The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for waking up before the sun and getting a bike ride in before the tarmac gets hot enough to cook an egg. Any sensible person would skip the bike ride altogether, but I, a nonsensical person, have agreed to a ride across the country at the end of the month and I'm currently not able to manage 40 miles a day, let alone a hundred. So, I have to get them gains.

Still, should I get back home unsizzled by this heatwave sun, I can celebrate with a tarmac-fried egg and lazy perusal of some of this week's best gaming (and non-gaming) reads.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/GQOk9RX
via ifttt

Digital Extremes finally reveal Warframe: Tau, the sci-fi shooter's long-awaited second solar system, and it's a gruesome place indeed

Digital Extremes's venerable looty-shooty mechabody extravaganza Warframe is finally getting a full second solar system, after a warm-up flashback tour in last year's The Old Peace expansion. The developers have just screened a first look at Tau, home of the game's Sentients faction, during a presentation at Tennocon, the annual Warframe and Soulframe expo.

What does Tau harbour? In brief: lots of noir theming. The first of the system's two initial areas is a ringed city, Fornax, whose occupants are plagued by corrupting rain and addicted to a substance called the Bloom. Fornax is home to Brysko, a chain-smoking, trenchcoated "Chimera Warframe" with an inner monologue reminiscent of a Raymond Chandler detective (he's actually voiced by Critical Role's Matt Mercer). Before you read on, seasoned Warframblers, please understand: I am trying to phrase all this in the language of everyday mortals. I'm sure I'm getting all sorts of lore wrong.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/KdDZHFc
via ifttt

Fantasy action-RPG Soulframe is open to all players for a limited time, with a new dark progression path, wolf mounts, and a Warsongs origin quest on the way

Soulframe, the fantasy action-RPG from Warframe creators Digital Extremes, is getting wolf mounts, a Warsongs quest, and a new Vadagar progression path or "Pact" that transforms your "Envoy" character into the lovechild of Soulcalibur's Ivy and Tim Curry's Hexxus from Fern Gully. Unfamiliar with both of those? Think ichor-slathered bone warrior with whipsword. The Vadagar class addition is intriguing because it sees you channelling the powers of the Ode, Soulframe's space-faring, spellsong-controlled enemy faction, who are trying to harvest or corrupt all the world's resources and wildlife.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/OajclBw
via ifttt

What are we all playing this weekend?

Another horrendously hot Saturday, another wedding to go to. I am all in favour of love, but could we please reschedule it to a cooler day in the year? Mercifully this one's a London wedding and it can be reached and returned from on the tube. Though travelling on a hot carriage and not arriving looking like a boiled saveloy pressed into a too-small suit will be a challenge.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/zVWNg5a
via ifttt

"We are the best allies to game devs": Skyrim modder shows solidarity with laid off Bethesda workers by draping union logos across Tamriel

You've heard about Microsoft's mass layoffs by now. The last few days have been filled with stories of how these cuts are affecting different studios both still and formerly owned by Xbox, with even Elder Scrolls 6 developers Bethesda not being spared, regardless of that series being one their corporate overlords are determined to squeeze more out of going forwards. Thankfully, those overlords are reciving some pushback, with unionised Bethesda staff planning protest rallies and a modder using their talents to offer players a way of showing solidarity.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/xStFdq1
via ifttt

After years of Nintendo lawsuits and many millions of sales, Pokémon baiter Palworld is out in 1.0 today

Creature-catching game Palworld - the cheerfully macabre survival game that came out of nowhere in 2024 and has sold 40 million copies despite being roundly berated and, indeed, taken to court by Uncle Nintendo for riffing rather flagrantly on Pokémon - launches out of early access today. It's been a journey! Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the industrial exploitation of Kingpacas.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/LOid1Tn
via ifttt

Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis shutting down means its Japan only, prequel phone game will remain unplayable

It was not particularly surprising to hear that Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, the other remake of Final Fantasy 7 that opts for a more faithful approach to the original game (if being filled with gacha rolls counts as faithful), is ending service. Square Enix have been ceasing development on pretty much every mobile game they have out at the moment, so why would this one be any different? It's a shame, though, not just because of the fact that it'll be completely inaccessible when it goes down, but because of its inclusion of Before Crisis.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/5o3fVwT
via ifttt