Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome to Booked For The Week - our new Sunday feature where we ask a selection of cool industry folks questions about books! You know books, right? They're a bit like RPS articles, but heavier and smell a bit nicer. This week, it's Citizen Sleeper and In Other Waters' creator Gareth Damian Martin! Cheers Gareth! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?
Sundays are for sleep. Nothing else. Just sleep. Before I sleep, then sleep a bit more, and maybe get up to read RPS’ new! mystery! column! later, but then immediately go back to sleep, here’s this week’s best writing about games (and game related things!)
We all like to moan about the modern incarnations of Fallout not really getting it, although perhaps don’t spend enough time talking about what it actually was. Over at Eurogamer, Rick Lane asks what the essence of Fallout really is, and whether BezosTech’s show captures it.
“For my part, I think that adaptability is part of Fallout's essence, it is always what it needs to be to thrive. But it also lies in how it views its own world through that flippant, acerbic 1990s lens. In its overarching fiction, Fallout asks many of the same questions as The Last Of Us, but it'll also let you play as a character so dumb they can barely ask questions at all. Its world might be grim and violent and nasty, and nearly everyone in it is having a bad time, but it ultimately wants you to have a good one. Whatever else you might take from it is a bonus.”
Popular WWE 2k24 modder Status was banned from the game and their creations taken offline earlier this week, with an in-game message stating that the cause was violation of the game's End User License Agreement. Today, Status has been reinstated, after backlash to the decision caused #FreeStatus to trend on X for several days, with at least some of his mods due to return.
Escape From Tarkov's developer has responded to players having conniptions due to the release of a new $250 Unheard edition of the game. In an update shared on Reddit, Battlestate Games studio head doubled down on their view that a new co-op PvE mode is not DLC, but does say that other players can have it when Escape From Tarkov is finished... whenever that is.
Hello! This is weird. Last time I was here, I predicted the future. I can't say I'm not proud of my clairvoyance, but sometimes it is a curse. In any case, I shall endeavour to continue Alice0's great work in finding endless excellent vintage illustrations to pop at the tops of these posts. And I'll also be hiding a little smiley face in each one, for giggles. Ooh, can you find it? What fun! Now then: here's how we'll all be dangerously blurring the lines between work and play this weekend.
Mayors in RPG games are rarely given the spotlight. They're mostly just there to give you an early quest involving goat banditry or windmill rats or some such other domestic drudgery. Or, in the case of Tristram’s mayor in Diablo, to fret behind the scenes about how to properly fit considerable cathedral repairs into this month’s budget. Well, no more must this valuable civil servant hide behind balance sheets, occasionally popping out to cut a big ribbon in celebration of a nearby mausoleum being turned into a Wetherspoons. Tristam is a 72 hour Ludum Dare project where you play as said town’s mayor. And this time: It’s ceremonial!
Escape From Tarkov, the extraction FPS from developer Battlestate, recently put up a new Unheard edition of the game for pre-order, and tarkov escapers aren't happy about it. The price for this bundle - which includes a new mode, a bigger stash, and assorted gubbins - comes in at $250, or around two actual hundred actual pounds, but the price alone isn’t necessarily what’s got a section of the player base so tarked-off that a few of them are even loudly considering a lawsuit.
The actual issue is twofold: the edition is being called pay-to-win, and is also the only way to access said new PvE co-op mode, despite players previously shelling out notable nuggets for what was pitched as access to "all subsequent DLCs" as part of the now-delisted Edge of Darkness edition.
As an Assassin's Creed girlie, I enjoyed Assassin's Creed Mirage, a pared down (but still big game, which is really just proof of how bloated AAA games have gotten, but I'll stop because it's not time to take my personal bugbear for a walk) Ass Creed game that was closer to the simplicity of the older games in the stab 'em up stealth-action series. Yesterday creative director Stéphane Boudon and art director Jeal-Luc Sala took to Reddit for an AMA, and in response to a question about plans for Mirage DLC, Boudon said no - but that they have ideas for more stories for Basim.
My experience with actual flight simulators typically amounts to approaching the runway far, far too quickly at far, far too perpendicular an angle, so perhaps I’m better off just flying folded-up bits of A4. Happily, that’s exactly what Paper Sky, a "semi-open world paper plane adventure" from solo indie dev Brute Force, is offering.
