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Xbox players have long wanted an answer to PlayStation's Platinum Trophy, something to chase that rewards achievement hunters for getting them all. We're finally getting that, and thanks to some poking around in the latest version of the Xbox app on Windows 11, we've got some new information to go on. For one, the badge and the sound that plays when it unlocks have now been seen (and heard) for the first time. A new update for the Xbox PC App reveals: Xbox Mythic Achievement; plus symbol and unl

The echo chamber on the internet would have you believe that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was a horrible game. After many hundreds of hours playing, I don't agree with that, at least not entirely. Like most games, it has its good points and its bad points. But as we're approaching yet another yearly cycle with Modern Warfare 4 arriving next month, once again it's time for opinions to be voiced around how the franchise should become "good" again. For many, it's a return to the glory days of multipla

Microsoft just revealed another round of "restructures" for Xbox and its game studios, with Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Turn 10, Halo Studios, and others impacted in various ways.Last July, Microsoft announced it would be looking to reduce its gaming workforce by around 3,200 staffers. Sources suggest that the total figure will fall short of that previous estimate, as Microsoft opts for restructuring and moving employees around to other departments as much as possible. DEAL: Get Surfshark VPN 86% OF

We're just a couple of months away from Black Friday in November, when we usually see the biggest discounts on some of the best productivity laptops. However, some brands aren't waiting that long.Dell, for instance, is slashing prices on models of its 14 Plus and 16 Plus laptops to $1,109.99 (was $1,379.99) and $1,559.99 (was $1,629.99), respectively, for a limited time. Additionally, Dell is offering discounts on alternative models of the same laptops if you need to change a particular spec at

Clipchamp is the built-in video editor on Windows 11, and it has a surprisingly impressive feature list. A recent blog post by Microsoft outlines how to upscale videos to up to 4K by using Clipchamp. I've tested the feature and came away impressed.You won't be able to take terrible footage and fix it by clicking a button in Clipchamp, but that would be an unreasonable ask of the app. What you can do is adequately scale up footage to make it viewable on larger displays or screens with a higher re

When I learned that it wouldn't be StarCraft, but instead World of Warcraft: Forever to close out BlizzCon 2026, I was admittedly a bit puzzled. After seeing how World of Warcraft: Forever's beta has been going, though, now I get it.I've been playing WoW since vanilla, and I've seen every permutation of the game since its inception. All the bugs, content droughts, story highs and lows ... World of Warcraft has been an absolutely wild ride since my teens, and it's showing no signs of slowing down

Using your virtual reality headset as a monitor for your Windows 11 PC just got a lot better.Remember when mixed reality and virtual reality were the biggest buzzwords in tech? Before the advent of ChatGPT and the latest wave of AI, tech companies spent billions on the metaverse and VR.I'd argue that the VR push yielded more concrete results than AI, but that's a topic for another day. Today's news is that mixed reality is still here, and Microsoft just released a new feature for it.A recent upd

I've been a PC gamer for as long as I can remember, pushing my earliest family desktop computers to their limits by installing a single copy of Command and Conquer to their tiny hard drives, before eventually building my own rigs with a meager part-time job wage and a bright-eyed idea of what good value components looked like.These days, I do most of my gaming on my still-loved Steam Deck, the Linux-based handheld from the same company behind the massive PC game storefront, Steam. It runs practi

The Microsoft Copilot app will soon include a built-in browser for more users. Microsoft started testing the feature back in March, but the broader rollout of the built-in browser will begin in late November. The idea is that when you click a link within the Copilot app, you'll stay within Copilot rather than jump into your default browser. Microsoft described the feature through its message center (archived here):"Microsoft Copilot app now supports in-app browsing on Windows and Mac, allowing u

Windows 11 has some big changes on the way to one of its best accessibility features. Magnifier will soon have a contrast theme that improves visibility by reducing glare. At first glance, the feature appears similar to color inversion, but it works differently in several key ways.Color inversion changes everything on your screen, including photos, videos, and other forms of media. In contrast (pun intended), contrast themes change the colors of an interface without adjusting media.Four differen

Over the weekend, legendary game designer Hideo Kojima was interviewed by The Washington Post and IGN regarding behind-the-scenes details of one of his studio's upcoming Xbox Series X|S titles, Physint. The first interview at The Washington Post revealed that Sony tried to cancel Physint during a Zoom call with Hideo Kojima. The man was shockingly surprised at Sony's decision; Hideo Kojima then commented, "I didn’t have any anger or sadness. I was just thinking, ‘What should I do?’ It’s a big pr

