A mysterious new session-based co-operative shooter has been announced by Ubisoft, codenamed Project U. There aren’t many details to go on just yet, but the game is in the early stages of development and will hold closed playtests on PC in Western Europe. If you’re of an inquiring mind, and like hanging out with mates in shooter lobbies, then all you can do for the moment is register your interest.
Developers working on games for Stadia have expressed surprise and frustration that Google still haven't made contact with them, almost 24 hours after the search giant announced they were shutting down their cloud gaming service yesterday afternoon. Many of the devs I spoke with have had no communication from Google at all since the announcement, with only one saying the company had been in touch. It's not just devs who have been left in the dark, though. Through a leaked internal email sent to Google’s Stadia team, even Google's own staff weren’t briefed until around the same time the public were made aware of the forthcoming shutdown.
Sometimes, you look forward to a game's release and it's very disappointing. Sometimes, it comes out and it's... fine. Kinda good, even. Only once does the game come out and it's fuckin’ SPIDERHECK WOOOO!
Imagine Nidhogg, cross it with Webbed, give it solid single player options, and throw in one of the sickest game soundtracks I've ever heard. I'd hoped Spiderheck would merely be as fun as it looks. It instead consumed me. Neverjam have united my love for Webbed with my love for chaos, and it's more glorious than I dared to hope.
Out now in early access, Slime Rancher 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to Monomi Park’s charming farming sim. Beatrix LeBeau has packed up her slime-wrangling gear and has crossed the Slime Sear to Rainbow Island, a new land packed with new mysteries and new slimes.
As a seasoned slime wrangler myself, I was excited to dive head-first into this new, colourful world. Review code didn't arrive until launch day unfortunately, but all week I've been vibrating with anticipation. After spending a handful of hours frolicking with slimes and skipping around Rainbow Island, though, that early dazzle is starting to wear off. Monomi Park’s sequel feels a little too familiar to its predecessor in its early game, and it's put a major downer on my goo-hoovering adventures.
Out Of Hands is a fairly "does what it says on the tin" title for this, a game where you play a dude who dreams he is made entirely out of hands every night. It also operates as a decent joke, because rather than being out of hands, he, if anything, has too many. So full marks for the name. The game itself is kind of a deckbuilder but not really, and though it also describes itself as a thriller, I can't say my heart rate was raised. In fact, behind the (admittedly very cool) visual style there seems to be a pretty run-of-the-mill "a girl I liked is no longer in my life and I'm pretty cut up about that" story. I guess in the full game it might turn out she was murdered, or she mudered the main character, or the main character murdered her - just, some kind of murder, maybe?
But in the four demo levels I played recently, it seemed like a pretty normal breakup. I was really excited to give it a go, but in the preview I didn't find the contrast between a face made of squirming hands and the well trodden women-be-leavin' plot to be particularly affective or evocative. The squirming hands are cool, though.
At this year's Gamescom I got hands-on with Bytten Studio's Cassette Beasts, an upcoming monster-taming open world RPG in the vein of Pokémon, which is far more interesting to me than the basic concept of Pokémon. That's because you're able to fuse together any monsters you 'catch', but moreso because it's a monster collectathon where you become the monster, essentially fusing yourself with bomb dogs and hermit crabs with traffic cone-homes.
I like the way the game does away with the overdone shonen story of wanting to become the very best there ever was, and instead puts the spotlight on its cast of characters and the relationships you form with your buds. It's looking mighty promising.
If you've ever wondered what the 1987 film Running Man might look like as a turn-based tactics game (see also last year's Netflix sensation Squid Game, if the Running Man reference doesn't quite do it for you), then Homicidal All-Stars probably comes pretty close. It's the debut game from Artificer, a new studio formed by a bunch of ex-CreativeForge devs who worked on the first Hard West and Phantom Doctrine, and it centres on a woman called Scarlett who finds herself competing in the deadly TV show that gives the game its name. Like Running Man, Squid Game and all those other 'deadly games' you know and love, Homicidal All-Stars is about folks who down on their luck fighting for their lives, where their only consolation prize in these dystopian bloodbaths is not getting pulped at the end of it.
