Rally Point: Mega-mod Terror From The Void finally pushed me into loving Phoenix Point

I found Phoenix Point difficult to love, despite wanting to. I didn't cover its original 2019 release at all, partly preferring to give something else positive coverage instead, and partly suspecting I'd attached hope to it in a way I seldom do, and was overreacting. Perhaps that was a disservice to you, The Reader. We ponder.

Its final form left me ambivalent, and hoping its new modding support might provide the leg up it still needed. Well. It did. Terror From The Void is a major overhaul that touches on just about all the problems I had, while preserving what worked. And after it consumed me for several months, I'm ready to call it the game that Phoenix Point was trying to be.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/Dk4EO9V
via ifttt

Axe Ghost is mix of Tetris, Sokoban, and Gloomhaven - a sort of 'Tekken', if you will

Brevity soul'd or no, wit can also be the enemy of honesty; a fundamentally performative pin brooch with an artificial sheen. When I go back over my notes after playing a game, at least two-thirds of them will routinely be useless and powerfully crap jokes I've written in lieu of practical points because - even in a document no-one but me will ever read - I cannot bear to cease reminding myself that I'm an implausibly clever sausage.

Occasionally I do remember to just jot down an unadorned factoid. "Cards wot do two things (Gloomhaven)" says my notes on this puzzle game. I've had my eye on it for a while, mainly because making your game star a ghost with an axe and calling it Axe Ghost is some premium Nic Reuben bait, especially if the ghost also has normal human arms for some reason.

Read more

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

RPS Verdict: Monster Hunter Wilds

Is it wrong to eat a dinosaur that wants to be eaten? What if it asks you to make a little hat out of its gall bladder? What if the gall bladder has different opinions on the matter? Discover the answers to these and more as our merry band of conservation enthusiasts/trophy hunters discuss Monster Hunter Wilds!

Nic: Life, the absolute bastard, has kept me away from the Monst. Let me experience it through you. What's the best Monst so far?

Brendan: I am fond of the squiddy critters that slop about. The Nu Udra is a giant gloopy octopus that feels like a stand-out fight partly because of its many, many arms, but also because of the environment you fight it in. It's horrible (in a fun way) to wade about in the oil of this region, and try to avoid the flames that inevitably start to spread. Another later squid-like beast has some horrible knifey hands at the end of its tentacles, but I'll let the readers discover the rest of that creep's tactics by themselves.

Ollie: I'm partial to the Yian Kut-Ku myself. It was the very first monster I ever fought in any Monster Hunter, back in the days of Monster Hunter Freedom on my PSP. And all these years later, I still recognised all its moves, and it made the whole act of beating up the big fire-breathing chicken even more enjoyable and satisfying than it already was.

Read more

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

Katamari creator's new game about a teenager stuck in a T-pose gets a release date

Colourful story-driven adventure To a T is a new game from the studio of Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi. You play as an eternally T-posing teenager who must learn how to get by performing the simple tasks of life despite the challenge of having their arms permanently outstretched. We first learned about the game back in 2023, when it was announced with a very sing-alongable trailer. Now, it has a release date, along with another cracking musical number. Come watch.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/2cGVsHZ
via ifttt

Upcoming Civilization VII expansion release dates seemingly leaked by Nintendo

The release dates for an upcoming expansion pack for Sid Meier's Civilization VII have seemingly leaked via the Nintendo Store. The first part of the Crossroads Of The World collection, slated for "early March" in the official roadmap, is indeed listed on the leaked image as due on March 4th, 2025, with the second part due on March 25th - lining up with the roadmap's "late March".

Specifically, March 4th brings three separate items: the Ada Lovelace, Carthage, and Great Britain packs. On the 25th of the month, they'll be joined by Simon Bolivar, Bulgaria, and Nepal.

