, he said during an interview that he "doesn't want anyone else to touch it." The Bloodborne film adaptation will be co-produced by PlayStation Productions, Lyrical Animation and Seán McLoughlin, a gaming YouTube known by his pseudonym jacksepticeye. It seems to be early stages at this point, and Variety doesn’t have a target release date for it yet.

Fans of miniature plastic soldiers, rejoice. Games Workshop has brought a host of older Warhammer and Warhammer 40K video games to Steam for the first time, alongside a dozen games that haven't been available on Valve's storefront for a few years. The new to Steam releases consist of three games from the Warhammer fantasy range — Shadow of the Horned Rat, Mark of Chaos – Gold Edition and Dark Omen — and four from its sci-fi 40K universe — Chaos Gate, Fire Warrior, Final Liberation and Rites of War. If you're a Warhammer fan of a certain age, some of these may be formative experiences for you. I know they are for me. I can't count how many hours I spent playing Chaos Gate when I first discovered 40K at the age of 10. Yes, it was an XCOM clone, but by that point I didn't know about the MicroProse original, and Space Marines were cool. Years later and as a Tau collector at the time, I also loved Fire Warrior, even if it wasn't the most polished or deep first-person shooter. I haven't played the other five games included in today's announcement, but I've heard Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat and Warhammer 40K: Rites of War are pretty good if you're into the setting or, in the latter case, a fan of the Eldar. To celebrate the re-release of these old gems, Games Workshop is running a Classics sale on Steam, with discounts on all 19 re-releases. Plus, you can get discounts on some more recent releases, including the excellent Dawn of War – Definitive Edition and Dawn of War 2 – Anniversary Edition. If you're new to the Warhammer 40K universe, and would rather avoid a plastic addiction, one of those would be my first port of call, along with the excellent Space Marine 2.

There are plenty of retro gaming handhelds on the market, but Anbernic is introducing one that offers a unique spin on the square shape. The retro gaming handheld maker revealed the RG Rotate on its YouTube channel, showing off a 1:1 display that swivels out much like the T-Mobile Sidekick of yore. Anbernic often drip feeds details of its upcoming products over time, but so far, we know that the RG Rotate will run on Android, feature an aluminum alloy frame and come in Polar Black and Aurora Silver. Anbernic's video detailed that the handheld will have a "proprietary ultra-thin alloy hinge" that went through "high-durability testing." While the handheld maker has experience with other hinges as seen with its RG DS and RG 34XXSP, the RG Rotate's hinge mechanism could prove to be a new engineering challenge. As for the rest of the build, Anbernic is adding swappable L2 and R2 buttons that allow users to adjust the height of the shoulder buttons. From the video, the RG Rotate might only be built with a single USB-C port, which has irked a few fans hoping for an audio jack. Anbernic hasn't announced pricing for the RG Rotate yet, but it'll likely be much cheaper than more premium options from Ayn or Retroid.

Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. As always, we're here to tell you about a bunch of new games you can play this weekend, as well as several upcoming titles. The latest edition of the Triple-i Initiative showcase was packed with cool stuff, including a first peek at the fascinating next game from 1000xResist developer Sunset Visitor, word of a Don't Starve follow-up, a release date for stealth title Thick as Thieves and an announcement of when pirate survival sim Windrose will hit early access. We also got a release window for Neverway, a life sim with gorgeously creepy pixel art. The prologue is available to play now on Steam, and it doesn't take long at all before things become delightfully strange. I'll run through a few of the other Triple-i highlights below. Before we get to the new releases, though, I want to touch on something I spotted a little too late to include in last week's roundup. On Reddit, the developer of mixed reality game CoasterMania shared a video showcasing an update that lets players use their hands to build and interact with rollercoasters. I think this looks just swell. This is the most I've ever been interested in picking up a Meta Quest headset (which I'd inevitably use for a grand total of about 45 minutes). I don't like to overwork my brain when I'm playing games. I’m focused all day at work and afterwards, I just want to switch off for a bit. That's a big reason why I play a ton of Overwatch and don't really gel too well with most puzzle games. Minos, though, hits the sweet spot of brain engagement for me. In this roguelite from Artificer and publisher Devolver Digital, your aim is to stop glory-seeking adventurers from finding and killing a minotaur. You'll shape a labyrinth as you see fit in order to defend the beast from these warriors. You can set up the maze by building and knocking down walls, and setting traps. The adventurers will follow a set path to the minotaur's lair, then make a beeline for the monster when they discover it's hiding elsewhere. There are a lot of ways to dispose of the interlopers and you'll need to be thoughtful about how to set everything up to take out each wave of attackers. Many traps can only be placed on certain spots, so it's important to work around those. You'll need to adjust your setup after every wave — you’ll gain more traps and have to re-arrange them to fend off different types of enemies. Minos is more active than a lot of tower defense and strategy games I've played, as the minotaur can reset certain traps after they trigger and, if need be, try to kill the adventurers head-on. I found myself spending quite a bit of time thinking through each enemy's path through my domain and how I was going to eliminate them. Sometimes, I miscalculated and brought my run to an end. Being able to improve the minotaur's stats and unlock new powers between runs helped me keep coming back for more. I'm really enjoying Minos, and I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being one of my favorite games of the year. You can snap it up on Steam now for $18. A demo is available too. Spring has finally bloomed in my neck of the woods. I planned to spend a chunk of my weekend outside after a long winter. But now I might need to bring my Steam Deck with me, because the first DLC for CloverPit, one of my favorite games of last year, suddenly arrived during the Triple-i Initiative showcase. CloverPit is a Balatro-style incremental roguelite from Panik Arcade and publisher Future Friends Games. It tasks you with breaking the rules of a slot machine to meet increasingly high coin targets in order to pay off a debt. You can pick up charms that modify the machine, and the Unholy Fusion DLC is all about those totems. You'll be able to use a new device called the Surgery Machine to fuse charms into more powerful items (à la Ball x Pit). It seems like that will free up valuable space for more charms too. The DLC adds 30 fusion charms, 11 new base charms, a secret ending and other features. I've played CloverPit for dozens of hours (I'm far from the only one, as the game's pulled in more than 5 million players). I suspect I'm about to sink a whole lot more time into this DLC. The Unholy Fusion DLC usually costs $3, but there's a 10 percent discount on Steam until April 23. The base game is typically $10, though you can get 30 percent off on Steam until the same date. You'll save an extra five percent if you buy a bundle with both. CloverPit is also on Game Pass, and you can buy a bundle of the base game and DLC on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Xbox on PC for $11.49. On iOS and Android, you can snag CloverPit for $5 and the DLC for $2. Another title had a surprise, sudden release during the Triple-i Initiative showcase: battle royale typing game Final Sentence. I really enjoyed the demo for this one, even though I'm not the fastest or most accurate typist around — I made four typos in this sentence alone. Make too many mistakes or fail to beat everyone else who's bashing away at a typewriter and it's curtains for you, courtesy of a creepy figure with a