Playing PC games in the living room on my main TV has been a goal since I decided to switch from console gaming a few years ago. I don’t really have a logical reason for this, except that I love building PCs and that I’m a huge nerd.
The ideal situation would be to build a small (mini-ITX) PC inside the silver Teenage Engineering PC-1 case I’ve been hanging on to since it released in late 2022, but that’s not a very fun story. Not to mention, mini-ITX parts are expensive, and the best GPU that fits in the PC-1 case is a year-old RTX 3060, a card I expect will be replaced by the RTX 4060 within the next six months or less. Beyond that, I happen to have a two-year-old AMD Radeon 5700 GPU that’s still able to hold its own with modern games.
That’s when I found a stopgap solution. I could buy a used Dell OptiPlex business computer, slap in my GPU and ideally play most of my PC games on my TV, albeit on low or medium quality at 1080p. There were various OptiPlexes (Optipli?) on Facebook marketplace, and most cost less than $180, so finding one was a waiting game of getting the best parts for the lowest price — and I didn’t have to wait long. After a brief search, I picked up an Optiplex i7 4770 unit packed with 32GB of DDR3 RAM and even had a 500GB SDD. None of these parts are modern, but compared to other i5 Optiplexs with hard drives and 12GB of RAM, it felt like a score.
The seller even tossed in an old Wi-Fi dongle and the world’s worst keyboard and mouse combo, all for the low price of $140. This price is key since it’s less than the cost of a new Windows 11 key. So ideally, I can move this version of Windows to my PC-1 in the future, making the whole endeavour not a total waste of money.
Remember this justification because I will reference it a lot during this build…
As easy as 1,2….
After getting the PC home, I ripped open the box and was pleasantly surprised with how clean and well-packed it was. For a $140 refurb, this was definitely done professionally by someone. Once I got the PC out, I connected it to my monitor to ensure it worked. Thankfully, everything functioned fine, so it was time to start modding.
I popped off the side panel, and the first thing that caught my eye was a giant hard drive cage in the bottom corner. It needed to go. After watching this helpful video a few times, I attacked my new PC with a drill, and after about ten minutes of the sketchiest drilling I’ve ever done, the cage was gone.
After a few test fits, I was able to get the GPU in, but it was too large for the front I/O connector, so that had to be removed. I tried shearing my GPU shoulder down to feed the cable through it, but nothing fit, so after about an hour of fiddling around, I gave up and sacrificed the four front USB ports in the name of gaming.
Everything was going well, and I felt on top of the world, but the next problem turned out to be more difficult to solve.
That’s not enough power!
With the GPU seated in the case nicely, I went to plug it in only to realize that the Dell power supply unit (PSU) attached to this PC only does 290 watts and had no modern GPU connectors.
“Not to worry,” I told myself (for the 800th time so far), “I can just buy a small form factor power supply and reuse it in the PC-1 someday.”
So that’s what I did. I headed down to my local Canada Computers before they closed and opted to future-proof myself with a Corsair 750-watt unit with great reviews and that promised to run quietly. Since the PSU fan is hard to replace, this felt worth paying about $40 over the nearest competition.
I slotted it in when I got home and quickly realized that Dell used a proprietary 8-pin power connector on some of its OptiPlex motherboards. Another hurdle, but after an hour of troubleshooting, it seemed that the 24 to 8-pin adapter used in this video was my best bet. I ordered it on Amazon, and it came in the next day. To my surprise, it worked flawlessly.
So far, I’ve run Far Cry 6, The Witcher 3, Hogwarts Legacy, Halo Infinite and Red Dead Redemption 2 to varying degrees of success. If you’re playing on a 1080p monitor you should have no problems, but I found I needed to set the internal Windows resolution to 1440p when connected to my 4K TV for optimal gameplay.
I’ve found that newer games with better FSR or internal engine upscaling solutions help a lot and can help this PC punch way above its weight. I was scared when The Witcher 3 struggled, but newer games like Hogwarts Legacy seem to implement better upscaling tech, so it’s more playable and looks better, in my opinion.