The are some discrepancies on the UK Nintendo store, however, with the release dates for each of the packs from the first set also listed as 25/03/2025.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/7m4x9DN
via ifttt

Fable has been delayed until 2026 because the studio needs more time, says Xbox

The upcoming reboot for Fable, the fantasy role-playing game of British chortles 'n' chuckles, has been delayed until next year, says head of Xbox Game Studios Craig Duncan. Developers Playground Games need "more time" to create the world of Albion, it turns out, but Xbox has offered a sparse sprinking of of game footage as compensation for the delay. There's nothing particularly mind-blowing among it. Some combat, some vistas. But it's something.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/9zAj6Pc
via ifttt

Castle V Castle is a snappy minimalist card game with robots, witches, and sentient doomer signage

I can't be certain, but the music for Castle V Castle sounds very much like it was made on an old Roland TR-808 drum machine or equivalent plug-in. Your ears will be familiar with the 808 even if your brain isn't - it's about as ubiquitous in hip hop as the Amen break. That's actually quite fitting, because this minimalist strategy game has the rhythms of a call-and-response rap battle. That's something you could say for all I-go-you-gos to an extent, but the bellicose back and forth here is especially sizzling, snappy, and scintillating.

(The game music is very different from the trailer music.)

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/RfuhdL2
via ifttt

Warner Bros close Monolith, creators of F.E.A.R., Condemned, Shadow Of Mordor and Wonder Woman

Warner Bros are closing three video game development studios as they seek "to get back to a 'fewer but bigger franchises' strategy", according to a leaked staff memo from Warner Bros head of games and streaming JB Perrette. The three studios in question are MultiVersus developer Player First Games, free-to-play specialists Warner Bros Games San Diego, and Monolith, the 30-year-old studio behind No One Lives Forever, F.E.A.R., Condemned: Criminal Origins, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and a troubled forthcoming Wonder Woman adaptation that has now been cancelled.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/CGEoy7f
via ifttt

I don't know what's going on in this story trailer for Lies Of P Overture but it does have some sad, familiar music for fans

A new story trailer for the upcoming Lies Of P Overture expansion shows us more of the "legendary stalker" the player will be following through the snowy surroundings of Krat. The lore is served up raw with a heavy garnishing of opaque chatter that explains absolutely nothing. But I hear that's how you cook a soulslike story. Come watch and see if you can understand more of the stalker's words than I do. You probably will if you recognise the classical tune playing underneath it all.

Read more

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

Never mind the crafting, Squirreled Away is at its best when you’re simply a scampering rodent

I’ve been trying the demo for Squirreled Away, and for some reason it keeps wanting me to play it as some kinda 2024-as-heck survival crafting game. At this, I make several rapid sniffing-like movements, then scarper adeptly yet dismissively up the nearest tree. It’s just far more fun to treat this as a casual squirrel sim, or, at the very least, a platformer where you occasionally need to steal some strawberries.

Read more

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

Annoying little sister Anna Williams is coming to Tekken 8 in second season of DLC

Well crack my knuckles and call me Roger, Tekken 8 has only gone and announced another character to be released as DLC in early April. What's that? You already suspected Anna Williams would be added to the 3D fighting game soon? Well, if you're so smart, why did Final Fantasy XVI swordsman Clive beat her to the punch, huh? Sit down, be quiet, and eat your trailer. I write the news articles here.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/Qx6VwJP
via ifttt

"A lot of people" at Avowed studio Obsidian would be up for a Pillars Of Eternity tactics spin off

Pentiment, Pillars Of Eternity, and Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer says there's enthusiasm at Obsidian for a potential tactics game set in the same universe as Avowed and the Pillars RPGs, but he's not sure the audience is there for it. "Pillars Tactics is a thing that a lot of people at the studio would like to work on, and there are a lot of people that like tactics games," he recently said on a livestream, but they'd need to work out "a scope of development where it feels like it could actually make money." (Cheers, GamesRadar)

