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Rock Paper Shotgun
29  mars     08h00
What are we all playing this Easter weekend?
   Have you said hello to our new staff writer, Nic Reuben yet You should say hi to Nic. You’ve already been reading him on RPS for years as a freelancer, but he’s ours now. Is us now. In other news, hey, it’s a long weekend Most of us sorry, Alice Bee have Friday off and Monday too, so expect us...
28  mars     22h44
The Outer Worlds and Thief are free from Epic next week
   Head over to the Epic Games Store on April th and you’ll be able to grab The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition and Thief for free and to keep forever. Like a thief Read more
    21h47
Metal: Hellsinger VR re-tools the rhythm shooter for headbanging in a headset
   Rhythm shooter Metal: Hellsinger has you circle strafing Quake style level layouts at high speed while you shoot demons to the beat. I meet the news that it’s getting a VR version this year with some trepidation, therefore. Do I really want to vomit on the beat Read more
    21h20
Embracer say their restructure is over, but it’s too early to start acquiring studios again
   Earlier today, megacorp Embracer announced they were selling Borderlands developer Gearbox to Take Two. During an investor call about the divestment, CEO Lars Wingefors confirmed that this brought an end to the restructuring process Embracer announced last year. He was also asked whether this meant...
    20h45
Sega Of America staff have ratified a union contract, the first to do so at a major US studio
   Sega Of America employees have become the first a major US video games studio to ratify a union contract. The contract covers guarantees minimum yearly pay increases for around staff through . Read more
    17h00
The developers of Dead Cells, Darkest Dungeon and Slay The Spire are launching their own triple-I Game Awards
   A regular rogue’s gallery of independent game developers including the makers of Dead Cells, Slay The Spire, Darkest Dungeon, Spiritfarer, Terraria and V Rising have clubbed together to run their own videogame showcase: the Triple I Initiative. Initially screening on th April, it’ll be a ...
    17h00
The Rally Point: Command & Conquer Generals would be the best game in the series if it didn’t have boring racist stereotypes
   You wouldn’t believe how long I’ve been bumping Command Conquer Generals down the list because but it’s abandonware and a pain in the hole to run makes for a more frustrating read than and it’s available here . Ever the afterthought, Generals has shimmered between abandonware and temporarily...
    16h24
A new Borderlands is in active development but new owners Take-Two don’t have much to say
   Alongside announcing plans to buy Borderlands developers Gearbox from the collapsing wreckage of Embracer Group, Borderlands publishers Take Two overnight casually mentioned that they are in active development on next installment in Borderlands series . This isn’t a formal announcement as much as...
    16h00
The Electronic Wireless Show podcast S3 episode 12: Helldivers 2 has a game master and this is good
   A month ago Arrowhead’s CEO revealed the existence of Joel technically J.O.E.L., in game , a game master running the galactic battle of Helldivers . A human being who gets up in the middle of the night to throw more robots at players if they’re doing too well. We at the RPS Electronic Wireless...
    16h00
Pepper Grinder review: short, sweet and incredibly neat
   Pepper Grinder is one of those games that has so many great moments in it that recounting them would almost feel unfair to anyone hoping to play it. There are feats of platforming prowess on show here that should really be experienced fresh and unsullied by rudimentary descriptions of them, because...
    15h46
Void Sols is an atmospheric and highly customisable Soulslike for people who are rubbish at Soulslikes
   You know me and Soulslikes. We’re not particularly best buddies most of the time. We’ve had a couple of successful outings over the years with the likes of Death’s Door and Hollow Knight and company, but anything with pure FromSoft blood running through its veins has always left me cold. Void Sols,...
    15h16
I’m enjoying the unique challenge of playing Darktide with rubbish weapons and no talents
   I’ve griped before that Warhammer , Darktide hides satisfying challenges behind tedious grind, but another interesting challenge is easily missed and forgotten at the opposite end of the scale. Darktide is hard when you start a new character, with weapons that barely scratch some foes and no...
    12h47
In Chymicalia, you’re the slave of a teleporting alchemy shop
   Chymicalia is an adventure game and or visual novel about causing chaos in a small Yorkshire town with unlicensed alchemy . Hey, I’m from a small Yorkshire town originally I recognise that chip shop with the palsied neon sign And hey, that looks like the underpass they told us kids to stay away...