For Scarlett, this means mowing down scumbags in classic turn-based fashion with a bunch of other friendly competitors she's teamed up with, but this is far from a straightforward XCOM-like. Between fights, you'll also be navigating its trap-filled arenas in third-person, dodging sniper turrets, disabling tripwires, and dashing over spiky/fiery/horrible pits to get to the end of each 'episode'. It's a refreshing mix based on an early preview build I've been playing recently, especially when its gameshow hook allows for its malicious host, Orion Ford, to start meddling with your success. "He’s the person behind the worst of the twists," creative director and Artificer CEO Kacper Szymczak tells me. "He’ll start filling the level with poisonous gas, he’ll turn off the lights, drop explosive barrels everywhere, to name just a few."
Google have announced that they intend to begin "winding down" their game streaming service Stadia. The service launched in 2019 but struggled to find an audience. Google say that they'll refund hardware, game and add-on purchases made through the Google and Stadia stores, and that players will continue to have access to their games library until January 18th.
Have you ever wanted to build your own Tiger Electronics handheld? If the answer is "yes", or even "possibly, why?", then you might find Retro Gadgets handy when it launches on PC towards the end of the year. It’s a gadget creation station that lets you “invent, build, solder, code and customise” your own electronics. That’s according to Bologna-based devs Evil Licorice, who count amongst them Kingdom co-creator Marco Bancale. Check out the trailer below, and try not to burn yourself with any soldering irons.
Motive Studios have detailed some of the ways that their upcoming remake of classic sci-fi survival horror Dead Space will differ, just as new screenshots of the game have cropped up on an early Xbox Store listing. A blog post from the developers shares how they’re reworking the game’s setting of the USG Ishimura, along with bringing protagonist Isaac Clarke into line with Dead Spaces 2 and 3. They’re also finding time to flesh out the story with extra side quests.
For whatever reason, I decided that I'd start last weekend with Roger Federer's retirement speech. I'd literally just woken up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, only to emotionally destabilise my morning with an eight-minute-long video in which one of, if not the greatest tennis player of all time poured out his heart. Even his great rival Rafael Nadal couldn't hold back his tears, which said it all, really.
As one's mind does in momentous occasions, it turned to Nintendo Switch Sports football and how its small roster of players may be one of the best representations of talent in a sports game that I've come across. Come on, humour me here.
Sci-fi miniatures sim Moonbreaker launches into early access on PC today, but Brandon Sanderson, the renowned fantasy writer behind the game's story, says he's working on at least ten years' worth of story ideas. Brandon Sanderson is known for his prolific ability to churn out books, but he’s also a fan of games and has been working closely with Moonbreaker’s devs Unknown Worlds to map out where the game’s story will go.
An exciting new fan-made Quake singleplayer map pack explores the Internet's favourite architectural style, Brutalism. 35 maps offer all sorts of concrete hells, ranging from housing estates and Control-esque facilities to otherworldly ritual spaces and straight-up murderholes. Having spent much of my early thirties skulking around the Barbican, I really enjoyed this variety of Brutalist experiences. And the monstermurder. The monstermurder's fun, too. Here, come admire how pretty the hub level is.
Ubisoft’s much-delayed shanty ‘em up Skull & Bones has been dashed by another four months, pushing its release from November to March 2023. The announcement came as the devs revealed that the game will receive an open beta period in “the near future”. Details of how to sign up for the beta are expected soon.
Last time, you decided that ding! is better than the Howie scream. I have only word for that: yeeeuuuuaaaaauuuuughh! This week, I suppose it's a question of spectacle. Do you want to do ridiculous cool things, or have ridiculous horrible things done unto you? Tell me, what's better: ridiculous spell animations or the mangled hands of Ethan Winters?
It's been a hot minute since we last gathered round the RPS Time Capsule vault (thanks, Gamescom), but at long last we have returned with another cracking year of PC games to preserve: 2011. In hindsight, it's a bit of an interesting year for Time Capsuling purposes, as we're now getting to the point where games from this era are getting their own remakes and remasters, or fancier, super duper director's cut special editions. We've included the original 2011 release of one of these games in this month's Time Capsule, but there's another notable exception we've decided to save for further down the line. I mean, seriously, would you really recommend vanilla Skyrim from 2011 over 2016's Special Edition?