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/3fwxn7Q
via ifttt

More job cuts waiting to bite at NetEase studios, according to insiders

Corporate gaming giant NetEase are hunting for more jobs to slash among their overseas studios, according to insiders who spoke to Bloomberg and Game File last week. The parent company recently cut a bunch of US jobs among their Marvels Rivals developers despite the game raking in a big profit. And it now looks like that was just the start of a larger mauling which may hit up to 20 of the company's non-Chinese studios.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/cXNL2Jx
via ifttt

Behold, the essential oil diffusing 'fragrance mouse'

"The cat is the fragrance, Nic," Ollie once told me when I asked the RPS Slack channel for alternatives to my essential oil diffuser, which I can no longer use for fear of my cat getting vanilla scurvy or lavender botulism or whatever else. I contemplated those words last night when she pounced into bed with me, curled up, and serenaded me to slumber with a briney fart. I remembered them again this morning when I learned of the ASUS Fragrance Mouse (thanks, Percy Gamer.)

The mouse is ergonomic, wireless, and comes in plain or pink ("Iridescent White or Rose Clay"). Its innards house a refillable vial for scent oils. It features "delicate underglow lighting," a sell that would be easier to make fun of if most gaming hardware wasn't illuminated by a choice of either energy drink piss green or antiseptic gel blue.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/6oa4HZO
via ifttt

The Maw: what's new in PC games this week?

This week is peak Maw-feeding season, for it is the release week of Monster Hunter Wilds, in which there are many maws. Fanged maws! Tusked maws! Pincered maws! Floppy toad maws! Whatever the Rompompolo has on the front of its head - possibly a proboscis, possibly a customisable screwdriver? Whatever shall we throw into all these hungry mouths, gaping at us from the dung-caked dens of Steam? Demos, of course, for this week is also the week of Steam Next Fest.

Read more

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

What are we all playing this weekend?

My my, it's blustery outside. Airflow is very important to my happiness, so I'm keeping the window open even though there are gale-force winds outside; I've had to push my laundry basket up against my bedroom door though, because the air pressure keeps making it clunk in the night.

So, seeing as I'm now trapped in my room, I spose we'd better do our weekly ablutions in the community-wide hot tub of weekend gaming. Here's what we're all clicking on this weekend!

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/301tymW
via ifttt

These are the text messages that allegedly got a former Bungie executive fired, according to a court document written by Sony

A lawsuit between Sony and a fired Bungie director is getting messy. Sony have revealed the text messages sent by the former director, which they say are proof of his "predatory behaviour" and justify their decision to dismiss him. Christopher Barrett was removed from his position last year in a dramatic reshuffle and it was later revealed that the reasons included alleged "inappropriate" and "unwanted" messages to female staff at the studio. In response to the allegations, Barrett sued Bungie and parent company Sony for breach of contract and defamation, claiming that the investigation that led to his dismissal was a "sham". The real reason for his firing, he says, was to stop a big bonus payout of over $45 million.

But lo, the Streisand effect has been initiated. His lawsuit has invited Sony to roll up their sleeves and dip their arms into their big gritty bag of exhibits. Examples of the texts he allegedly sent to employees have been revealed in a court filing.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/IOmep1R
via ifttt

Innersloth announce Among Us 3D by kicking Among Us VR into a crusher

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the Airship library, Innersloth and Schell Games have announced a 3D version of popular social stealth sim Among Us. Or at least, they have taken the existing VR version and made it non-VR. It's a stab in the back for the Meta Questers, perhaps, but it's great news for me, a person who has only ever owned the launch model of the PS4's VR headset, and is currently using its box as a draft excluder.

Read more

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

The Sims 4's Businesses & Hobbies expansion pack will let open your own business and tattoo your Sims

Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life, the saying goes. (This is why so many games journalists are unemployed - ba-dum tish.) Thankyfully the next expansion for The Sims 4 seems to understand the permeable boundary between passion project and career as purely aspirational. It's called Businesses & Hobbies and it lets Sims open their own tattoo parlour, pottery studio or - if you have the right complementary expansion - a cat café.