    11h53
Bandai Namco would like you to have a free dog
   Today I learned that ’Wanko’ is Japanese for dog, rather than just being Aussie slang in the vein of ’smoko’ or my favourite, ’bottle o’, which is what they call an off license. I learnt this because of Doronko Wanko, a lovely free game about a dirty pomeranian where you try to score as high as...
    11h41
Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone Season 3 brings back fan-favourite maps, adds new perks and modes
   Activision have revealed what’s coming to Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone in its upcoming Season update. For Modern Warfare, there’s a slew of new and remastered vs maps, new modes, and Zombies story additions. As for Warzone, highlights include the return of fan favourite...
    11h32
Stardew Valley mini-update adds pet adoption, fixes moss issues arising from the 1.6 mega-update
   Stardew Valley, one of our favourite RPGs despite coming out almost a decade ago, still has an attentive steward in the form of developer Eric Barone. After the recent . mega update to the game, which added a whole bunch of stuff, Barone better known in his developer form as ConcernedApe Xeeted...
    11h29
Embracer sell Borderlands devs Gearbox to Rockstar parent Take-Two for 460 million in shares
   Embracer have announced that they’re selling Borderlands developers Gearbox Entertainment to Take Two Interactive, owners of K Games and GTA developers Rockstar, for million in Take Two shares. Three Gearbox Software studios the flagship studio in Texas, together with Gearbox Montréal and...
    11h04
Sega sell Company of Heroes developer Relic and lays off more staff at Creative Assembly and Hardlight
   Sonic Dream Team developer Hardlight and Total War studio Creative Assembly have been hit with a round of layoffs by publisher SEGA Europe, affecting around roles across Creative Assembly, SEGA Europe, and Hardlight, via IGN. Staff were notified by an email sent around this morning from SEGA...
    10h49
Join us, varlets, to talk Warhammer 40,000: Darktide in today’s RPS Game Club liveblog
   The time is nigh for this month’s RPS Game Club liveblog, where we’ll of course be discussing Warhammer , : Darktide. We’ve already had some good pre chat, and now at pm GMT today March th , we’ll reconvene right here for a proper st Millennium natter. Read more
27  mars     18h52
Ex-Dragon Age director’s new studio teases their new fantasy RPG ahead of a full reveal next week
   More than three years after former Dragon Age lead designer Mike Laidlaw was revealed to have joined forces with fellow games industry veterans behind the likes of Assassin’s Creed under newfounded studio Yellow Brick Games, the developers are finally teasing their first game. And yup, it’s...
    18h21
One of Ukraine’s most famous mines has been preserved in Minecraft to help rebuild a school bombed by Russia
   You can now explore one of Ukraine’s most iconic natural landmarks and the largest salt mine in Europe in Minecraft. The virtual replica of the Soledar salt mines and their surrounding town, occupied by Russia troops for the past year in real life, has been led by the wartorn country’s...
    18h05
Here’s how the Homeworld 3 devs are improving the game after delaying release over demo feedback
   After delaying the launch of Homeworld by two months to address criticism of the spacefleet shoot o strategy game’s demo, developers Blackbird Interactive have now laid out what they’re changing. Improved controls, tougher ships, more useful formations, better Attack Move command, more HUD...
    17h54
What’s better: A button to unlock all unlocks, or the spell Fireball?
   Last time you decided by a margin of a mere three votes that drawing Frog Detective’s magnifying glass is better than drawing Blade Runner’s gun. That might be the closest result yet. Now if only Frog Detective could become a Blade Runner charged with helping attend a big dance party. Onwards This...
    17h42
You can give Overwatch 2’s new drill-wielding, burrowing damage hero Venture a spin for free later this week
   Overwatch ’s next damage hero Venture is tunnelling into the free to play shooter a little early for a while anyway. Before the new drillin’ DPS makes their official arrival next month, they’ll be available to take for a spin from tomorrow through the weekend. Read more
    17h10
Xbox Cloud Gaming has added keyboard and mouse support for PC and browsers (sorta)
   Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft’s game streaming platform, finally lets you actually use a keyboard and mouse to play on PC. There’s a bit of a catch for now, though, in that it’s only a beta test for now with a small selection of games supported. Still, it’s something Read more
    17h09
Hellgate: London’s original creator announces new Hellgate game
   I’ve not played Hellgate: London, but I’m sure I must’ve passed it on the shelves in Gamestation I’ll never forget you, friend way back when. Apparently, the original was a dark fantasy action RPG with roguelike elements and MMO subscription models before developer Flagship Studios shut down....