Overall, it’s enough to let me scrape by for a year and get some use out of my old GPU just sitting in my basement. The big plus I’m thrilled with is that I can rely on cloud saves to move between gaming at my desk and the new living room PC. Beyond that, perhaps the lower specs will push me towards trying some older games I’ve missed over the past few years, like Control, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Dishonoured and many others.
But of all the places they visited during their year-long shoot in the province, there was one place, in particular, that stood out: Canmore.
“My favourite place that we went to was Canmore, for sure,” Ramsey noted, to which Pascal excitedly agreed. “Every inch of Canmore was just this magical little town… with really great fudge,” he added. (Sadly, we weren’t able to ask where he got said fudge.)
Now, we’re finally getting to see the small Alberta town in the hit HBO drama series. In the sixth episode, premiering February 19th, Joel (Pascal) and Ellie (Ramsey) head to Jackson, Wyoming to find Joel’s brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna). As co-creator/co-showrunner Craig Mazin told us, Canmore was a “dead ringer” for Jackson thanks to its beautiful, snowy vistas.
It’s worth noting that The Last of Us has been renewed for a second season, which will adapt The Last of Us Part II. The game’s opening hours are also set in Jackson, so it remains to be seen if HBO will bring the production back to Canmore for these scenes. For now, though, we have Episode 6 (titled “Kin”) to enjoy, as well as the remaining three episodes.
Part of the appeal of The Last of Us has been to see all of Alberta’s stunning geography, and it’s something that the cast and crew have continued to praise. In a recent interview, Jeffrey Pierce, who plays Perry in the series and Tommy in the games, told us that his time shooting in Calgary was likely his “favourite” filming experience to date. John Paino, the series’ production designer, has also said that he was “shocked” at how “clean” Alberta ended up being.
PlayStation has announced its ‘Festival of Play’ sale starting now through February 24th. PlayStation Plus members can find a range of activities, including double discounts, digital collectibles, tournaments to join and more.
On February 15th, God of War Ragnarök is heading to PlayStation Plus Premium’s game trial section with a three-hour section. If you try it out, your trophies and saved progress from this trial can carry if you purchase the full game.
The PlayStation Stars loyalty program also has unique digital collectibles for the festival’s duration:
PlayStation Plus members will receive a “Festival of Play Party Favor” digital collectible for checking into the ‘A Gift from PlayStation Plus’ campaign and playing any game.
With Horizon Forbidden West joining the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog starting on February 21, you can get “A Gift from the Past” digital collectible by checking into the “Welcome to the Forbidden West” campaign and earning the following trophies. This campaign is only available to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium/Deluxe members who have yet to earn these trophies.
“Save the Daunt” “Attend the Embassy” “Obtain 3 Stripes at a Hunting Ground” “Used Dyed Flowers” “First Rebel Camp Completed” “First Tall Neck Overwritten”
The double discount sale is running now, offering games like Gotham Knights, The Last of Us Part II, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and more.
You can enter to win a Sony Bravia XR OLED TV, Dolby Atmos Soundbar HT-A5000 and Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless noise-cancelling headphones until February 24th. You can enter the contest here.
PlayStation Tournaments are happening during this timeframe FIFA 23, NBA 2K23, and Guilty Gear.
The organization, which is supported by the likes of the Canada Media Fund and Telefilm Canada, has put up a charming billboard in Hollywood saying “Politely Kicking Ass. (Sorry.)”
Another Hollywood billboard, meanwhile, promotes four acclaimed Canadian directors: Bécancour, Québec’s Denis Villeneuve (Dune), Toronto’s Sarah Polley (Women Talking), Kapuskasing, Ontario’s James Cameron (Avatar: The Way of Water) and Toronto’s Domee Shi (Turning Red). Dune was nominated for Best Picture at last year’s Oscars, while Women Talking and The Way of Water are up for the top honour at this year’s show, and Turning Red is a Best Animated Feature nominee.
