The PC is one of the most popular gaming platforms in the world, and one that’s constantly changing. Here at The Verge we cover every aspect, including the latest hardware developments from companies like Nvidia and Logitech, massively popular games like Fortnite and Overwatch, and hugely influential digital platforms like Steam and itch.io.
I adore Mechanism’s mounting solutions, but always felt its $15 kickstand was a skip; I bought this amazing $25 mount instead. But the brand-new Kickstand 2 is better! Slimmer, stronger, anti-skid, no more detach when you lean back. Still can pop off when pulling forward at some angles, though! Tradeoffs.
Announced at CES earlier this year, Samsung’s 27-inch Odyssey OLED G6 gaming monitor is now available in the US for $999.99. It has a 1440p resolution, two HDMI 2.1 ports, a single DisplayPort 1.4 port, and that all-important 500Hz refresh rate. Samsung is also launching the 37- and 40-inch Odyssey G7 4K monitors in the US.
Look at this thing. According to Videocardz and Tom’s Hardware, it’s a custom 12.5-inch 4K handheld with Intel i9-14900HX and Nvidia RTX 4090 chips from a gaming laptop. There are pics and a video of it playing games, but none showing the build or internals.
Obviously, I want it.
I have not independently verified Nick Zetta’s new and painful way to cheat in shooter games... but I’d be happy to!
An open beta of Prologue: Go Wayback!, a new “emergent” survival roguelike from PUBG creator Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene, is now available on PC. It’s the first of three games in the works from PlayerUnknown Productions.
At QuakeCon, id Software and Bethesda announced Heretic + Hexen, a rerelease in the spirit of last year’s “definitive” versions of Doom and Doom II. Also announced: a new update for Doom: The Dark Ages and the official rollout of PC mod support for Doom Eternal.
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Small form factor PCs are nothing new, but this is a refreshing take.
LG Display is showing off “the world’s fastest OLED monitor panel” at K-Display in Seoul this week. The 27-inch OLED panel has a 540Hz refresh rate at native 1440p resolution, and it can also deliver a 720Hz refresh rate in a 720p mode.
LG Display also has a 45-inch 5K2K OLED panel (5120 x 2160), which it says “boasts the world’s highest resolution among existing OLED monitor panels.” Hopefully, this means we’ll see a lot more OLED monitor options at CES early next year.
Correction, August 20th: LG Display now says the 720Hz mode is 720p, not 1080p. It previously asked us to correct our story to say it was 1080p, not 720p, but then asked for a second correction saying the opposite.
The change kicks in on October 15th, 2025. “This change is required as core features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer functions on older versions of macOS,” Valve says. “In addition, future versions of Steam will require macOS feature and security updates only present in macOS 12 and above.”
[help.steampowered.com]
AMD just reported its Q2 2025 earnings, and it’s attributing a new quarterly revenue record of $7.7 billion to one particular thing: “record server and PC processor sales.” And while AMD doesn’t mention its flagging competitor Intel, it seems many are turning to Team Red: AMD just crossed 40 percent market share for the first time on the Steam Hardware Survey of PC gamers, and it may have 40 percent server market share soon too.
The necessary driver is available now. CD Projekt Red technically added FSR 4 support to the game with Update 2.3 last month, but now you can actually take advantage of it.
2K isn’t denying Jason Schreier’s story: “We are working hard to set BioShock up for the best possible future. Right now, we have a good game, but we are committed to delivering a great one,” the publisher tells him.
2K created a new studio specifically for the game, Cloud Chamber, in 2019. Studio drama is nothing new for BioShock, but ousted leader Kelley Gilmore was the first female studio head in 2K history.
The Victrix Pro BFG Reloaded looks similar to the original released in 2022, but PDP is now owned by Turtle Beach which has updated the controller with Hall effect triggers and joysticks in its swappable modules.
The Reloaded also features a reconfigured fight stick module with six buttons “ergonomically optimized for gamers to place their wrist on the controller’s grip.” It’s available for preorder now for $209.99 in Xbox and PlayStation versions with shipping expected in late September.
Why reboot your whole SteamOS handheld to desktop when you can visit the desktop from inside the gaming mode? Nested Desktop does have limitations (no file management, no Steam-within-Steam) but gosh are there times this’d come in handy. Jacob at XDA calls it “the best Steam Deck feature you aren’t using”.
Setup: In desktop mode, tap Steam logo on taskbar > scroll down to Lost and Found > Right-click “Nested Desktop” > “Add to Steam.”
And Riot Games is hoping you won’t even notice, apart from the big download. Today’s update moves Valorant from Unreal Engine 4.27 to Unreal Engine 5.3, and there might even be some small performance improvements on some systems. While other PC games using Unreal 5 have run into stutter issues, Riot says its switch shouldn’t even be noticeable for most players.
Now all Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can stream games they own (including some console-only titles) from the cloud through the Xbox PC app, just like they can on other devices, which is a feature that has been in testing with Insiders program members.
Also, now Microsoft’s new blog post confirms that Insiders with Game Pass Ultimate can preview play history that follows them across devices, letting them pick up right where they left off -- which could come in handy with a new Xbox handheld device.
Not to be outdone by GPD, which teased a handheld so powerful it’s begging to be plugged into the wall, Ayaneo is teasing its own Strix Halo handheld — alongside a mountain of other product. There’s so much you’ll need to scrub through not one, but two “strategy sharing session” videos to see it all. The Strix Halo device will be the Ayaneo Next 2, and it’s promising its battery will be internal unlike the GPD one.
The changes include organizing recommendations into “one convenient section” and a “fully personalized” categories tab, according to Valve. You can try it now by joining the Steam Client Beta.
[steamcommunity.com]
A Wolfenstein show is in development, reports Variety, and sounds like it could be based on MachineGames’ fantastic games that actually told stories rather than starting from scratch. Both MachineGames’ studio director Jerk Gustafsson and the showrunners of Fallout (which got the games right) Lisa Joy and Jonah Nolan are attached. Showrunner here is Patrick Somerville; the show’s not official yet.
GPD, the company behind the most potent tiny laptops, is now teasing the most potent handheld. The GPD Win 5 will somehow fit a AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 — also see Framework Desktop and Asus’ ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet — into a chassis that’s like a large PlayStation Vita with hidden keyboard.
The Phawx has shown that Strix Halo can already beat today’s handhelds on efficiency, and destroy them plugged into the wall.
There’s an art to building a small-form-factor PC. When my recent upgrade doubled my CPU power draw, I had to choose: buy a bigger case to accommodate a more powerful cooler, or cut a hole in the side of my old one.
I chose the coward’s route. But today I found the FFS PC subreddit, where the case boundaries are merely a suggestion, and CPU coolers, GPUs, and power supplies protrude in all directions. Perfect.
Nvidia is releasing a new GeForce Game Ready Driver today, designed to improve performance in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers and Valorant’s Unreal Engine 5 upgrade. Valorant is moving to Unreal 5 on July 29th, which Nvidia says will introduce “additional content and changes.”
You can download the new 577.00 driver right here.