    16h46
Horizon Forbidden West makes a fine Steam Deck game, if you can make room for it
   Not every March released, fantastical action RPG will fall to bits on the Steam Deck. Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition succeeds where Dragon’s Dogma spluttered, quietly yet capably adapting to handheld hardware. Keeping performance up requires a fair bit of fine tuning the graphics...
    16h00
Open Roads review: a short but bittersweet story about families and secrets
   I went into Open Roads pretty cold, knowing only that it was a story driven road trip game with some element of mystery to it. The mystery is really just a backdrop, though a device to better bring forth the themes of family and secrets. Most specifically it’s about mother daughter relationships,...
    15h53
Build tiny castles in another new relaxing diorama-em-up, out now
   I approve of the recent trend towards making building games as relaxing as possible e.g. Summerhouse . Today sees the release of a new one on Steam, this one a teeny medieval city builder called Le Château that gives you strict limitations for building a castle. You can have a go of the demo for...
    15h33
Dune: Awakening may eventually take players beyond Arrakis to other planets
   A couple of decades ago there was a period when all videogames and especially all Unreal Engine videogames had to be brown and grey and dingy. The Gears of Warrification of graphics, we used to call it, huddled up in the chest high trenches with our Xbox controllers. Survival MMO Dune...
    15h25
No Man’s Sky Orbital Update brings full ship customisation and a complete space station overhaul
   Is there a developer more fiendishly dedicated to giving fans endless returns on their initial investment than No Man’s Sky studio Hello Games It’s not a competition, mind, but they’d surely be a strong contender if it were. Despite dropping the Omega update just last month, and unveiling fantasy...
    15h00
Geneforge 2 - Infestation review: bold and great like Baldur’s Gate
   Like the good works of Calvin Klein, these genes come pre distressed. Geneforge Infestation is fresh from the rack, yet looks and functions like the CRPGs of the late s. Where most isometric throwbacks these days offer a forced perspective over D scenes, Geneforge is the real deal its...
    15h00
Netease announce Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play 6v6 shooter that desperately wants to be superhero Team Fortress
   In case Amy Hennig’s Captain America and Black Panther game : Rise Of Hydra wasn’t going to be quite enough to satisfy your Marvel hunger, Netease have just announced they’ve got another comic book bun in the oven for you. Marvel Rivals is a free to play, third person team shooter where two...
    15h00
Sandworms are the spice in Dune: Awakening’s otherwise quite familiar survival simming
   When Herbert Spencer coined the phrase survival of the fittest to describe Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory, I’m pretty sure he didn’t envisage the rise of a species of videogame, the survival sim, which would one day itself suffer an unsustainable population explosion during the layoff...
    11h52
First Dwarf gameplay shows off colony survival combat as a mech-riding dwarf and a tiny polyglot dragon
   Is there a definitive geological difference between rock and stone Google tells me the main consensus is that stones are just smaller rocks, which sounds like a flimsy distinction to base a catchphrase on. I’m not sure when this would come up, unless maybe you were a biblical heretic trying to...
    10h52
Failbetter’s next game will be gentler than Sunless Skies: you won’t go mad or eat your crew
   Fallen London and Sunless Skies developers Failbetter Games have blogged about the dark art of running a sustainable business, while sharing a tiny bit more about their next, unannounced game. Said game is apparently a change of genre from Failbetter’s previous, exceedingly narrative driven open...
    10h30
Horizon Forbidden West review: the action adventure sequel has even more robot dinosaurs, of course it’s good
   Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the post apocalyptic wilderness, the giant dinosaur robots return. In fact, they never left Go gettin’, arrow shootin’ warrior Aloy managed to delay the end of the world in Horizon Zero Dawn, but the death train is still chugging along to all life on...
    10h27
Judas has reactive difficulty, evil dentist chairs, and a giant robot dog for fast travel
   Following up yesterday’s news on Ghost Story Games’ upcoming Judas, courtesy of the Ian Games Network, another interview with the Friends Per Second podcast, via SkillUp on YouTube, has shed light aplenty on the upcoming Bioshock ian FPS game. The hosts played the game for hours at Ghost Story...