In the bit, we see the hit Canadian comedy series Schitt’s Creek, Letterkenny and Sort Of; popular movies like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (starring Mississauga’s Simu Liu) and Free Guy (starring Vancouver’s Ryan Reynolds and directed by Montreal’s Shawn Levy) and Mississauga’s Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Never Have I Ever) talking about the “impact Canadians can have on the entire world.”
The ad also mentions a few milestones that Canadians have recently helped set:
First female to direct a Pixar movie (Domee Shi on Turning Red)
First Muslim superhero (Markham, Ontario’s Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel in Ms. Marvel)
First project from all-Indigenous creators (Kahnawake, Quebec’s Devery Jacobs Toronto’s D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai and Paulina Alexis are three of the four leads of Reservation Dogs)
And on the gaming front, we see a cinematic from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, a massive video game from one of the largest developers in the world, Ubisoft Montreal. Given that this is only a 30-second ad, it makes sense that games are only briefly touched on. Still, it’s worth noting that Canada is the third-largest producer of games in the world, with the national games sector bringing in $5.5 billion to our GDP annually.
Besides Assassin’s Creed, some of the most prominent games made here include Mass Effect (BioWare Edmonton), FIFA (EA Vancouver), Far Cry (Ubisoft Montreal and Toronto), Cuphead (Oakville, Ontario’s Studio MDHR), Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal) and PGA Tour 2K23 (Lunenberg, Nova Scotia’s HB Studios).
What are some of your favourite Canadian-made projects? Let us know in the comments.
Tomb Raider Reloaded is simultaneously a rock-solid mobile experience and everything that’s wrong with smartphone games.
Instead of being a curated premium title like the excellent Lara Croft Go, Reloaded is a free-to-play top-down action roguelike. This means that Lara will clear out procedurally-generated areas while avoiding traps and collecting loot.
That all works surprisingly well — which isn’t too surprising, considering it hails from Burnaby, B.C.’s Emerald City Games and Montreal’s Onoma (formerly Square Enix Montreal), in partnership with main Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics. Now, I’m not normally someone who enjoys the “start over each time you die” nature of roguelikes, but it actually fits in Reloaded. Here, Lara will always start out with her signature dual handguns, and you’ll collect upgrades after each stage to affect everything from their rate of fire and damage to one-time health-replenishing bonuses and permanent gear upgrades.
And at the centre of that gameplay loop is a simple Vampire Survivors-esque one-button control scheme in which you control Lara’s movement while she shoots automatically. In this way, it feels natural and well-optimized for mobile. At times, Lara’s auto-targeting can frustratingly snap to an unintended enemy, but ultimately, it’s a smart way to streamline the action. There’s an undeniable thrill in avoiding incoming attacks in bullet-hell-like action.
The game also uses the Tomb Raider license in subtler but nonetheless effective ways. Keeley Hawes (Tomb Raider: Anniversary) returns to voice Lara, while series familiars like Winston and Werner Von Croy and the City of Vilcabamba and Lost Valley make appearances. I could do without the Chibi-style aesthetic, though, which feels like an odd fit for Tomb Raider.
The biggest issue with Tomb Raider Reloaded, however, is its monetization. This is a problem for many mobile games, to be sure, but it’s especially troublesome here. In particular, Reloaded has an egregious ‘energy’ system that limits how much you can play unless, you guessed it, you spend real money. It feels extremely dated in a 2023 game, creating needless friction to an otherwise fine experience.
In fact, there are over 10 types of currencies (including Coins, Gems, Tokens and Manuals) that are used for miscellaneous upgrades, gear unlocks, bonuses and more. Considering the appealing approachability of the core gameplay, it’s frustrating that everything surrounding it has become so muddled by monetization.
That said, there is a workaround. The entire experience, sans all of these in-app purchases, is available through Netflix Games. In other words, anyone with a Netflix subscription can download Reloaded at no additional cost. If you haven’t been planning to cancel the service due to its recent password-sharing crackdown, it’s far easier to recommend. That way, you can enjoy the simple-yet-engaging gameplay without the annoying monetization.