revolver that’s standing by your desk. Final Sentence, from Button Mash and Polden Publishing, is available on Steam. It'll typically cost $10, but if you pick it up before April 23, you'll save 10 percent. (Sidenote: I enjoyed a Steam review that read, “finally… a way for millennials to beat Gen Z at a battle royale game.) One of the most interesting things about People of Note is that Iridium Studios tried to make this musical adventure as approachable as possible. It's an RPG with turn-based battles, but you can skip the fights if you like. That's appealing to someone like me, who enjoys story-driven games but often struggles to engage with turn-based combat. Puzzles are skippable too. Great! People should be able to play non-competitive games however they want. I dug the demo when I played it a while back. The approach to battles here is interesting, as the protagonist, pop singer Cadence, recruits other musicians to join her band — in other words, your party. The combat is based around music, and you can create mashups of battle tracks based on the genres that your collaborators specialize in. People of Note, from publisher Annapurna Interactive, will normally run you $25, though there's a 10 percent launch discount. It's available on PS5 (the discount on that platform is only for PlayStation Plus subscribers), Xbox Series X/S, Xbox on PC, Nintendo Switch 2, Steam and the Epic Games Store. Tamashika is a fast-paced first-person shooter with a neat twist. The game only has one level available at any time. There are no checkpoints, and it'll take about 10 minutes to complete a successful run. The level gets a procedurally generated revamp once per day. A tantō blade, a pistol, your movement and your aim are the only weapons you have to defeat the enemies and reach the goal. I had to watch the trailer a few times to get it, but the quirky hand-drawn aesthetic is growing on me. Tamashika — from QuickTequila and publisher Edglrd — is available on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch for $20. A Hidden Object Fest is running on Steam until April 13, and a few new games have debuted as part of that. One of those is Nippets by Blink Industries. It's a hand-drawn game with lots of secrets and, at least judging by the trailer, charming animations. It seems like a very relaxing counterpoint to some of the more intense games out this week. It's pretty digestible too, as it has around two to three hours of gameplay, depending on how sharp your observation skills are. Nippets is available on Steam and Itch for PC and Mac. It costs $13, though there's a 10 percent discount on Steam until April 21. A demo is available on both storefronts too. Dead As Disco has some momentum after 1.2 million players checked out the demo, and this rhythm-based beat 'em up now has an early access release date. It's coming to Steam and the Epic Games Store on May 5. At the jump, you'll be able to play the first arc of a larger narrative and be able to take out bad guys to the beat of a soundtrack that has more than 30 songs, including original tracks, covers and licensed tunes. You can load in your own music as well, though I can't imagine being able to adeptly play this to the rhythm of Angine de Poitrine's wild time signature swings. Brain Jar Games expects the game to remain in early access for around a year as it adds new bosses, moves and other features, and makes adjustments based on player feedback. A co-op mode is planned too. You can get a taste of Dead As Disco now by checking out the Steam demo, though I would argue that disco is still very much alive. Those looking for a puzzle game of a Lovecraftian persuasion may be interested in Call of the Elder Gods, a sequel to 2020's Call of the Sea. The follow-up is bound for Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch 2 on May 12. It'll be available on Game Pass and it's priced at $25 on the eShop. You seemingly won't need to have played Call of the Sea before diving into the sequel, though you'll surely get more out of Call of the Elder Gods if you have. You'll switch between two characters — professor Harry Everhart and student Evangeline Drayton — to solve puzzles from a first-person perspective and try to find out what happened to the pair's missing loved ones. I'd seen Long Gone at another showcase some time ago, but the name of it slipped from my memory. No such issues after it made an appearance in the Triple-i Initiative stream though, as this project from Hillfort Games and co-publisher Outersloth is now firmly on my Steam wishlist. It's a narrative-driven game set amid a zombie outbreak in which you'll solve environmental puzzles to learn about the lives of people who are no longer around. It's ostensibly a point-and-click adventure that looks very heavily inspired by a certain post-apocalyptic series from Naughty Dog, right down to the backpack-wearing protagonist. There are platforming sections too. I'm absolutely going to be interested in any game that smooshes together The Last of Us and the Monkey Island series. I'm really looking forward to playing Long Gone sometime next year.

