Dex is a side scrolling AARPG game set in a dystopian cyber future from developer Dreadlocks Ltd. In the opening moments of the game you find yourself awoken by a mysterious blue visitor, who warns you of an impending home invasion. After narrowly escaping your would be abductors, you are led to a bar to discover that you hold the key to stopping the complete domination of the world by a shadow organization.

The combat system in “Dex” is very fluid at points when it comes to the hand to hand portion. Combining the ability to block or dodge the enemies’ attacks while intertwining your own into the combo gives it an overall satisfying feeling, but with enough variety in hostile variants that within the time that I played that it didn’t feel repetitive. The shooting elements of the game didn’t feel misplaced and there was definitely a tradeoff of being more vulnerable to melee while you had your weapon drawn. The skill tree is by no means deep and at only 1 skill point a level they’ve counteracted it by making the later skills require more points, So I would recommend looking at what skills there are when you start it up and having a plan for what you would put priority in before jumping in the deep end. There are going to be levels where you don’t get a new skill because you’ll be saving up for the next one.

One of the more unique aspects of Dex is the ability to seamlessly alternate between the “real” world and the cyber one, entering into the cyber world allows you in some areas to scope ahead of your character to see what lies in wait, or interact with the environment’s electronics in order to help gain advantages for yourself. Though not without its risks, entering cyberspace you encounter a different set of enemies in the form of viruses or Trojans that will attempt to destroy your timid connection.

Quests that you undertake in the game have a surprising amount of depth in them, right from the get go you were faced with obstacles that had different ways of being able to be solved. Combined with a “Mass Effect” like dialogue system that branched into a multi-tiered dialogue tree seems to be a staple for RPG’s these days and Dex doesn’t fall short in this regard.  Characters in Dex are interesting enough but come through in a stereotyped fashion more often than not from the overweight Asian who’s tech savvy to a lecherous old doctor, sometimes you were able to pretty much guess what a character was going to be persona wise just based off of their occupation.

Overall Dex is a satisfying experience that gives off a very blade runner feel currently on sale on steam it is most definitely worth the £15 price tag. I was skeptical over how well an open world 2D game would do but Dreadlock Ltd. met the bar with Dex, I hope anybody else who picks this title up enjoys it as much as I did.

The Anniversary update for Windows 10 was much talked up by Microsoft, citing that it would improve all aspects of the OS – including bringing many benefits for gamers, from v-sync to multi GPU support. So basically what gamers wanted from them. The only problem is that somehow in improving the experience in many more complicated ways, they’ve somehow broken one of the more basic gamer experiences. A good number of users have reported that upon installing the Anniversary update their Xbox controllers no longer work properly with their computers. Whoops.

Before the update installing and using the Xbox pads was simple, as you’d expect. Windows and Xbox are both part of Microsoft after all. Now however, some games don’t recognise the controllers at all through bluetooth connection or through the official Xbox One wireless adapter. Others are somehow registering a single controller as two controllers, as well as Steam’s Big Picture mode for some reason.

Theories from Ars Technica are suggesting that the XInput API has been altered in some way in the update, and this is why the controllers are no longer working. The XInput API allowed for developers to be able to easily add controller support to their games just by adding it to their game, and the theory is given more weight when you take into account that some programs that allowed for a Dualshock 4 to act as an Xbox controller for the computer are also showing the same odd bugs and they too use this API.

Hopefully Microsoft get it sorted out soon, being able to use controllers is a fundamental part of PC gaming right now. Until they do, it might be an idea to hold off updating quite yet.

Currently as part of the ongoing ‘Summer Games’ happening in Overwatch in celebration of the Rio Olympics, Blizzard have added their take on Rocket League – Lucioball – as a mini-game mode.

Of course, part of the point of Lucioball is that everyone on both the 3-a-side teams play as some form of Lucio, depending on which skin they’ve got equipped. However, some players have discovered that if you hit the right button enough while respawning, you’ll sometimes spawn as another random Overwatch hero. This has meant for the last few days various games have been completely thrown into disarray as other heroes invaded the field and killed enemy players to stop them from scoring or winning the match. Talk about your hostile pitch invasions…

Never fear though, Blizzard are aware of the bug:

@SkyakinGamer Sorry about that. It’s a known bug and abusers will be punished.

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) August 8, 2016

Blizzard has promised that they’ll get the fix for the bug in place soon, but as of yet it’s unknown quite what the punishment will be for those who have deliberately been exploiting the bug. Blizzard can probably see who has managed to stumble into it by accident and not done it again, and those who are actively trying to use it to win matches. Given that Blizzard have been very harsh with those found to be using hacks or cheats, exploiters of the bug might be in for a rough ride.

Starbound is awesome, which is why we have a dedicated server for you to play on here at the Sanitarium.FM. But, how do you connect to this galactic wonderland? Simple! Just follow these steps!

1.) Open Starbound and select Join Game

2) Choose your character

3) Type the server IP and Port into the top two fields. Do not enter any information into the server account or server password fields.

                                                              Correct                                                                                                                               Incorrect

4) Click Join server and enjoy your glorious space adventures.

Thats it! Have fun on the official Sanitarium.FM Starbound Server!

Yesterday during the finals of Rainbow Six: Siege Season 2, in which French side Yunktis came out on top and were crowned champions of the PC tournament; some balance changes were announced for the game that mainly has an effect on one of the characters: Pulse.

One of Pulse’s tools is a scanner that allows for the detection of heartbeats through walls, helping to pin point where enemies might be waiting out of sight. Currently the range is 13 metres but with the new balancing coming in the range is down to 9 metres. The speed at which Pulse can switch from scanner to weapon has also been increased, allowing for the full animation of putting one away to draw the other instead of skipping through and being able to quickly detect and mow down a target moving towards you from behind the drywall.

The other major change isn’t directly affecting Pulse, but given that most players of the character like to use the weapon being changed it still does concern Pulse. Semi-automatic shotguns are being changed, with their damage being cut by a huge 25-30% and the pellet spread of the weapons being increased to seriously hammer down the long-range accuracy and damage of the weapon.

The patch won’t be coming for another few weeks though, so enjoy your semi-autos while you can.