In a rare case of a wild Nintendo being spotted having somewhat of a point, actually, in regards to being protective over their IP, Facepunch announced yesterday that they’re removing all “Nintendo stuff” from Garry’s Mod’s Steam workshop, following takedown orders sent straight from ninty themselves.
I can feel some kind of sore throat bug coming on. It must be the baleful influence of Creative Assembly's latest free update for bellowing strategy bonanza Total War: Warhammer 3. Out 30th April, the update introduces Epidemius, Proctor of Pestilence - a new Nurgle Legendary Lord who gains rewards based on how many ickle diseases you’ve spread to other factions (already my favourite aspect of playing Nurgle in the game). Does Epidemius also get buffs if the player is infected by something? I hope so. It would be a consolation to know that my ailing trachea is contributing to the Nurgle cause.
That’s not the only new addition in TWW3 patch 5. They’re also bringing a Gold Wizard hero, who is sort of Magneto but blingier, and a cursed crown that will make everybody hate you. Let’s dig in.
"If only you could talk to these creatures" is never more funny or true than in games like Rotwood, where you play cat people and orcs sent to biff snail worms and flies with scythes. From Klei Entertainment, the gang behind Don't Starve, Invisible Inc. and Oxygen Not Included, to name but a three of their fine games, Rotwood is out later today in early access, ready to provide co-op highjinks in a roguelike dungeon crawl that is really a forest. A forest crawl. You'll get muddy knees.
Songs Of Conquest is a strategy-RPG with some of the most handsome pixel art around. Steam tells me I've played its Early Access release for 0.7 hours, which was long enough to know that I wanted to play more and would wait for version 1.0. I won't have to wait much longer. It's now got a May 20th release date.
Against The Storm's latest update adds a a River Kelpie, a "legendary water demon" that can mesmerise villagers in your rain-slick settlements. I've been mesmerised myself by another part of the update, however: the ability to zoom out 66% further than before.
Last week, a government hearing took place between representatives of the Video Game History Foundation, the Rhizome project, and the Software Preservation Network among others, with legal representation for the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and the AACS among those in opposition. The hearing was a follow-up to the SPN petitioning the US copyright office, last year, for a DMCA exemption that would allow researchers to access games in libraries and archives. As reported by Game Developer, ESA legal representative Steve Englund said in the hearing that, currently, there’s “[no] combination of limitations [ESA members] would support to provide remote access."
What’s it like to watch a smash hit TV show set in the backyard of a game you’ve made? It’s a question which Fallout: New Vegas project director Josh Sawyer is uniquely qualified to answer.
“The show really does capture the aesthetic of Fallout 4 and 76, while also feeling like it is set on the West Coast,” he says. “If you’re a fan, then you can see where the plot elements have been pulled from in previous entries. And if you’re new to it, thankfully, those plot elements are fairly straightforward. So I think it’s a good show for fans and a good show if you’re new to it, even though there’s a lot of stuff going on. I’m certainly interested to see where they’re going in the second season.”
I often regret that I didn't get into football as a kid (note for people across the pond: football is what we call soccer in these here accursed, eternally post-imperial isles). The trouble was, all my friends liked football and I have an abiding hatred of popular things, a hatred that has obviously served me well during my later career as an online news journalist. I played hockey instead, which is the superior sport in that you get a big nasty stick, but also relatively niche because you need more equipment.
Still, I've enjoyed rediscovering football in videogames, and especially videogames that don't treat football with much respect. You may have played or at least heard of Behold The Kickmen - now, here's free downloadable Itch.io offering Cereballers to stick the boot in.
Valheim, the popular norse-inspired survival game, is set to get even deadlier and at least several percent more volcanic with its upcoming Ashlands biome. The new biome is due to enter public testing as we speak.
I'm currently trying to find a new flat in London. This is not much fun, though it's a great opportunity to meet and bond with other would-be tenants over a shared, grinding resentment of landlords who will literally stuff a bed in a toilet and call it a "studio apartment". It's also left me powerfully invested in the premise of Blue Prince, a first-person puzzler which looks like a graphic novel and starts with your character inheriting a huge, weird, isolated mansion, Mt. Holly, from an eccentric great-uncle.
Lucky you! There's a catch, though: according to your great-uncle's will, you only get to keep the place if you can find its 46th room. The catch hanging off that catch is that going by its flatplan, the mansion only has 45 rooms. And the catch hanging off that catch is that the mansion changes shape between visits. Every time you open one of its many doors, you must choose from three cards to decide which room is on the other side. To find the elusive 46th room, you must "draft" rooms in certain combinations to unfold the mystery of the place and wiggle your way to its heart.
