Eurogamer

Street Fighter 6 feels like a response, the counter-punch from a developer bruised and battered after a heavy defeat. You can't call it a comeback - for the fighting game core Street Fighter 5 served its purpose well enough. But you can call it a triumphant return to the ring; better, wiser and with a new plan of attack.

Street Fighter 5 launched half finished. Online play was a broken mess, the story mode was barebones and there was no arcade mode - a fighting game prerequisite. Street Fighter 6 follows up on that release disaster with a meaty campaign mode unlike anything we've seen in the series, an online hub that recreates the feel of an old-school arcade, and a raft of single-player options to fuss over. All this on top of a world class combat system and fighting feel. It's a fantastic package - perhaps the best Street Fighter's ever had.

As a newcomer to System Shock, I'd like to take a moment and declare my undying love for SHODAN, aka Sentient Hyper-Optimised Data Access Network, aka the murderous AI villain who engulfs the entire remake. Literally. As a captured hacker onboard the Citadel space station, you've been asked to remove the "ethical constraints" from the station's artificial intelligence (that's SHODAN) in an obviously shady exchange. You get back your freedom plus a cool cybernetic implant, and the megacorp executive who's in charge of the operation gets to do evil things with the new ethically unconstrained station.

Things don't work out for either of you. Months pass by and you've woken up, still on the Citadel, but this time the humans have turned into bloodthirsty mutants, killer robots and cyborgs attack with a vengeance, and my beloved SHODAN runs the whole bleak party.

The System Shock remake begins in much the same way as 1994's original game. Exactly the same events take place, but they've been rejigged. The opening cutscene to the original System Shock has this noisy, head-bopping beat playing in the background. The retro animation was kind of surreal, almost like it was straight out of a fever dream. The remake blunts some of that energy in exchange for something more palatable.

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This time around, I'm looking at a gaming mouse that swaps the usual buttons for mechanical keyboard style keycaps, a Bluetooth speaker that has more RGB than my gaming PC, and a see-through keyboard. All three peripherals do something a bit different - but which of them are actually worth buying? That's what I'm here to find out, so after weeks of testing let's see the results.

Here's a question: why don't gaming mice have keycaps, like mechanical keyboards? This way, you could change how your mouse looks in a matter of seconds, letting you match your keyboard or just create a unique style. That's the weird idea behind the Lofree Touch EO909, a mouse that replaces the left and right buttons with unique PBT keycaps that sit atop Cherry MX-style stems.

With its beige body and curiously tall yet narrow design, the EO909 certainly stands out as a retro-inspired oddity even before you've popped on your choice of artsy keycaps ($84.99 with the mouse). Looking closer, you'll see another rare feature: a small OLED display with a DPI, battery and connection method readout (wired USB-C, Bluetooth and 2.4GHz with a USB dongle fitted on the underside of the mouse are your options here).

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Lena Raine's latest project is composing the score for Don't Nod's forthcoming narrative adventure Harmony: The Fall of Reverie.

Due out next month, it follows a young woman returning to her hometown to investigate the disappearance of her mother. Simultaneously, she's drawn into the parallel world of Reverie where she meets godlike Aspirations - Truth, Power, Bliss - and must balance the fates of each through narrative decision-making.

It's all presented in a colourful, animated style, but what really impressed me when I recently played the demo was Raine's score.

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Optimus Prime looks to be making his way to Fortnite.

That's according to a new report that backs up a recently-leaked image from the game's forthcoming season, suggesting a Transformer crossover event is on the way.

It's just one of a slew of rumours that are currently circulating, though, and gives credence to prior leaks that Chapter 4 Season 3 may include a tropical biome courtesy of the jungle-esque backdrop included in the screenshot.

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Team17 has unveiled a mysterious new project, Redacted.

Whether that's the game's final name or a placeholder we have no idea, as the press release itself is almost entirely redacted too, telling us only that someone – or something – in the game is "preparing for deployment".

Thankfully, the accompanying cinematic video – albeit also entitled Redacted – gives us a little more information, intimating that the game is set during war time when the platoon was "out-manned and out-gunned".

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THQ Nordic has reached out to Remedy and offered to partner up to make Alan Wake 2 available as a physical release.

Reminding the developer that it had facilitated physical versions "back in the day" for the original game, THQ Nordic said it would "love to go at it again".

Remedy anticipated questions about its digital-only release, it seems, as it included the decision in an FAQ shared earlier this week.

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Saber Interactive is inviting you to "celebrate the anticipated release of Space Marine 2" in World War Z: Aftermath courtesy of two new Warhammer 40,000 trinkets to equip in-game.

The trinkets can be used by any character in the game and are available for free to all World War Z: Aftermath players. You can see what's on offer in the blink-and-you'll-miss-it 15-second video below:

"Players will be able to show their loyalty to the Emperor with the Lieutenant Titus trinket, whilst traitors and heretics will be able to show their Xenos leanings with the Hormangaunt Tyranid trinket," the team explains.