Read more

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

Make your complaints heard about bad games, says Dragon Age veteran Mark Darrah, but "your $70 doesn't buy you cruelty"

Answering GDC's 2023 survey, 78% of respondents said they considered the harassment and toxicity developers receive from the public to be a serious issue. A simple sentiment is often the most effective, and the title of Dragon Age veteran Mark Darrah's latest video cuts right to the heart of it: "Your $70 doesn't buy you cruelty."

You don't have to like a game, and you don't have stay quiet if you have complaints, says Darrah. You're entitled to be angry, and you're entitled to express that anger. "If you are mad at that Ubisoft game, be mad at Ubisoft," he says. "Express your anger to Ubisoft or the studio that made the game. But you cross a line when you start being cruel about it." (Thanks, PC Gamer and GamesRadar)

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/t0HJvKZ
via ifttt

HBO's The Last Of Us season two now has a release date in the US and UK

We've known that HBO's Last Of Us adaptation was getting a second season since 2023, but now it has a release date. The first episode will air in the US on April 13th.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/xPOM5GY
via ifttt

Hades 2's update adds Ares to the pantheon and a "final confrontation" atop mount Olympus

Supergiant have released their third big update for slashy dashy roguelike Hades 2, and it adds familiar murdergod Ares to the roster of deities helping you out. Like other immortals he'll offer boons 'n' blessings while smarming at you from afar. The update also adds a new animal familiar - a polecat named Gale who will please defensive players by boosting your dodge chance and movement speed. Which you might need if you travel the surface route towards mount Olympus - because the game now has a "final confrontation" that way.

Read more

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

NetEase reward US-based developers of live service hit Marvel Rivals by sacrificing their jobs to "efficiency"

Marvel Rivals is this year's current free-to-play PC game success story, attracting many millions of players over its opening weekend and making regular appearances in the Steam Most Played top 10 ever since. It garnered an estimated $136 million in January. So naturally, it's time to start laying people off.

Last night, one of the project's game directors, Thaddeus Sasser, revealed that an undisclosed number of US-based NetEase Games employees had been dismissed, including level designers Gary McGee and Jack Burrows. NetEase have now confirmed the news, calling it a move to "optimize development efficiency" and assuring players that they "are investing more, not less, into the evolution and growth of this game". Just not so much the people working on it.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/9KpwlgG
via ifttt

Refusing to get drunk in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is an oddly captivating act of rebellion

This article contains moderate spoilers for the closing events of the Wedding Crashers quest in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

It’s impossible, I think, to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 without playing a boozer, even if you’re only boozing in cutscenes. The game’s 15th century world is greased by many splendours of hooch, from the wine used in potion-brewing through the finer vintages at banqueting tables to the viral pondwater they sell in seedier taverns. A lot of the time, the writing views alcohol as a means of teeing up some slapstick debauchery reminiscent of Paul Bettany’s character in A Knight’s Tale. It venerates the spectacle of having a large one, with custom dialogue and voice-acting for protagonist Henry when you woozily explain your antics to guards. But sometimes, perhaps despite itself, it expresses something about the culture of drinking and the unpleasantness of being militantly exhorted to drink.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/hGNK1p2
via ifttt

Flat strategy game War Rats: The Rat Em Up is delicious trash

War Rats is sort of trash, but I love it all the same. Oh, you're giving me a 'ratvolver' and letting me build 'turrats' and there's a dramatic close-up of swinging rat balls in the intro montage for each stage? Yeah, go on then. It's got the vibes of something made by the guy you knew in secondary school who exclusively drew pictures of cartoon dicks but, like, they were undeniably really good dicks. Absolute cock prodigy, that guy. Pablo Dickasso.

Anyway, I'm probably making it sound like there's a serious dick to rat ratio here but it's really just those balls. There are some great rat animations though. It's a 2D strategy tug-of-war where you push through stages summoning troops and building structures, and when you do, you're treated to a bunch of rats with hammers piling up construction barriers. When enemy rats fall, either to your own guns or your army of Ratineeers, gangs of regular-sized rats come to nibble on their corpses. They also say things like "Tell my wife…squeak".