Netflix has added a heavy hitter in party activities to its gaming lineup. The streamer announced that Jackbox Party Essentials is joining the Netflix Party Games collection. This move makes three of the popular Jackbox group games available for free to Netflix subscribers: Fibbage 4, Quiplash 3 and Drawful 2. Each one supports up to eight players. Netflix has been refocusing its interactive strategy to highlight family-friendly and party games. The company has even offered tie-ins to its original content; for instance, playing Overcooked through Netflix will let you use a member of Huntr/x from Kpop Demon Hunters as your in-game avatar. We also saw Netflix's Game Controller software, which turns any mobile device into a gamepad for its game library, take the crown as a top-downloaded iOS app around the Easter holiday weekend. That performance could indicate that many families were at least thinking of trying out the streamer's games as part of their festivities.

The hit mountain climbing simulation Cairn is getting a series of free DLC drops, under the banner On the Trail. The first will be released this summer and it's called Deep Water. The DLC introduces three new climbing areas and plenty of "fresh challenges." There's also a new avatar, as players can now climb as Aava or the game's original sidekick Marco. As the name suggests, there's some new water-based mechanics here. It looks like players will be able to fall into the water without automatically dying, though the developer hasn't shown how that works exactly. In the original game, a fall into a body of water would be treated just like any other fall. This is the first in a series of new DLC releases, but we don't know what the other updates will entail. We do know that they'll all be free. The base game is $30, when not on sale, so this is a nice little perk for fans. For the uninitiated, Cairn is a serious mountain climbing sim that forces players to keep a keen eye on balance and stamina. It's got a fairly complex control scheme, with a manual mode that mandates independent control of each limb. There's an emphasis on route planning and gear management. The game is also quite easy on the eyes. Today's DLC announcement came as part of the Triple-i Initiative showcase, which spotlights indie games. The stream also gave us reveals for a new Don't Starve game and an intriguing title from the devs behind the hit narrative adventure 1000xResist.

Indie game studio Coldblood announced today that its debut project Neverway has been given a release window of October 2026. Billed as "nightmarish life-sim RPG," this is going right to the top of my spooky season game queue. It has a cozy-sounding premise, with protagonist Fiona starting a new life on an island, but things take a surreal turn when she becomes the immortal herald for a dead god. She'll be building relationships and making friends one minute and coping with psychological horrors the next. This game has been on our radar since it was introduced at last year's Triple-I Initiative event. The new trailer once more shows off the work of both pixel artist Pedro Medeiros, who also worked on Celeste and Towerfall, and composer Disasterpeace, whose past game credits include Fez and Hyper Light Drifter. The prologue is available to play for free starting today on Steam, and Neverway will launch both on that PC platform as well as on the Nintendo Switch.

Sony just announced a truly strange initiative called The Playerbase. This is a program to scan people's likenesses and pop them in PlayStation games. That's pretty wild, but potentially cool to those who have always wanted to become a weird humanoid version of Crash Bandicoot. The program is ramping up slowly. Sony has announced a contest of sorts to place one lucky fan inside of Gran Turismo 7, though in a reduced fashion. The chosen player will get an image of their face placed inside the game as a character portrait and will get the chance to design a logo and the exterior of a vehicle. This person will also get a trip to Los Angeles to participate in a full-body scan, but Sony hasn't said what, if anything, they'd do with this scan. After all, Gran Turismo 7 is a racing game without too many full-body models walking around. Fans have a lot of hoops to jump through to be considered for placement. There's a traditional application process, but also video interviews and other stuff. The promotion is available to players in the Americas, Europe, Asia, South Africa and Australia. Of course, there needs to be actual new PlayStation games for people to scan their likenesses into. Sony hasn't exactly been providing us with a robust lineup of first-party titles this generation.

Disney has inked a deal with the Korea Esports Association that will bring several gaming tournaments to the its streaming platform. Disney+ will be the global live streaming home for Esports Champions Asia Jinju 2026, the 2026 League of Legends KeSPA CUP and some preliminary events ahead of the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026. This agreement expands KeSPA's arrangement with Disney, which only streamed its esports events to viewers in Asia last year. Esports Champions Asia is the first event on the calendar, occurring April 24-26 with professional teams from across the continent squaring up in tournaments for games including Street Fighter 6, The King of Fighters XV, TEKKEN 8 and the eFootball series. Disney+ will also be an official streamer for the PUBG Mobile and Eternal Return competitions during that weekend. It could be helpful for western esports fans to have a single location for watching the major events happening in Asia. However, many tournaments are currently free to watch on Twitch or YouTube, so now needing a Disney+ subscription to catch some of these international competitions might feel onerous. Esports might run the risk of turning into the fragmented set of rights deals that plagues traditional sports leagues, where a game could be on one of a half dozen different paid services each night. It's also likely going to mean co-streamers take a hit to their viewership, since Disney seems unlikely to offer the same sort of broadcast access that has made the practice popular on Twitch.