For example, we'll look at an instance dungeon and it's within that circle of 60 to 70 percent,

The climax of Dead Pixels, E4's recent sitcom from the creators of Peep Show and based on a group of friends obsessed with an online fantasy video game, was surprisingly affecting. After years of questing together, the friends, for whom the game had become the crucible in which their bonds had been made and reinforced, successfully plant the "Orb of Uncreation" into the slug queen's egg sac and thereby triumphantly conclude the game's story. "No, this was totally, totally worth it," murmurs one of the players into the head mic she uses to chat to her teammates (one of whom plays from the adjacent bedroom). It's a joke about the fallacy of so much human endeavour, from stamp collecting to Westminster jostling: the hollow realisation that the appeal often lies in the striving, not the attaining. It also strikes at the heart of a truth about a certain kind of online video game, played at a certain point of early adulthood.

Square Enix hasn't held an E3 press conference since 2015, a full three years ago. So when I heard they were holding one this year, I assumed there must be some huge announcements on the way. The focus was very much on Kingdom Hearts III, which isn't coming to PC. The highlight for us was Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but...well, we just saw that one two months ago. Overall it wasn't the event I was hoping for, but we've gone ahead and rounded up all the announcements below, along with any trailers and game footage we could find.

The first chap I meet in the Summerset Isles is an elf with a Sean Penn face who gripes about how he's missing out on a wine tasting because some local Wood Elves "offed" the vintner, because of course. This, after all, is the closed beta for The Elder Scrolls Online's Summerset expansion ($40 on Amazon), which whisks us off to the ancestral homes of the High Elves, a magical land crammed with haughty wizards, Neuschwanstein-like villas, and flora that likely would have been at home in Eden. This dude just wants his wine, and I can appreciate that. ZeniMax Online's game may be crawling with elves and the occasional grumpy orc, but no other MMORPG feels quite so human. That's not to say that other MMOs like Final Fantasy XIV and Star Wars: The Old Republic don't spin a good yarn, but they're more concerned with high drama and the oh-so-important Fate of the World.

"Games as a Service" has become a buzzword in recent months, especially in the wake of November's Star Wars Battlefront II lootbox controversy. The lootbox association has also tainted the term, tying it inextricably to what's at best seen as a "necessary evil" in the industry. But the basic idea behind Games as a Service is a net positive in theory: The games you like get expanded upon after release. It's what people liked about MMOs, but for all genres--the silver lining to this digital future, with its Day One patches and all the other stuff players like to grumble about. So let's celebrate the games that got it right.