Also I am 95% sure your Ratvolver fires legally distinct warpstone. They saw me coming, I tell you.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/1RNSVgQ
via ifttt

GTA 6 may let you modify its own map using Roblox-style user creation features, claims report

Rockstar Games are considering letting GTA 6 players modify the game’s map by way of Roblox and Fortnite-style creation mechanics, according to a report. The idea is that people can make and sell their own “custom experiences”, as they do in those games - expanding upon the existing customisation opportunities in GTA Online. This might even extend to featuring real-world sponsors, rather than the parody versions of familiar brands we encounter in GTA 5.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/ZMx6n9m
via ifttt

Amphora Hell is a goofy little game about failed art that refuses to become junk

During a recent house clearout I discovered a cache of creative writing from my teenage years. Naturally, I now consider most of it to be unbearable. Reading certain notebooks makes me feel as though my stomach is mounting an upwards assault on my brain. BURN IT, scream the parts of said brain that have learned the perils of starting poems with "O Muse". BURN IT ALL. Nonetheless, I felt bad about being mean towards my adolescent self, so I popped all those misbegotten papers in a giant suitcase. It squats next to me right now as I type these words, like a mausoleum filled with dead albatrosses.

Similarly mixed emotions appear to inform Amphora Hell, in which you play an amphora (read: ancient species of vase) with legs. The amphora is the work of the Kilnmaster, a terrible Olympian force who is one part Hephaestus to one part shmup villain. The Kilnmaster has just decided that he hates his amphora with legs and wishes to destroy it with flying hammers. "No evidence of my failure must remain," he bellows in the Itch preamble. "Prepare to be scrapped!"

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/z7UWFm3
via ifttt

Total War: Warhammer 3 might finally be giving its cowardly AI some oomph

I tend to play Total War: Warhammer 3 closer to an RPG than a strategy game. Balance? Leave me alone, for I am immersed in the stinky fantasy of being a sniveling Skaven bin-licker, commanding my slaves to mine useless gold purely because it irritates my dwarfish enemies.

As such, I'm not quite as tuned into the nuances of enemy faction behaviour as a lot of players, despite my ungodly hour count. I do miss fighting against large enemy empires though, something the AI seems more reluctant to pull off these days. Creative Assembly seem to think so, too. A new blog post outlines the changes they're making to AI, and there's an experimental beta branch available right now if you want to test them out.

Read more

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

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage - Tape 1: Bloom review

Most writing tries to avoid cliché, understanding that an overused idea is one that has lost its power. It often feels as if video games take the opposite approach, gleefully piling tropes high upon their back like Labyrinth's junk lady. Sure, they sacrifice the opportunity to say anything affecting or which feels true, but presumably the theory is that reminding you of a dozen other films, TV shows, books and games you like is just as good.

Enter Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, hunched over from the weight of all the teen TV shows and young adult novels stacked atop its shoulders.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/g8o0GJ1
via ifttt

Diablo speedrunners searched 2.2 billion random dungeon seeds to debunk a two-decade old speedrun record

A team of Diablo speedrunners spent months searching the 1996 RPG's 2.2 billion valid randomly generated dungeon seeds to find the layout used in a stupidly lucky speedrun they suspected to be illegitimate, says a new report from Ars Technica's Kyle Orland.

The three minute, 12 second sorcerer run by Maciej "Groobo" Maselewski was first uploaded to Speed Demos Archive in 2009. Watching it "feels like watching someone win the lottery," writes Orland, thanks to a seemingly random streak of entrance and exit stairways right next to each other, allowing for a rapid, safe descent through the dungeon. Groobo lucked out again on the ninth floor, nabbing the Naj's Puzzler item needed for later teleporting exploits.

Read more

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

The Maw: what's new in PC games this week?