26  mars     23h14
V Rising is getting a free Castlevania crossover to coincide with its 1.0 launch
   V Rising confirmed it would reach . on May th just a couple of weeks ago, delivering changes to the survival action RPG’s PvP and endgame. There’s an extra sweetener in . announced today, however: a Castlevania crossover where players can fight Simon Belmont and make off with his whip. ...
    22h55
Diablo 4’s Game Pass launch still requires a Battle.net account, of course
   Diablo is headed to Game Pass in just a couple more days, on March th, giving the stingy but curious like me a chance to click demons to death at lower cost. As preperation, Microsoft have outlined the steps necessary to link your Game Pass account to a Battle.net account because what is a...
    22h11
Lego Fortnite gets driveable, customisable vehicles in Mechanical Mayhem update
   Lego Fortnite’s latest update lets players construct their own vehicles. The Mechanical Mayhem update, out now, adds three vehicle builds, and new items which let players craft their own custom designs. It’s the second major update to the blocky survival game since its launch last year. Read more
    21h45
The Crew Motorfest arrives on Steam in April, weeks after The Crew 1 turns off
   On March st, Ubisoft’s open world racing game The Crew will be turned off for good. As of right now, no one can buy the ten year old racer, but come the end of the month, even those that did buy it will no longer be able to play it. On April th, The Crew Motorfest will arrive on Steam after...
    17h27
Survival game City 20 is The Sims set in the world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
   I find myself increasingly turned off these days by simulations that boast of endless butterfly effects. I guess my misgivings can be boiled down to a chain of dominoes is still a chain of dominoes even if it’s metres in extent . Without some reason to care supplied by a narrative or broader...
    17h14
Bioshock creator Ken Levine’s Judas has roguelike elements, organic powers, and non-linear storytelling
   Good news for people who don’t cringe violently every time they encounter the phrase Narrative Legos We’ve finally got some more details about the extremely Bioshock adjacent Judas, courtesy of the Ian Games Network, who spent six hours playing the game and chatting to Levine at Ghost Story...
    16h44
Enshrouded adds deadly dungeons and potted plants today in first big update
   Fantasy craft o building survival sandbox game Enshrouded today launched its first big content update, two months after entering early access. You can now enter the Hollow Halls, a series of challenging dungeons scattered around the world with new enemies and rewards. Or at the opposite end of the...
    16h00
The best quest in Dragons Dogma 2 turns my weird hobby of NPC stalking into an actual objective
   If you’ve read my duology on spending far too long queuing in Hitman, you’ll know I’ve a predilection for the virtual people watching of NPCs in games that have some sort of schedule system. It’s a wholesome pursuit of game design knowledge I stammer, as the guards approach. It gives me a...
    15h59
Minor quirks aside, Horizon Forbidden West is a peach of a PC port
   While the PC release of Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition has effectively made my PS ownership pointless, I can’t stay mad at it. Besides being a sumptuous, endlessly satisfying sci fi romp with one of the prettiest open worlds in gaming, it’s also a very respectable porting job, with...
    15h00
Don’t call it a God of War killer, but Flintlock feels like a classic summer blockbuster
   Swashbuckling third person action RPG Flintlock: The Siege Of Dawn is, amongst other things, a gentle homage to New Zealand, developer A Games’s country of origin. You do have to look for it, mind you. The game’s art direction at large is an elegant hodgepodge of inspirations that deserves to be...
    14h43
Cities: Skylines 2 now has mod support, so you can soon annoy drivers with Spaghetti Junction 2.0
   Troubled city building game Cities: Skylines is getting a little less troubled, as new patch . . f adds various performance and bug fixes alongside the main event: much requested mod support and tools in the form a nifty editor. We got a first look at the new editor tools last October, which...
    14h00
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles review: cliffside citybuilding that dries up sooner than you’d hope
   Maintaining the thrum of a finely tuned citybuilder has to be one of the most satisfying acts of video game plate spinning around. Nursing that constant flow of foot traffic, produce and profits, all of them teetering on a carefully honed knife edge, that’s the good stuff right there. Of course, it...