There's a definition of "pure" that's proscriptive; a dogmatic adherence to surface details and strict rituals. I'm genuinely not thinking of any specific game, but many 'retro' inspired games fall into this way of thinking, and many more fans cut a good one down because of it.
Itorah, however, feels pure in the sense of capturing the essence, the heart of a good retro platformer, not just going through the motions to technically qualify for an arbitrary category. Aeons ago, it would have ported comfortably to your GameBoys and gramophones, and probably look just as pretty and feel just as good in motion, judging by the talented art direction on show here.
Following on from Call Of Duty's biggest beta ever, Infinity Ward have promised a host of changes to Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 based on player feedback so it's in tip-top condition when it launches next month. Expect tweaks to footstep sounds, enemy visibility, weapon adjustments, and plenty more titbits.
It’s usually nice to see older games get updates, particularly when we’re not expecting it. Think of it as a good jump scare. Supermassive Games have given their first two The Dark Pictures Anthology some extra care and attention today, dropping in new difficulty settings and accessibility options, tweaked UI, and even faster walking for characters. There’s also an extended chapter for Man Of Medan. I didn’t think update trailers were a thing but there’s one for this, which you can watch below.
Seems it’s that time of year again: the annual Intel CPU refresh is upon us, with CEO Pat Gelsinger announcing the 13th Gen "Raptor Lake" processor family onstage at Intel Innovation 2022 last night. These chips will stick to the hybrid Performance core/Efficiency core design introduced by the 12th Gen Alder Lake range – probably wisely, given that includes some of the best gaming CPUs ever – but ups the E-core counts, L2 cache capacities and clock speeds. Raptor Lake will go on sale on October 20th, a few weeks after the just-launched AMD Ryzen 7000 series.
The showcase also included a few key details on the Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition, the top-ranking graphics card in the long-delayed Arc Alchemist lineup of gaming GPUs. This will also launch next month, on October 12th, and cost $329. Honestly, part of me was wondering if we’ll ever see the day, but yes: there really will be an Intel graphics card on the market. Even if it is more of an RTX 3060 rival than a cheap RTX 4080 alternative.
It's tough making a story where you establish early on that your main character will still be alive at the end. In The Excavation Of Hob's Barrow, a point and click, small town, folk horror adventure game, the events are narrated by the main character Thomasina, writing in the future, and the game walks a slightly different line. Rather than successfully making you believe a character you know survives is in peril, all the way through The Excavation Of Hob's Barrow you are aware that Thomasina in the future is alive but, somehow, definitely not okay. And you believe you can save her anyway.
This looming dread, growing increasingly loom as the game goes on, is one of the most effective weapons in Hob's Barrows' arsenal of horror. Thomasina, a barrow-digger and proto-feminist trouser-wearer in a time when trousers were worn by men, is a practical and mostly cheerful woman. She approaches all the puzzles she has to solve in the robust, roll-your-sleeves up manner of an old-timey governess who doesn't care if you hate learning French verbs. The Thomasina of the future voiceover, however, sounds blank, drained and sad. It's a contrast that weighs more and more heavy as you slice into the horrible heart of Hob's Barrow, and it underscores how great it is to play the game in its fully voiced form.
As well as the voice acting, Hob's Barrow has an appropriately creepsome soundtrack, making fabulous use of the juddering bass tones that put all humans and related monkeys automatically on edge, and isn't a stranger to unsettling lighting. Evil in this game is a sick purple. Most of all, some praise should be especially given to the several horrible close-ups that pop up: Thomasina's eyes, wide in shock, a malevolent cat as he crawls onto your bed; round eyes over a slack, downturned mouth with little peg teeth in it. Devs Cloak And Dagger Games can coax extraordinary depth and motion from their pixel-art and then use that to repulse you.
Steam is ditching its annual Lunar New Year sale next year, opting instead for a new spring sale. That means the digital storefront will now have sales for all four seasons, and Valve have also outlined the dates for the next three major sales events.