Last week the Maw fattened itself upon the fizzy nectar of human romance. I'm not sure what it's in the mood for this week. Perhaps some nice buttered abbots? Sprinkled with freshly plucked silicon ants? And a side helping of heavily salted gangsters? With some crusty cyberpunk cities for dessert? Let's have a look at this week's new PC games, then.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/Bhwpi1r
via ifttt

The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for bracing for the February half-term week here in the UK, during which schools are closed and parents must occupy kids while it's still mostly cold and rainy outside. Quick, tidy the house, book in the playdates, get the shopping done, catch-up on sleep. And do some reading, obviously.

V Buckenham wrote a fun design analysis of "can you pet the dog", breaking down each word in turn.

Read more

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

What are we all playing this weekend?

Greetings, pals. Nursing a nice post-Valentine's Day hangover, I hope? Had I remembered it was Valentine's Day when I selected the image, I'd possibly have picked something slightly more romantic than a group of potters going about their business.

Anyway, now for the best part of the week! No, not the playing of games. The talking about the playing of games! Whether the playing of games actually happens is inconsequential. Here's what we're all clicking on this weekend!

Read more

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

What is a "hangout game"?

Identifying a new genre is a fool's task, but I've never been wise. Sometimes a blossoming genre can be obvious, as when a huge success like Doom or Dark Souls comes along and inspires games for decades to follow. But sometimes a new genre is quiet, low-key, hiding just beneath the surface of a tumultuous industry. Sometimes you have to go fishing for it.

Let's catch the slippery "hangout game".

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/ZveFW2E
via ifttt

Elden Ring Nightreign to get DLC bosses and characters in yet more evidence that it's a From Extended Universe game

Elden Ring Nightreign will get "additional playable characters and bosses" via DLC, according to an entry on the game's Steam page. This isn't massively surprising, given that Nightreign is a multiplayer-focussed spin-off featuring preset Nightfarer heroes rather than custom RPG characters, as in vanilla Elden Ring. It also supports the idea that Nightreign is the foundation for a From Software Connected Universe of sorts, with characters and antagonists from the original Elden Ring, Dark Souls trilogy, Sekiro and Bloodborne reappearing in Nightreign via the Mystic Nexus of Monetisation.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/Jis8qFT
via ifttt

Avowed and the Steam Deck make for uneasy partymates

I’m not saying you should play Avowed on a Steam Deck, merely that you can play Avowed on a Steam Deck. Much like how Nic found the game itself, squishing Obsidian’s latest RPG into a handheld makes for a sometimes-good, sometimes-terrible time, for reasons mostly shared between the Deck’s relative lack of horsepower and Avowed’s hardware-agnostic proclivity for stuttering.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/L4EBXWa
via ifttt

A huge space rock has a 2.3% chance of hitting Earth so let's all play Asteroid Launcher

We interrupt our regular schedule of fish puns and naughty jokes about holes to warn you that a huge chunk of celestial debris has a 2.3% chance of impacting Earth in December 2032 and wiping out the city of Bradford. I name Bradford because it’s the first city that occurs to me and also, because several of my ancient enemies live there, but the asteroid could hit anywhere. Where do you live? Maybe wear a hard hat when you go Xmas shopping in 2032. Asteroid 2024 YR4 loiters somewhere along our planet’s orbital trajectory, like a rake in the grass.

If this were the 1980s we’d seek comfort in the pages of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, which has the words “DON’T PANIC” in large, friendly letters on the cover. But it’s the twenty-twenties and nobody reads Douglas Adams anymore, so instead I’m playing Neal.fun’s free tool Asteroid Launcher, which lets you pick asteroids of different sizes and compositions like you’re choosing brands of cereal, then splat them capriciously against world map data provided by Apple Inc.