Ugh, I do not have the energy to feed the Maw this week. Sometimes the creature manifests as a proper monstrosity, with B-movie prosthetics and sound effects, and sometimes, it's more of an... unfathomable annoyance, like a nose that won't stop running, or a single player game that requires an internet connection. In either case, the Maw must be sated, and fortunately, there are quite a few appetising video-or-computer games out in the next seven days, with at least one behemoth landing on Friday.
The Palestinian Relief Bundle on Itch.io contains 373 items for a minimum cost of $8. 213 of the items are are games, including greats such as Wandersong, A Short Hike and Coffee Talk. All proceeds go towards the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF), a non-profit working to provide food, water and medical treatment in Gaza.
The sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters has more than tripled its Kickstarter funding goal in four days. Free Stars: Children Of Infinity, which is a sequel to the series formerly known as Star Control, has so far raised $332k (£268k), although it's still shooting for several stretch goals - including one as high as $4.4 million.
After ten years at RPS, Friday was my final day, so how come I'm posting this on Saturday morning? Reader dear, I'll let you in on a little trade secret: I do not wake everyone up at 7am to ask them what they're playing. I actually make them tell me on Friday. I have felt tremendously guilty about deceiving you across the 353 previous WAWAPTW posts. The weight of that is honestly why I've left. It feels good to finally come clean. Whew! Alright, now tell me, what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!
Star Wars: Outlaws isn't just an open world retread of existing Star Wars locations, like Tatooine. It contains a whole new moon of developer Massive Entertainment's creation - Toshara, which is home to the Pyke criminal gang and visually defined by huge deposits of crystalline orange material and cities hacked out of mountains. What's it like adding a whole bloody world to Star Wars? Here are some quick thoughts from Massive Entertainment's creative director Julian Gerighty.
While Cities: Skylines 2 has made progress on the performance front, not everything about the troubled citybuilder is on the up. In fact, player reception to the recently released Beach Properties DLC has proven so un-sunny that both developers Colossal Order and publishers Paradox Interactive have issued a joint statement apologising for the state it launched in.
The letter, addressed to Cities fans and signed by Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen and Paradox Interactive deputy CEO Mattias Lilja, also promises refunds for anyone who bought Beach Properties. Or, in the case of those who got it through snapping up Skylines 2’s Ultimate Edition, compensation in the form of three Creator Packs and three radio stations. The contentious DLC is also going free to anyone who’s yet to put money down.
No Rest For The Wicked, the top-down soulslike that released yesterday in Steam early access, is already seeing its fair share of performance and QOL issues, including instability, lack of keybinding options, and players losing their progress. In response, developer Moon Studios have put out a blog saying that, yes, they’re aware of the problems and, yes, they’re actively looking to address the most common hiccups.
In a section titled “Known Issues We're Already Looking to Address,” the blog lists performance hitches and lack of options to pause in single player or rebind keys, as well as plans to add more aspect ratios and missing localisation. The blog also addresses “Unexpected Progression Loss,” suggesting that players encountering this issue “exit to the main menu, go to your realm in the realms menu and use backups to go back to an earlier save in your realm.”
Blackbird Interactive, the team behind upcoming strategy game Homeworld 3, have released details on both the planned roadmap and the game’s chunky-looking collector’s edition, ahead of the game’s release next month, 13th May.
The roadmap details three pieces of paid DLC for the year ahead, plus an additional planned paid piece in 2025. This is alongside several free content updates. Together, they’re all targeted at fleshing out the game’s ‘War Games’ three player co-op mode. Specifically, the roadmap details new playable factions, starting fleets, challenges, emblems, and maps.
Slavic Magic, the sole creator behind anticipated (sub genres forthcoming) strategy game Manor Lords, has written a transparent and refreshingly to-the-point blog post on Steam addressing both expectations and future updates. Specifically, Slavic Magic aka Greg Manor Lords has taken time to outline exactly what his game - currently the most wishlisted on Steam, ahead of Hades 2 - isn’t.
GTA 6 publishers Take-Two Interactive have announced that they're "rationalizing" their "pipeline" and positioning/restructuring/streamlining for growth by, you guessed it, laying off a load of people and cancelling a bunch of games. As detailed in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Take-Two are doing away with five per cent of the approximately 11,000 people who work for them, and have cancelled several in-development projects worth tens of millions of dollars.
Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree will release in June 2024, but even if you buy it day one, you might not be able to access the Elden Ring DLC expansion’s new overworld areas and dungeons right away. This is an add-on aimed squarely at those in the later stages of the game, as FromSoftware’s own Elden Lord Hidetaki Miyazaki has revealed in a new Famitsu interview – to gain access, you must first defeat two of the main game’s nastier bosses. Yes, I know that all Elden Ring bosses are nasty, but these two are among the worst, in my experience.
Is waiting for Hades 2 to release starting to feel like a sisyphean endeavor? If so, push that boulder no longer. Supergiant announced yesterday that fans of the action roguelite can sign up now to be considered for an upcoming technical test, via Hades 2’s Steam page.
I sort of reject that the Fallout TV show has Easter eggs hidden in it because it, as a whole, is the equivalent of one of those fancy Hotel Chocolat ostrich-sized patisserie collection bastards that cost 40 quid. However. Eagle-eyed viewers of the Fallout show noted that episode 6 gives you a number for Valt-Tec that you can actually get in touch with - 213-25-VAULT (or, 213-258-2858). Charges apply, as well as international codes if you're outside the US, which makes it 001-213-258-2858.
If you text the number you get a reply from Vault-Tec saying "The next available appointment is 33 weeks from now, please stand by!" (handily captured by X user FanaticalGuy cos my response hasn't come through yet). And then the significantly less immersive "Reply Y to get recurring marketing and other texts from FallOut", which is quite funny. There is speculation that this is just a reference to Vault 33, the vault where main character Lucy was born and raised. On the other hand, 33 weeks from now is November, the month when both Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 came out.
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 the slow (yet speedy!) reload of a flintlock, feathered dinosaurs, parrying bullets, snowboard stunting, an underslung chainsaw, and heaps more. Check out these attractive and interesting indie games!
In the world of strategy and management game Goblin Stone, the goblins are nearly extinct. Getting murdered in large numbers by adventurers hungry for a quick experience point and a slack handful of coin will do that. I cannot tell you that you will want to bestow protection and prosperity on these gribbly green niblets. They exhibit a tweeness that you’ll either find charming or despicably manipulative, even when they’re showering in the blood of their enemies. Should you want to, though, Goblin Stone offers you the chance to rescue these maligned misfits from the brink of extinction, rebuilding their kingdom and leading them on outings to take the fight to all those heroes that have spotlight-hogged the left side of your screens for far too long.
We hired Katharine back in 2017 as our first full-time hardware writer, having been impressed by her rare talent for writing about tech in an approachable way. It quickly became obvious that Katharine's skills stretched beyond just hardware and in 2021 she became editor-in-chief, responsible for running the entire site.
Now, sadly, she is departing RPS for a new adventure. Come say thank you and farewell.
Another week, another Monday waking up to find Edwin has trapped himself between the Maw’s cyclopean molars on what was supposed to be a routine scrubbing expedition. We usually get him out just fine, but today he’s become entranced by the chomper’s blighted runoff, and is busy stuffing plaque samples in his trousers to bring back and study. So, you get me instead. In other, non-affront to-science news, Warhorse are announcing a new game this week, Thursday 18th, rumoured to be medieval rpg sequel Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Elsewhere, the Steam FPS fest kicks off later.
Among the onslaught of game trailers at the terribly named Triple-I Initiative was a release date for Gestalt: Steam & Cinder. It's a 2D platformer with a heavy dose of combat and a big upgrade tree, and there's a demo available now.
The Crew, Ubisoft's 2014 racing game, closed its doors on March 31st. After that date, launching the game took you to a splash screen and then presented an error message when trying to advance, because the servers are no longer offline.
Ubisoft have now taken the extra step of revoking The Crew licenses from purchasers and removing it from their library.
Sundays are for making a heroic dent in the bottle of Japanese whiskey I bought to celebrate the RPS job. Before I make the highballs I’ve been craving since playing LAD: Infinite Wealth, prior to answering the door in a snakeskin jacket and shouting KIRYU-CHAAAAAN! at the Greggs driver, prior to wondering if maybe I’m a little too impressionable, let’s read this weeks best writing about games (and game related things!)