Tomb Raider Reloaded can be downloaded for free on Android and iOS or through Netflix Games.
Part of the appeal of HBO’s The Last of Us series is how it adds to the story of the original PlayStation game upon which it’s based.
In one case, this meant dramatically expanding the love story between Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) in the standout third episode, which was only hinted at in the original game. Elsewhere, this might lead to introducing new characters.
Nowhere has the latter been more apparent than in Episodes 4 and 5 of the show, in which creators and showrunners Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann (the original The Last of Us game) introduce not one, but two new figures. Enter Kansas City revolutionary leader Kathleen (Yellowjackets‘ Melanie Lynskey) and her right-hand man Perry (Bosch‘s Jeffrey Pierce).
Jeffrey Pierce as Perry.
But for fans of both 2013’s The Last of Us and its 2020 sequel, Pierce is perhaps most recognizable for another role: Tommy, the younger brother of protagonist Joel. With Gabriel Luna (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) portraying Tommy in the series, Pierce has been given the chance to play a completely new character. It wasn’t always going to be that way, though.
“They actually had me read for a different part, and they had me read for it three times,” Pierce reveals to MobileSyrup in a roundtable interview. While he coyly declined to reveal what that part might be, he says Mazin and Druckmann soon presented him with the character of Perry.
“Ultimately, they came back and said, ‘Look, we’re never gonna believe you as a victim, which is a very gratifying thing to hear.’ And a week later, they called and said, ‘Hey, we got this guy that we think you’d be perfect for.’ So it was sort of a roundabout way back to the kind of casting that is really in my wheelhouse.”
Indeed, Perry is tough and resolved like Tommy, but with a unique wrinkle that sets him apart thanks to his relationship with Kathleen. Where Tommy leaves Joel (Pedro Pascal) to go off on his own, Perry follows Kathleen, who’s taken over as revolutionary leader from her brother, and serves as both muscle and advisor.
“I enjoyed Tommy for a lot of reasons, but Perry is the sort of iconic Ronin samurai who’s found his purpose, and what more could I ask for?” says Pierce.
Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen.
For Pierce, the HBO series also presented a new way to experience a world he’s acted in for well over 10 years. In the games, he’d record in a studio with no resemblance to The Last of Us‘ post-apocalyptic world, surrounded by fellow actors in offbeat motion-capture outfits.
While he says the challenge of imagining everything through motion capture “takes you back to the roots of why you fell in love with acting,” he was still in awe of the experience of actually filming in real Alberta locations. With an estimated budget of over $100 million USD (about $133.7 million CAD), The Last of Us is believed to be the most expensive TV production in Canadian history, and it shows.
“Walking onto the sets that they built, especially for Episode 5’s climactic exchange — they built that entire neighbourhood. That was a parking lot, and they built it from the ground up,” he says, referring to the big battle between Kathleen’s forces and infected creatures that Joel, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), Henry (Toronto’s Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard) get dragged into.
“And if there’s any CG, it’s just the sky. Everything else is practical. And that was unbelievable. I mean, it’s got to be 15 to 20 houses that they built the skeletons of, and then the actual façades of, and then they’ve got one that’s burned down, and the only thing left was a chimney. And they did every single piece of detail in there. So to get to come to play on something that was given that much love and sweat and blood to build — you felt that you had to honour what they had done with your work. And that made it a really, really special experience.”
Also adding to his time on the show: Calgary.
“With COVID, I was kept pretty contained [in] downtown Calgary, which was still great. I’ve shot all over Canada, and the thing that I enjoy, regardless of where I’ve been, is the people. They’re just such a lovely bunch. And that crew in Calgary was amazing. This is another first experience, and I think there were probably 250, 300 people on the crew. And more than two-thirds of them took that job because they were fans of the game; [it] impacted their lives in such a way that maybe that’s why they got into production, maybe that’s why they got into TV and film. But they took that job specifically because it was The Last of Us.”
For Pierce, this all brought his long-running journey with The Last of Us full circle.
