7 Nights with Vroombi combines the horror of a haunted house with the mounting irritation of being a robot vacuum cleaner

Many years ago, Suzy Eddie Izzard did a stand-up routine about different makes of vacuum cleaner, including the immortal "Hodededededer" of undecided linguistic origin. Izzard also enjoys sending up cheesy horror movies. Now that I've played 7 Nights with Vroombi, which launches today on Steam, I'd love to see Izzard do a sketch about a robot vacuum cleaner stuck in a haunted house. Because that is what 7 Nights with Vroombi is about.

Each night, you emerge from your nook to ingest a certain quantity of dust particles, while contending with eerie phenomena. The furniture is in the habit of moving around of its own accord. There is moaning behind some of the doors. The dust lies in peculiarly ornate patterns. Worst of all, perhaps, are the scribbled notes and doodles left out for you by a child, Lily. These range from tips about your scanner button to worrying asides like "You can't leave, can you, Mr Vroombi?" Right now, I'd say there's a 55% chance that Lily is actually Satan.

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Save the hassle of building a PC with these six anti Prime Day prebuilt PC deals I've spotted

I swear to God it's too warm to do anything in the UK this week. I am barely coping in the heat if it wasn't for the array of small Ohyama Woozoo fans I have, plus an array of Meaco air circulators and more besides. Of course this week is the week that all the deals are happening - that's just the way of the world it seems - and none of us can catch a naffing break. Godspeed to anyone outside doing real work in this UK heat - can we make air con mandatory in new homes, please?

Being too hot to do anything means it's too warm to build your own PC as I see it, so to save you the hassle, I've gone on my merry way and found an array of six pre-built PC deals from up and down the price ladder across the UK and USA that should give you plenty of grunt for your favourite games. Finding discounts on pre-built PCs was surprisingly difficult, owing to the issues we've seem with everything from shortages for components to pesky overpricing that doesn't do anybody any favours, meaning that the whole pricing structure for certain tiers of PC have shifted up somewhat, which doesn't help anybody.

The six PCs I've put below have been picked out in the following order. First based on region, and then in order of mid-range, budget and then expensive - putting the one that I think is best for price to performance first and hitting a strong mid-tier choice with good power, then a more affordable choice for 1080p or 1440p gaming, and then a bit of a splurge option if you've got the spare cash to play at 4K. Given the way things are these days, I haven't gone mad with the latter choice and specced out a money-no-object choice, and kept to things that are a bit more reasonable given the circumstances for at least a hint of affordability.

Of course, we're sticking with the fact this is anti Prime Day coverage after all, so none of these deals are from The Retailer Who Must Not Be Named, instead from either PC builders directly or larger retailers with surpisingly good deals given the current context. If you're on the lookout for more deals after this, then you can check out James' master guide for our RPS Anti Prime Day deals coverage, or my roundup of seven more excellent deals across the UK and USA. Without further ado, here are six prebuilt PC deals I've spotted from other retailers that I think are worth your time.

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"We have to have free human expression in some capacity": Patreon CEO shares frustrations about getting adult content past payment processors

Patreon CEO Jack Conte has shared his views on the difficulties of working with payment processors and networks such as Stripe and Mastercard, who have the power to enforce their ideas about 'adult content' on stores and platforms by threatening to stop processing customer transactions. As boss of one of the biggest crowd-funding outfits, he's keen to support artists "who are on the edges", but also claims that the likes of Patreon have minimal "leverage" against the payment networks. It's a useful bit of context for the on-going crackdown on NSFW games on Steam and Itch.io.

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Magic: The Gathering Arena devs' union officially elected, following claims Wizards of the Coast were dragging their heels on voluntary recognition

United Wizards of the Coast - CWA, a union Magic: The Gathering Arena developers voted in favour of forming earlier this year, has now officially been elected. The union filed an election petition with the US National Labor Relations Board back in April, while also requesting that Wizards of the Coast voluntarily recognise them. The workers claimed in May that the company were dragging their heels on the latter, having missed a deadline.

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Marathon's mid-season 2 update brings in an experimental PvE mode that will let solo and duo runners take on Cryo Archive

I have something to admit to you all. I'm not very good at Marathon. I like when the guns go pew pew, I like the weird sci-fi vibes, but the second I run into another person I'll be lucky if I make it out with all of my limbs intact. As a result, I had resigned myself to never experiencing Cryo Archive, the game's super duper hardcore map exclusive to both crews and those with the prerequisite skills and loot. But! I bring good news for those of you who stink at shooters like me: Marathon's first proper (experimental) PvE mode utilises Cryo Archive as its point of operation, and you can even play it by your lonesome.

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The seven best anti-Prime Day deals we can find in the UK and US — no Amazon required

Well, the big Prime Day deals bonanza has finally arrived, and we aren't going with it. Well, we are - as James has noted in his big master guide, there is some mutual benefit for talking about deals and all for both you and us, but that's besides the point. None of the deals you're going to find here are Amazon deals - I've gone through the deluge of other retailers you could choose to spend your hard-earned cash at over the next couple of days, and rounded up what I think are some of the best reductions across our fair United Kingdom and the United States of Freedomland.

"Why should you trust me?", I hear you cry. Well, I've written thousands of deals articles for plenty of websites over the years, including this fair site and Eurogamer for many years, and have covered these ridiculous 'deals holidays' in all their glory for quite some time, so like to think I can pick the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what's good and what's not. Too many 'deals' these days are barely worth talking about, and folks have gotten wise to it with all of the price tracking and history tools we've got these days.

So, before I waffle on any further, here are the seven (because ten would have turned this into every other roundup) best anti Prime Day deals I've spotted across both the UK and USA, including a little bit of a writeup on why I think each product is worth your time and money.

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The RPS Anti-Prime Day 2026 deals guide: Cheaper hardware, 100% Amazon-free

If you thought becoming deputy editor would get a man off the hook from sifting through Prime Day deals, you would be incorrect. Apparently. Still, these days I’m especially not in the mood to point people towards Amazon – lest even a single penny continue to bulge the pockets of their anti-press, pro-authoritarian executive chairman, one of the wealthiest men in history and yet so thin-skinned he won’t even let RPG characters be named after him.

At the same time, I will concede that there is a mutually beneficial utility in pointing out PC hardware discounts at a time when PC hardware is suffering an extended bout of overpricing and shortages. Just ask the Steam Machine, eh. It therefore seems like the best way to proceed is to resurrect the RPS Anti-Prime Day deals guide: a curated selection of components and peripherals that are actually worth your cash, all from non-Amazon retailers.

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