I had hoped to bring you a proper review of Moonscars today, the new 2D Soulslike from indie studio Black Mermaid. But alas, both time and its ferociously difficult combat have got the better of me, so you'll have to settle for some impressions instead. This isn’t simply a case of drinking the 'git gud' kool-aid either. While I'll hold my hands up now and say that Soulslikes have always been a bit of a challenge for me, I feel like I've been making some pretty good in-roads into the genre lately, and after falling in love with Moonscars' reveal trailer earlier in the year during the Humble Games Showcase, I really, really, really wanted to like this one. Sadly, it's become increasingly clear that Moonscars does not like me very much, and maybe even hates my guts a bit - which is ironic, considering how many organs I've chucked at its feet over the last week and a bit to appease its hungry dread moon.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT's concept – faster clock speeds than the RX 6600 XT, to better compete with Nvidia’s RTX cards? Yeah why not – but surely its timing is questionable. Any GPU launching several months into 2022 would only ever do so under the looming shadows of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 40 series and the AMD Radeon RX 7000 series, the latter being officially revealed in just a few days’ time. Not to mention Intel Arc Alchemist, delayed as it has been.
Still. AMD’s next-gen, RDNA 3-based GPUs are an unknown quantity, and the RTX 40 series will at first focus on high-end models like the RTX 4090. Even if its RDNA 2 architecture is on the way out, could the RX 6650 XT not find room in the pack as one of the best graphics cards for 1080p and 1440p?
As players of Image & Form's excellent SteamWorld Dig games will know, there is something innately calming about chiselling your way through a hunk of rock. In both of those western-themed platformers, you were hunting for gem-like treasures to take back to the surface so you could get bigger and better equipment to begin the dig cycle anew. Now imagine that surface is constantly under threat from waves of alien attacks and that's pretty much Dome Keeper in a nutshell, a moreish, meditative mining game that sees you balance digging for resources and hunting for all-important relics while defending your eponymous dome from being smashed to smithereens.
Genshin Impact fans in the UK take note, because the fantasy action RPG’s mascot Paimon is heading to London this Sunday in massive, inflatable form. The character will be floating down the River Thames, and HoYoVerse are staging an opportunity to get up close at Tower Bridge. Oh, and they’ve chosen the date of the extremely busy London Marathon as the start of Paimon’s journey along the Thames. What a time to be alive.
The RPS squad has once again made the trek to London for EGX 2022. There was plenty to see at this year’s show and, as always, we ran some of our own booths. The first was the Steam Deck Zone filled with thirty of Valve’s handhelds full of games for anyone to pull up a chair and play. The second was a showcase of weird and wonderful controllers including an incredibly inconvenient pool table, a digital plant that would grow by controlling light, and a game where you use a keyboard as a tie.
Alongside those, the RPS gang were exploring the show floor and here you’ll find highlights of what we saw, who we chatted to, what we played, and just general show shenanigans. Enjoy!
Everyone’s most tolerated science grandpa Rick Sanchez steps into MultiVersus today as the Warner Bros. licensed brawler’s latest fighter, arriving alongside the game’s 1.03 patch. There’s a few notable tweaks to MultiVersus in the patch, including a major change to XP between levels 3 and 15. You’ll need twice as much now. Developers Player First Games have tried to rein in infinite combos, too. You can get a look at Rick by watching the trailer below.
When Grounded released into early access a little over two years ago, it immediately became a personal favourite. The story wasn't complete and the garden was rather basic, but one encounter with the wolf spider proved that this was far more than a pile of mulch. With two years of updates layering new enemies, items, biomes, dungeons, and quests onto that healthy foundation, Grounded has blossomed into a perennial survival game that sits comfortably among the very best of the genre.
Longtime Halo support studio Certain Affinity have hinted that they’re working on something “big and new” for the sci-fi series’ most recent, and troubled, entry, Halo Infinite. Certain Affinity exec Paul Sams made the comments in an interview with VentureBeat, adding further fuel to the rumours that a battle royale mode might be coming to the live-service game in the future. Certain Affinity have contributed to many projects in a support role, including Amazon’s New World and the upcoming Potter ‘em up Hogwarts Legacy.