Read more

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

The Borderlands 4 release date gives us a clue about Grand Theft Auto 6's arrival

The flash flood of marketing that poured forth from PlayStation's State Of Play last night splashes wetly upon we PC players too. Among the teasers and crossover announcements, 2K revealed the release date for Borderlands 4 in a short 'n' shooty trailer. I'm not a big fan of this long-running looter shooter. But in showing us its release date Take-Two have given us an indication of when Grand Theft Auto 6 will not release. And that's mildly interesting.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/LIj0Xic
via ifttt

Saros is the next shooter from the Returnal developers, and it wants to be less punishing

Returnal studio Housemarque sound like they're aiming to put more emphasis on the lite part of the roguelite formula with Saros, their next loop 'em up space shooter arriving exclusive to PlayStation 5 next year and likely on PC sometime after that, if past time loops are anything to go on.

You'll be exploring a lost space colony as Arjun Devraj, a "Soltari Enforcer" played by Midnight Mass actor and big nerd Rahul Kohli. The planet you're on is named 'Carcosa', perhaps suggesting a continuation of the cosmic horror bits that Returnal did so well.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/fmRcq1o
via ifttt

Tides Of Annihilation brings Devil May Cry's speed and God Of War's scale to post-apocalyptic Arthurian London

Chinese developers Eclipse Glow Games have revealed Tides Of Annihilation, a fantasy hack-and-slash set in a "twisted", modern yet Arthurian version of London. It casts you as Gwendolyn, a baby-faced blood-letter who must defeat Avalon's demi-gods by *checks notes* throwing the Knights of The Round Table at them.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/8JvBON5
via ifttt

Alan Wake 2 is finally profitable and earning royalties for Remedy

Well, this is nice. Remedy's exceptionally good horror game Alan Wake 2 is finally making royalties for the studio for the first time since its release in late 2023, after shifting over 2 million copies. The jubilant news comes from Remedy latest financial report, as spotted by VG247.

As of September last year, the musical-with-guns had "recouped most of its development and marketing expenses", but still wasn't quite in the green. Since then, they've released both The Lake House expansion and physical console editions, which appear to have done the trick. "October saw particularly high activity around Alan Wake 2," says the report.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/U38lkLB
via ifttt

Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick blasts "fake lawsuits against us and Riot Games", claiming union workers used harassment claims to drum up members

Ex-Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has called a 2021 petition signed by over a thousand Activision Blizzard employees to remove him as CEO "fake", and suggests that harassment claims and legal cases brought against Activision Blizzard were engineered by the Communication Workers of Union in a bid to attract new members. Kotick made the comments during an appearance on Grit, a business podcast by American venture capital company Kleiner Perkins. He appeared on the podcast with former EA CEO Bing Gordon (thanks, Gamespot), to talk about both their company histories.

Kotick's statements reference widely reported incidents alleging a company culture of harassment, intimidation, and pay inequity around the time - coinciding with a lawsuit against the company - and the petition referred to appears to be this one to remove him as CEO, which attracted over a thousand signatures.

That petition followed a report by the Wall Street Journal (paywalled) that highlighted several alleged incidents of harassment by Activision staff, alongside reports that Kotick was aware of these allegations but did not inform the company's board of directors, and intervened to prevent the firing of an alleged harasser. It wasn't just Activision workers who found these claims alarming: a group of company shareholders called for Kotick's resignation soon after. Kotick denied any wrongdoing.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/mbyvFQ1
via ifttt

Subnautica 2 developers warn fans to watch out for a fraudulent playtest

The developers of upcoming survival game Subnautica 2 have warned fans that some dastardly do-badders are sending "fraudulent invites" to a playtest for the game via Steam messages. The playtest isn't real, say Unknown Worlds, who point out that any such invite will only come in an email from their own domain.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/jyTObZ7
via ifttt

I will kill every hedgehog I see in roguelite RPG He Is Coming

It is I, the guy who has only played Mechabellum playing his second autobattler, and getting strong Mechabellum vibes from it. Except, actually no, not at all. He Is Coming, from Chronocle and noted good game recognisers Hooded Horse, is actually a kinda sorta classic roguelike RPG. You'll be shuffling over a Commodore 64-tified overworld map, grabbing treasure, bumping foes that move when you do, and turn-based autobattling them.