When I first laid eyes on Tarae: The Unbound, it was hard not to think I was looking at a carbon copy of Sanctuary. Developed by Boundary and published by Krafton, this upcoming dark fantasy action RPG hits all the familiar genre notes at a glance: the isometric camera angle, the frantic screen-clearing mob fights, and the loot-driven progression loop feel intensely reminiscent of Diablo.Walking into my Gamescom appointment behind the scenes, I’ll admit I was deeply skeptical. The market is end

BlizzCon 2026 was epic, but as a World of Warcraft retail enjoyer, I was a tad disappointed at the lack of information. World of Warcraft: Forever more than stole the show. The announcements of Diablo V and StarCraft were huge, but the fact they're both around half a decade away at least definitely put a dampner on things. WoW: Forever is much closer, set to launch in mid-November (going up against GTA 6 no less). DEAL: Get Surfshark VPN 86% OFF with Windows Central 🦈WoW: Forever is a remix of t

Microsoft just announced a Windows and Surface event that will be held on October 7, 2026. Based on the invite, the event will focus on "how local AI will shape the next chapter of the PC." That's not exactly a topic that will move the needle for general users.Microsoft is all-in on AI, billions of dollars down the drain be damned. The tech giant created what may be the "best laptop ever made" to run AI locally. Considering the focus of Microsoft's event, it's safe to assume the Surface Laptop U

"Never say never" is the common refrain, but BlizzCon revealed a bit more about the future of Blizzard's games on console than perhaps you might expect. BlizzCon 2026 was pretty amazing. We got new trailers for Diablo V and the revival of StarCraft, as well as a revival for Warcraft 3, Heroes of the Storm, and WoW Classic in the form of World of Warcraft: Forever. Blizzard also revealed Diablo 4 for Nintendo Switch 2 for the first time, and World of Warcraft also includes native Xbox controller

I've been an advocate for Microsoft Flight Simulator for a while now, encouraging more newcomers to take to the skies. However, the game's casual collection of fighter jets doesn't dabble in all-out dogfights, so there's a separate desire for more military-centric flight sticks and HOTAS sim bundles.Whenever I'd dip my toes into aerial combat hardware, one name would consistently appear: Thrustmaster's Warthog, and now it's upgrading itself with a previously announced Mk. II model of the A-10C's

The 2026 Tokyo Game Show rolls on as PC Gamer prepares to unleash a tidal wave of PC gaming announcements during its PC Gaming Show Tokyo Direct livestream, which will commence on September 20, 2026.This event will feature new gameplay trailers, developer interviews, and release date information on over 35 upcoming PC games. Plus, the livestream will premiere 10 unannounced titles, shadowdrop some games, and announce new DLC content.DEAL: Get Surfshark VPN 86% OFF with Windows Central 🦈Here's ev

During the Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2026 showcase, Fallout 76 appeared with a trailer for a content update called 'The Slasher' where players are tasked with hunting down the titular serial killer in a new questline.However, this newly implemented update has a massive, Fatman Nuke-sized bombshell feature that Fallout fans have been waiting for for years: native Xbox Series X|S support.DEAL: Get Surfshark VPN 86% OFF with Windows Central 🦈That's right, you can run Fallout 76 on modern Xbox consoles (

I’ve never really gravitated towards the MOBA genre. The borderline toxic finger-pointing from teammates, and the steep learning curve hasn’t made them very approachable at least for me. While at Gamescom 2026 though, I got to check out Project Zeta, published by Krafton and developed by a group of industry veterans at NIRVANANA. Project Zeta sounds a bit like one of those insane CES Razer concepts, but it's a game that pledges to shake up the MOBA genre completely and throw out the rulebook. Fo

Earlier this week, Microsoft confirmed a bug in Excel that breaks copy and paste. The issue was caused by the Patch Tuesday September update. That update included almost 1,000 security fixes, but it also brought some pesky bugs to the operating system.Microsoft had to issue an out-of-band update to address broken Hyper-V Linux folder shares, Remote Desktop freezes, and USB audio failures. The company has also had to ship an update to address the copy and paste bug in Excel.Unfortunately, the upd