“Walking onto set the first day was like walking into my own living room because everyone knew me as Tommy from the game and were just so warm and welcoming and kind and generous. I think it was maybe my favourite experience filming because of that.”
Hogwarts Legacy is a third-person action-adventure role-playing game with several faults, but the most notable exists outside the title itself. Because of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s stance on trans people, many are justifiably backing away from the Wizarding World, including this game.
My love of the Wizarding World started later than many. I didn’t get into the franchise until my teens, as my parents forbade anything related to witchcraft. However, as a teenager, I decided I was old enough to venture into the fantastical books and movies without asking my parents’ permission.
Many of my peers were right — the story was pretty good, and my love grew for the Harry Potter series as I read each book and watched every movie. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was my favourite of the titles. But even beyond Harry and his friends, I loved the world, the dragons, the spells, the potions, and, most importantly, I wanted my own acceptance letter to Hogwarts.
Clearly, I was too old to be accepted (not to mention the fact that Hogwarts doesn’t actually exist), but I still dreamed of exploring the school’s halls, going to the magical classes, and even taking the fifth-year O.W.L. exams.
I’m almost 30 years old now, but Avalanche Software finally delivered my invitation to Hogwarts through Hogwarts Legacy, and I loved every minute of it.
Hogwarts
Hogwarts Castle is beautiful. As I’m nearing my 20th hour in the game, I still haven’t found all transportable locations in the school, and I’ve solved even fewer of its secrets. The school and its surrounding grounds are more magical than I could have ever imagined.
The castle features moving portraits, ghosts, and a massive staircase that magically moves into position when you ascend. It also has frogs that swallow you whole and spit you out in another location, books that flap their pages like wings, and bronze moths attracted to your Lumos spell. Exploring the castle was one of the most appealing parts of the game; I’ve spent hours traversing the castle’s secrets and trying to figure out its various puzzles.
Story-wise, the game takes you through unexpected twists and turns before you reach the castle, but once you do, you’re directed to head straight to the Great Hall, where you arrive at the end of the Sorting Hat ceremony. After the hat asks a couple of questions, it sorts you into either Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff or Slytherin. You can pick your desired house if you’re not a fan of the Hogwarts Legacy’s suggestion.
The hat suggested Slytherin for me, and I was escorted to the house’s common room, which revealed itself after a bronze snake slithered through the floor onto the wall, forming the room door. We learn the most about the Gryffindor common room in the films and books, so seeing Slytherin’s hall in Hogwarts Legacy is very cool. Aside from the staircase, the entire Slytherin dorm is underwater, with windows that look out into the Black Lake beside Hogwarts. Here, in the dorm, you meet a few of the key characters that you’ll interact with frequently throughout the game.
While discovering the secrets of the school, you’ll also meet professors and take classes that appear in your quest log as side missions. After each lesson, you learn something new, like a spell or how to ride a broom, create potions, and make the most of mandrakes. Interestingly, some main quests required specific spells that you can only learn by completing sidequests. However, if it’s not a spell required for the main mission or a side quest, you can skip learning it. I still haven’t finished the requirements to go to my second Herbology class, as I hate using magical plants (a condition to take the class), and I could care less about the Flipendo spell.
Beyond Hogwarts, which I could spend hours talking about, you can explore Hogsmeade’s several shops, including Ollivanders, where you get your own wand, and the Three Broomsticks, a rustic tavern where the characters drink Butterbeer in the novels and movies. You can also explore the rest of the world, including various towns in the countryside, the Forbidden Forest, caves in the nearby mountains and more.
There are a couple of forms of transportation, including broomstick and Hippogriff, that make traversing the world easy and fun. I elected to fly across the fields on my Hippogriff, called Caligo, instead of transporting to different points on the map. And seeing how the world changes from season to season, I was impressed by how different and beautiful the world looked during the fall and winter months. Like in the movies, Christmas was just as magical.
Wingardium Levios
Hogwarts Legacy ensures its gameplay is exciting by using spells for everything; if a cave is too dark, the ‘Lumos’ spell can light your way. If you need to move a box to get to higher ground, you use ‘Accio’ to pull it and ‘Levioso’ to make it rise. If you see a lock, instead of a lockpick, you use ‘Alohomora’ to unlock it, and if you want to burn some shrubbery in your way, you cast ‘Incendio’ or ‘Confringo.’