Possibility Space has become the second studio owned by Prytania Media to close in recent weeks following Crop Circle Games' closure in March. Both studios were founded by Jeff Strain, the co-founder of Guild Wars creators ArenaNet and the founder of State Of Decay developers Undead Labs.
In a message to staff about the studio's immediate closure, Strain implies the outcome was prompted by employees who leaked information about the company to a journalist.
Please excuse my lack of pleasant chitchat today; my kitten has decided I no longer get to sleep. This week she's woken me up by sprinting down the full length of my body, licking my armpits, dropping toys on my face, and generally shouting. Baby, I love you, but night is when I do my sleeping. You wouldn't be happy if I came and licked your armpits at noon when you're snoozing in your hanging radiator bed, little cat. But go on, do tell, what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!
I like co-op shooter Remnant 2, because it doesn't pretend to be much more than what it is: a dodgerollathon where, in between dodge rolls, you fill demons with bullets. I've been meaning to go back to it, so it's convenient that there's more DLC arriving soon. Dubbed The Forgotten Kingdom, it adds a new Invoker archetype, fleshes out an existing jungle biome, and introduces more gear, more monsters, and the like. Yes, count me in.
Wanted: Dead is a terrible game that I kind of adore. Created by some of the people behind the Ninja Gaiden series, it's the kind of rough diamond or perhaps, chunk of lacerating windscreen glass you find at the bottom of a mouldy box at a service station car boot sale along a particularly depressed stretch of the UK's M1.
Likely to capitalise on the hype generated by BezosTech’s (by many accounts, pretty entertaining) Fallout TV show, Bethesda are spiffing up Fallout 4 with a new update, including widescreen and ultra-widescreen support, fixes to Creation Kit, and a “variety of quest updates.”
The update is slated for this month, April 25th. A new quest, “Echoes of the Past,” sees you going up against the Enclave. Alongside this are new workshop items including previously released Creation Club content, such as Enclave uniforms, weapons and armor skins, new power armour, a Tesla Cannon, and a Heavy incinerator. Here are a few more additions, via the update:
Revealed during yesterday's Triple-i Initiative, procedurally generated detective sim Shadows Of Doubt largest update yet is playable right now. Dubbed "The Sharpshooter Assassin", the the patch introduces two new killer variants, both snipers who'll blast lead from vantage points around the city. And the city's expanding too, with new uber-rich gated communities as well as a contrasting shanty town. Not to mention a new auto-travel feature that lets you wander about these spots and attend to some casework without pausing the game.
The legally distinct Cheerios in Tiny Tires, the upcoming miniature racing game that looks to be a loving homage to Micro Machines, have their own physics. This delights me. So does the milk, actually, leaving trails on the checked linoleum tablecloth as the infinitely minute driver tries to compensate for its skidding effect on those titular Tiny Tires. There’s pool balls, too! And floppy disk ramps! Floppy disks were probably still useful the last time anyone thought about Micro Machines, but now I’m reminded of it, I’m suddenly very excited again!
Developers at Dead Space remake creators EA Motive were pushing to make a "new entry" in the sci-fi horror series before EA shelved it last year, according to the latest in a recent outbreak of Dead Spacey rumours and revelations that have spread through the bulkheads of the internet, coating everybody's devices with necrotic slime.
Never Alone, a quiet, snowy adventure set in the Alaskan arctic wilderness, won a Bafta in 2014, and at the Triple-I Initiative stream last night we got a glimpse of the upcoming sequel, Never Alone 2. It's still the tale of Nuna and Fox journeying through aforementioned cold tundra, and like the first game is inspired by Indigenous Iñupiaq storytelling traditions, but this time the story unfolds in co-op. No release date, but we have a teaser trailer for your viewing pleasure.
I've worked from home for most of the past decade, but it was during the pandemic lockdowns that I was finally indoctrinated into the world of co-working streams, pomodoro timers and lofi beats to chill/study to. I'm better now, but I absolutely see the appeal of Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, a "gamified focus tool" that just launched on Steam.
The Battlefield series increasingly seems like a square peg held by a publisher that only owns round holes. Created by EA Dice, overseen now by Respawn CEO Vince Zampella, recently worked on by EA's founded-and-shuttered Ridgeline Studios, and now EA Motive are the latest to be stuck with the beleaguered milsim.
In an update announcing that seasonal updates for Battlefield 2042 were drawing to an end, EA say that Motive Studio - best known for the Dead Space remake - are "building a team focused on Battlefield at their studio."