Got wounded? Maybe have a nice rest at that campfire. Not too long, you slovenly wastrel! You're actually on the clock: the 'he' of the title refers to the menagerie of boss creatures that turn up after a set time. The idea is to use your time wisely to prepare for the big fight, getting stronger without getting whittled down too much.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/EoAI4ys
via ifttt

A Game About Digging A Hole is Powerwash Simulator for holes

PowerWash Simulator simply too strenuous? House Flipper 2 furrowing your brow? They can't hurt you anymore, friend. It is simply you and the hole now. The days may come, and the world may spin, but you? You need only dig. A Game About Digging A Hole is a game about digging a hole.

"Hey Steam community," goes the delightfully unadorned Steam page introduction to this simulation game. "I'm Ben, and I created this game in my spare time!". I love you, Ben. Not a "play your way" in sight. Nary a "the only limit is your imagination". Absent a venomous and detestable "easy to learn, hard to master". Just a bloke named Ben, and a hole named hole.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/WncMD2P
via ifttt

Improving Civilization 7's UI is the "top priority", say Firaxis

The RPS review of Firaxis' grand strategy Civilisation 7 is currently in progress. We didn't get early code, and our usual method of sidestepping this issue by rapidly entering the numbers and letters spelled out by our extensive collection of longhorn beetles bore no fruit. Rest assured: it's coming. Sin reviewed it for EuroVega though, awarding it two out of a possible five beetles. While she found it largely dull, she did mention that "its UI has enough potential to make some of my complaints feel patchable". Firaxis seem to agree, putting out a statement last Friday following feedback from the game's advanced access period.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/WZb3XAO
via ifttt

The Maw: what's new in PC games this week?

This week is the week of Valentine's Day, and therefore theoretically the most romantic week of the year even though it's still winter here and the drizzle feels like it's falling inside my bones and the thought of another human's touch makes me want to wipe myself with sandpaper.

Some trivia from a person who's been in a relationship for decades: Valentine's Day comes less than a month after "Blue Monday", the most depressing day of the year according to a random travel company, and you know, I think we need more time to, as it were, switch between varieties of blueness. My picks for this week's new PC games likely won't help, assuming you aren't especially turned on by the thought of Harriet Tubman being queen of Carthage. Ah well. Let's commence feeding the Maw and hope that we strike a few sparks of amore from the creature's heaving flanks.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/3scD6VS
via ifttt

The Sunday Papers

Sometimes you read a piece of criticism and its author immediately becomes one of your guys. That never happened for me with music critic Neil Kulkarni, though I must have read his work given the music magazines he wrote for. That changed a couple of weeks ago when I went to Kieron's (RPS in peace) newsletter in search of his piece in rememberance of J Nash (included in a prior Papers), in which he linked to his similar piece on Kulkarni, who passed last year. I read the examples of Kulkarni's work that Kieron linked, and then the Kulkarni articles the man himself linked, and several hours and several layers deep, I thought: oh no, Neil Kulkarni was one of my guys.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/Y4RQVWg
via ifttt

What are we all playing this weekend?

Merry weekend, everyone. It's been a busy time, hasn't it. Lots of kingdoms coming. The Middle Ages haven't been so packed since, well. I don't even need to say it, do I? Whether you're playing that or something else, let us know what you're getting up to this weekend in the comments below. Here's what we're all hoping to click on this weekend!

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/Y4r7EyL
via ifttt

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater release date leaked, alongside a trailer showing off the baddies

"Kept you waiting, huh?" says Snake. Uh, no, not really. You're actually a bit early this time, mate. The release date for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater was spotted this week, hiding in the long grass of the PlayStation Store. The fancy-schmancy MGS3 remake is coming out in August, according to the store page. And you can also catch sight of a camouflaged trailer if you go looking under the right rocks.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/iCLB7RV
via ifttt