The spells are easy to access, and you can efficiently utilize up to 16. Of course, there are more than 16 spells, but even if you don’t have the right one in your slots, you can easily add it in less than 20 seconds. Unfortunately, messing with your spell slots is so easy that I’ve accidentally moved some during combat, leading me to cast the wrong one when fighting a mountain troll.
Combat flowed smoothly, and I felt like a true wizard. You can pull an enemy in with ‘Accio,’ make them crash to the ground with ‘Descendo,’ and then throw them away with ‘Depulso.’ Or, you can freeze an enemy with ‘Glacio,’ then blow them up with ‘Confringo’ to deal extra damage. Spells thrown at you can be quickly blocked with a ‘Protego’ shield and followed up with ‘Stupify’ to stun them.
Ultimately, Hogwarts Legacy made me feel like a wizard. Of course, there are several issues. For example, while some fights go well, if you’re off your rhythm or have a spell slotted into the wrong spot, it can throw off the course of the battle.
Either way, Hogwarts Legacy’s combat is thrilling, and I purposefully fight any enemy I come across because stringing spell combos together is incredibly fun. You also have Ancient Magic available, which adds cool-looking finishers. Some burn enemies to dust, while another calls down lightning and blows them up. My favourite is a specific finisher for fighting spiders that makes them smaller in order to squash them.
Ancient magic
My least favourite part of the game is the main story. In Hogwarts Legacy, your goal is to stop a Goblin rebellion. The leader of the uprising, Ranrok, uses some form of evil ancient magic and a wand, which Goblins are forbidden from casting in the Wizarding World. Your character, a student in their fifth year who’s just learning magic (for an unexplained reason), encounters this evil Goblin after a surprise teleportation to Gringotts.
To defeat Ranrok, you have to unravel the secrets of this ancient magic by solving puzzles, defeat statued knights, speak to past professors through magical talking portraits and look into Pensieves to learn more about the past (a Pensieve is a unique instrument that allows you to view the memories of other wizards).
While trying to solve ancient mysteries, you’ll also need to slow down Ranrok and dark wizards before they uncover a mysterious ultimate evil power. I won’t say much more about the storyline, but you’ll forge friendships with your classmates in both primary and sidequests, and eventually start working together to take down these foes.
It feels like you’re watching a Harry Potter movie, so the tone and events in the game are on point and, like other aspects of the franchise, bring you into the Wizarding World.
However overall, I didn’t find the story very compelling, but at the same time, it’s the type of tale I probably would have enjoyed when I was younger. 10-year-old Dean would have dreamed of participating in this story and fighting against leagues of villainous wizards.
Polyjuice Potion
You get to create your own character at the start of the game, and as a Black person, I’m impressed by the character customization options. There are a variety of skin tones and hairstyles — about five different hairstyles typically seen on Black men, which is more than many of the games I’ve played in the past.
While you can adjust aspects of your face or skin tone with a slider, several other settings allow you to customize your character, including a face option featuring varying sizes of ears, noses, lips and more. You can also select your voice and decide if you’re a witch or a wizard, whether you choose feminine or masculine features. I think it’s important to mention that choosing between a witch and a wizard is too limiting because there are a variety of genders in the world.
In terms of Hogwarts Legacy’s characters, however, there is a lot of diversity.
Teachers are of varying skin tones, and so are classmates — even though most of my Slytherin classmates are white. The bartender of the Three Broomsticks is also trans and reportedly voiced by a trans voice actor, though some argue this character was only added to Hogwarts Legacy to fight against the Rowling backlash.
I tried to make my character look just like me, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get my wizard exactly how I wanted. There also aren’t options for how slender or large you can make your character. However, oddly, my hair can be recreated precisely — blonde hair with a fade, and you can see my roots almost perfectly.