Fans of Yakuza spin-off Judgment and of Japanese actors who’ve been naughty will be pleased to hear that there’s a mod to restore the voice and likeness of Pierre Taki to the game. Taki-san's performance as character Kyohei Hamura was removed from the Japanese version of Judgment after he was arrested for possession and use of cocaine in 2019, never making it to the West. Now, the Judgment Pierre Taki Restoration Patch finally brings the scrubbed actor back for the very first time, over here at least.
Supernatural adventure sequel Oxenfree II: Lost Signals has seen its release date pushed back again into next year, devs Night School Studio have announced. Oxenfree II’s delay was made public through a post on the company’s Twitter over the weekend. The game is being published by Night School’s owners Netflix, who acquired the company in September last year.
Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, my eye has been caught by art made of hands, skeleton wrestling, and a squirrel horrifyingly climbing people to rob them.
Krafton, Korean publishers PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, have released a "visual concept trailer" for a new game based on Korean epic fantasy novels The Bird That Drinks Tears. They're still describing the game as "unannounced", but say that the trailer illustrates the "mystical tone" they're aiming for.
"Terror Zones" sounds like a Stephen King TV show from the early '00s, but it's not. They're a new feature added to Diablo 2: Resurrected in the just-released patch 2.5, which is designed to make the game a little harder and more interesting for those players hack-and-slashing their way to level 99 over and over again.
Welcome to the first weekend of autumn, gang! Scarves on necks, cocoa on stoves, leaves on ground. Chat about the weather might seem trite but what other conversation topic covers matters directly impacting your life today without risking causing a disagreement, years of simmering resentment, or a brawl? "What are you having for dinner?" is another good one, I think. Perhaps you'll find this advice helpful if you're attending EGX this weekend. Oh, I know another one: what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!
Everyone's talking about Trombone Champ. Not since Untitled Goose Game have I heard this much excited chat about a game from pals who don't usually talk about games. This is because: 1) it's a fun silly idea; 2) it's very funny to miss a trombone note and squeal out a farty toot in the middle of Also Sprach Zarathustra. As I play Trombone Champ myself, I come to really appreciate that. It's a rare rhythm game where playing badly doesn't frustrate or berate me, because the worst-case scenario is making fart noises, and fart noises are funny.
Police in the UK have arrested a 17-year-old in Oxfordshire on suspicion of hacking, and it’s been alleged that it could be connected to the breach at Rockstar Games that led to the recent Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks. Journalist Matthew Keys tweeted that a source has told him that the teenager’s detainment was related to the Rockstar hack and another involving Uber. Keys claimed that the suspect is connected to hacking group Lapsus$, which organises through Telegram channels.
Fantasies about being a space captain often seem to revolve around the idea of being sat in a nice comfy chair on the bridge of a starship that’s suspiciously like a living room. Developers Fast Travel Games aren’t the first to figure out that this eminently nerdy dream fits VR really well, but they’re the ones making it happen for the Stellaris universe, with new roguelite game Ghost Signal. Stick on your space helmet and watch the trailer below.
Steam now has a fancy charts section that shows the top selling and most played games in real time. If you want a broader picture of what’s trending on Valve’s storefront then you can check out the new weekly rankings of top sellers, along with the top new releases each month. It’s a useful way of seeing what’s trending across the platform if you’re really into that kind of thing.
Sega’s team-based space shooter Hyenas is welcoming Europeans into its closed alpha from September 23rd, which just so happens to be today. If you signed up to the alpha anytime in the past few months since the game was announced then you might want to keep an eye on your emails for an invite. The FPS is currently only playable on PC, but the Hyenas team have said that’s set to change in the near future.
The remake of classic stealth ‘em up Splinter Cell will be rewritten and updated for a “modern-day audience”, according to a job posting for the project. Ubisoft Toronto are looking for a scriptwriter for the new Splinter Cell, which they say uses the original as a “foundation” and aims at a “new audience of Splinter Cell fans”. I hate to break it to you Ubisoft, but I’m not certain that the kids dig Tom Clancy military espionage hijinks.