Aside from my actual appearance, players can also decide what they want to wear. You’ll find different gear, scarves, robes, uniforms, hats and more throughout the game. Each piece of equipment has defence and offence stats and traits or trait slots that offer a bit of an edge in battle, like a more powerful ‘Crucio’ curse. You can create new traits to slot into gear if it has the required slots. You can also change the appearance of any outfit, which is a nice touch. This means that if one robe has higher stats than the stylish robe you were rocking, you can easily adjust its appearance, so the higher stats match the one you grew fond of.
In Hogwarts, you can also access a fully customizable Room of Requirement. You can add decorations like paintings, mirrors, statues and more. You can also change the room’s appearance, the style of the floors and walls, grow plants for Herbology, make potions and tame beasts.
The forests around Hogwarts are also filled with poachers, so part of the story has the player saving beasts like griffins, Thestrals, Kneazles, unicorns and more. Once you’ve saved several creatures, you can store them in your vivariums, and play, feed, groom and breed them. For me, catching and taming these beasts is one of the most fun parts of Hogwarts Legacy, and they give you access to magical items you can use to create traits that attach to your gear. I loved the struggle of catching a unicorn, breading them and then raising and caring for a baby unicorn.
Sorting Hat
Hogwarts Legacy’s user interface is far from perfect. The menu isn’t the best and can be confusing at times, but it’s easy enough to navigate once you get the hang of it. Further, levelling up is a bit different than other role-playing games. Every time you level up, you’re awarded ‘Talent Points,’ which you use to get new perks, including being more difficult to discover when using the Disillusionment charm or giving your ‘Bombarda’ incantation a larger blast radius. There are core talents that increase the benefit of health potions and the range of the ‘Revelio’ spell.
I’ve been playing the game with increased fidelity and ray tracing, and it looks stunning on PS5. Of course, there are prettier titles — Demon’s Souls and Ratchet and Clank, for example — but Hogwarts Legacy isn’t a current-gen exclusive title, so it’s expected not to look as good as titles built from the ground up for Sony’s latest console. The game can run at 4K or 60fps, depending on which graphics mode you select.
It’s worth noting that I had a few issues with an NPC cutting through an elevator and another situation where I got stuck swimming; with the latter glitch, I had to quit the game. You’ll notice bugs occasionally, but for the most part, they aren’t game-breaking.
Avada Kavadra
Hogwarts Legacy is slow to start, but once it starts ramping up, it becomes stellar.
The game isn’t as narrative-heavy as titles like God of War, but it reminds me of Insomniac’s Spider-Man. To be clear, I’m not saying that these two games have a lot in common, but they both feature great exploration, an easy way to get around their large maps, enemies to fight, and sidequests that have you looking everywhere.
I wish the game featured little things like Quidditch or romance options — of course, no snogging, as they’re children. However, there could have been a cute dance like in The Goblet of Fire. I would also like a morality system for when I cast the ‘Crucio’ Unforgivable Curse on enemies, as well as a way to use the beasts you catch in combat, like some sort of magical Pokémon game.
Hogwarts Legacy is a fantastic title that has, unfortunately, been muddled by very justified controversy — Rowling definitely ruined a video game that could have been great for many. I loved being a wizard soaring through the air on my broomstick, casting spells, and taming beasts, and I smile every time I pick up the controller to play more.
Hogwarts Legacy is available on PC, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has repeatedly stated her anti-trans position. Dean Daley and MobileSyrup do not endorse Rowling’s anti-trans stance. This story includes several resources explaining how trans and LGBTQ2S+ people feel about Rowling and why many have opted not to play Hogwarts Legacy. MobileSyrup hopes to use this review as an opportunity to educate those who are not familiar with these important issues.
At the end of last week’s episode of The Last of Us, a man and his little brother get the drop on Joel and Ellie, holding them at gunpoint.
Those who’ve played the original PlayStation game that inspired the hit HBO series will recognize them as Henry and Sam, arguably two of its most memorable characters. (If you know, you know.)
But what many might not know, however, is that the older brother, Henry, is played by Toronto’s own Lamar Johnson. The 28-year-old actor is best known for a lead role in the Canadian teen drama series The Next Step, as well as appearances in the likes of The Hate U Give and Your Honor. He also stars in Brother, an upcoming Toronto-set drama that garnered rave reviews at TIFF.
Henry (Johnson) and Sam (Woodard). Image credit: HBO
While that brotherly relationship was present in the game, the show tweaks Henry’s background by giving him a troubled history with the new character, Kathleen, a ruthless revolutionary leader played by Yellowjackets‘ Melanie Lynskey.
Some other changes from the game: HBO’s version of Sam is younger and Deaf (Woodard is also Deaf himself), which is a nice move for representation. We’ll see this all play out in the fifth episode, titled “Endure and Survive.”
Henry (performed by Brandon Scott) in The Last of Us’ PS5 remake. Image credit: PlayStation
Johnson is one of The Last of Us‘ many Canadian connections. Most notably, the series was filmed in Alberta for an entire year, shooting in such locations as Calgary, Edmonton, High River and Lethbridge. However, it was the small town of Canmore that stars Pedro Pascal (Joel) and Bella Ramsey (Ellie) raved the most about in a recent interview with MobileSyrup. “Every inch of Canmore was just this magical little town… with really great fudge,” Pascal told us.
South Korea-based PUBG publisher Krafton has opened its first Canadian studio in Montreal.
The appropriately named Krafton Montreal is working on a game based on the Korean fantasy novel, The Bird That Drinks Tears.
Krafton Montreal will be led by Patrik Méthé, a Ubisoft Montreal veteran who co-directed Far Cry 3, 4 and 5. The team is currently made up of 15 people but aims to grow up to 150 over the next three years. Some of the other former Ubisoft staff that Méthé has brought with him so far include game director Frédéric Duroc (Prince of Persia), producer Benoit Frappier (Rainbow Six) and technology director Martin Paradis (Assassin’s Creed).
It’s not yet clear what type of game the untitled project will end up being, as the team is still in the early stages, Méthé told GamesIndustry.biz. However, it’s confirmed to be a single-player title.
Interestingly, Méthé also told the publication that he was “very, very involved” in the tabletop RPG space, at one point even owning his own store selling Dungeons and Dragons products. Therefore, the project may draw inspiration from such IPs.
Méthé was brought onto Krafton in October 2022, and since then has been looking for a dedicated office space for the team. It remains to be seen where Krafton Montreal will ultimately set up shop.
Regardless, Krafton is the latest in an ever-growing list of studios to expand into Montreal. With nearly 20,000 workers across 200-plus studios, the city is one of the top five biggest game development hubs in the world, per the economic development agency Montreal International. Lucrative tax incentives and a deep pool of developer talent have made the city a particularly appealing hub for the gaming industry.
Krafton, meanwhile, has two other studios in North America: the California-based teams Striking Distance (the recent Callisto Protocol) and Unknown Worlds Entertainment (Subnautica).
After getting the PC home, I ripped open the box and was pleasantly surprised with how clean and well-packed it was. For a $140 refurb, this was definitely done professionally by someone. Once I got the PC out, I connected it to my monitor to ensure it worked. Thankfully, everything functioned fine, so it was time to start modding.
After a few test fits, I was able to get the GPU in, but it was too large for the front I/O connector, so that had to be removed. I tried shearing my GPU shoulder down to feed the cable through it, but nothing fit, so after about an hour of fiddling around, I gave up and sacrificed the four front USB ports in the name of gaming.
With the GPU seated in the case nicely, I went to plug it in only to realize that the Dell power supply unit (PSU) attached to this PC only does 290 watts and had no modern GPU connectors.
I slotted it in when I got home and quickly realized that Dell used a proprietary 8-pin power connector on some of its OptiPlex motherboards. Another hurdle, but after an hour of troubleshooting, it seemed that the 24 to 8-pin adapter used in this video was my best bet. I ordered it on Amazon, and it came in the next day. To my surprise, it worked flawlessly.