The RPS treehouse is quiet today, with most the gang gone to that London for EGX 2022. We're running a Steam Deck Zone filled with minicomps and have a showcase of games with weird controller experiences, and I imagine they'll also be playing games, chatting, attending talks, loitering, expanding their LinkedIn networks, and other such expo activities. Kindly, they're going to check in across the day, texting us all with updates on what they're seeing, doing, and (I imagine) eating. And Ollie might join in from home with cat photos.
Playing Wayward Strand feels like navigating a detailed clockwork mechanism. It reminds me of those cuckoo clocks where on the hour every hour a tiny door opens revealing two mechanical dolls that come together and have a 'lil smooch. That’s essentially how Wayward Strand works but on a bigger scale. Characters are set on strict routines, following predetermined paths and schedules that are often invisible to you. They welcome an interruption - a friendly natter or helpful hand - but whether you’re there or not, they’ll go about their business regardless. The world keeps on spinning and all that.
It’s an interesting way of capturing the passage of time, and in Wayward Strand how you choose to spend that time is pretty important in a game that makes a point of not waiting for you.
Nvidia stuck to the high-end goods for their GeForce RTX 40 series announcement, revealing their next graphics card generation with only the premier RTX 4090 and two flavours of RTX 4080. All three are coming soon with varying degrees of price bumps over the RTX 3090 and RTX 3080, though Nvidia reckon the performance and feature improvements of the 40 series’ Ada Lovelace architecture will make them worthy investments. Especially with the aid of DLSS 3, a new and significantly upgraded version of Nvidia’s DLSS upscaler that will only work with RTX 40 series GPUs at launch.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s open beta erupts onto PC for early access players from today and Saturday for the public at large. Essential mission prep means checking your system requirements, which Infinity Ward have kindly provided. They aren’t too strenuous, so never fear. Listen to Bullet With Butterfly Wings and pretend it's 1995 again while you watch the open beta trailer below.
Long-troubled sci-fi action RPG Cyberpunk 2077 is experiencing something of a comeback, almost two years since it was released on PC and consoles. CD Projekt have revealed in a tweet that the game has seen one million players every day this week so far, across all platforms. They say this figure includes players new to Night City, as well as those returning. I’ve never played it, so don’t look at me.
While Hyper Demon is a game of immense and almost incomprehensible violence, the surprise sequel to Devil Daggers opens in such a lovely way. Before beginning your descent into deicide, you must claim your unholy knife and oh, there it is, surrounded by hopping little crystalline birds! What pretty birds they are! Oh, and they're cheeping little tinging cheeps! And they hop back if I step towards them! And they flutter into the skies if I charge! And form a big flock if I chase long enough! Ah. Yeah, I think I see how our character earned a place in superhell.
I hope Dark Souls 3 rested at a bonfire recently, because its servers are down once again. FromSoftware confirmed that PvP multiplayer for the Steam version of the game had gone offline in a tweet, and said they’d provide an update once details were available to share. When I published this post, no explanation was forthcoming about what the cause of the downtime might be.
Have you ever played a game and thought, "Are we actually the bad guys here?" Usually, the whole "we're fighting on the wrong side of history" line is a deliberate plot device in RPGs, offering moments of clarity to not only peel back the curtain and provide fresh impetus for the events yet to come, but also to cleverly reframe everything you've achieved so far. I don't say this to spoil the events of The DioField Chronicle, the new real-time strategy game from Lancarse and Square Enix, but it is a question I found myself asking a lot during its middle act - and it never quite delivers the punchline you're looking for.
Around 8-10 hours into the game, there's an extended portion of the campaign that sees your band of Blue Fox mercenaries bringing an entire region of DioField Island to heel because they're, err, pro democracy. Of the cast's central quartet, only one stands up as a voice of reason when motions are made to quell these despicable riots, but he's repeatedly shot down every time he tries to offer an alternate view. Eventually, one character says to him, and I quote, "Isca, what has got into you? You ought to know the danger posed by the ideology of democracy." It's an odd stance for someone clearly not a villain to take in 2022, although really, I should have probably seen it coming. Our mercs work for a duke after all, and most are aristocratic nobles who are handy with a sword. Oh no. I think this might actually be played: Tories - The Game. Yuck.