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Cinderella's Fairy Godmother is seemingly on the way to Disney Dreamlight Valley in Update 5.

Whilst that hasn't been explicitly confirmed by developer Gameloft, a new social media post shows an abandoned wand sitting on an ornate "artisanal" stone bench, leading many players to speculate that it may belong to... and a lot of "bibbidi bobbidi boo" messages and memes.

"New items are coming to a Valley near you with Update 5. For instance, no wooded path is truly complete without an artisanal bench," the team tweeted over the weekend.

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Blizzard has revealed a new "race event" to commemorate the first 1000 players to hit Diablo 4's Level 100 cap.

"Think you can cheat death?" the developer teased. "Reach level 100 on hardcore mode and tweet #Diablo4Hardcore with proof to have your username immortalised on a statue of Lilith.

"Offer limited to the first 1000. Get started 1st June."

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Rising Storm developer Antimatter Games is set to close after its parent company, Enad Global 7 (EG7), announced plans to "close down" the UK studio later this summer (Q3).

In a statement, EG7 said as part of its efforts to achieve "higher predictability and profitability", it had explored "various strategic options" and "made the decision to limit further investment and move towards closing the studio".

"As a part of EG7's ongoing efforts to achieve higher predictability and profitability for the Group, the Board of EG7 initiated the process to close down Antimatter Games (AMG) studio after exploring various strategic options," Enad Global 7 explained in a statement (thanks, PC Gamer).

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Emma's Adventures is a monthly column exclusively for Eurogamer supporters, written by Emma Kent, who has an uncanny knack for finding strange adventures in games. You can support Eurogamer for £3/€3/$3 a month to gain access to a whole variety of things.

As a treat for those of you who aren't supporters, though, we've decided to make Emma's debut adventure, How I made a fashion boutique in Fallout 76, available to all.

Until recently, I knew very little about the world of dressage. My main exposure to the sport was through the Olympics, which would roll around every four years and briefly mesmerise me with horses dancing to The Lion King soundtrack. It didn't hurt, too, that Team GB would typically rake in a cluster of medals each time, thanks to the unrelenting force that is Charlotte Dujardin. Yet beyond this, I knew very little of the sport: how it worked, how it was judged, or how demanding it could be.

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An investigation into women's experiences of gaming online has revealed that one in 10 has felt suicidal as a result of online abuse.

Of the 4000 female gamers surveyed by Sky Broadband, 49 per cent report having been abused or harrassed when streaming or playing online, although this rises to 75 per cent for women aged 18-24.

80 per cent of those affected by online abuse confirmed that the messages and comments were sexual in nature, and 35 per cent was violent.

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The Callisto Protocol's all-new Riot Mode is now available.

Designed to allow players "test their mettle and compete for high scores", the sci-fi horror's third DLC, The Riot Bundle also includes The Prospector Skin Collection and 11 new enemy death animations.

Riot Mode sees Jacob in "an isolated corner of the prison, just three rooms and connecting hallways that contain loot crates full of health gel packs, health injectors, GRP batteries, and ammuniton", the team explains. Equipped with a stun baton, a hand cannon, a riot gun, and your handy GRP, you'll need to survive "endless waves of biophage enemies who vary in strength and composition".

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Neopets is serving up a steaming slice of nostalgia courtesy of a new gaming-flavoured cookbook.

The recipe book – called Neopets: Official Cookbook, unsurprisingly enough – features "over 40 delicious Neopian-inspired dishes, including gluten-free, nut-free, vegan, and vegetarian recipes" that will bring the "mouth-watering, Faerieland-flavored fare to reality".

"Neopets, the virtual pet community that left its mark on the Internet zeitgeist of the early 2000s, is giving fans a taste of nostalgia like never before with the Neopets: Official Cookbook!" the press release exclaims.

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Nintendo has forced Valve to delist a Wii and GameCube emulator from Steam, citing it violates the megacorp's intellectual property rights.

In a letter seen by PC Gamer, Nintendo issued Valve a DMCA notice, stating Valve had an "obligation to remove the offering of the Dolphin emulator from the Steam store".

"Because the Dolphin emulator violates Nintendo’s intellectual property rights, including but not limited to its rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)’s Anti-Circumvention and AntiTrafficking provisions, 17 U.S.C. § 1201, we provide this notice to you of your obligation to remove the offering of the Dolphin emulator from the Steam store," the demand stated.

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Another day, another Silent Hill rumour, and this one reckons we'll get new trailers from the numerous Silent Hill projects "really soon, before June".

According to horror game leaker Dusk Golem – who was long telling us that the seminal horror series had been rebooted before Konami did – a new trailer showing off the progress of Silent Hill 2 Remake, Townfall, and Ascension are on the way.

"I don't know the exact date for everything," they explained in messages posted to The Snitch's Discord channel," but I'll just say there's a new SH2R, Townhall [sic] & Ascension trailer ready to be revealed at last."

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Wales Interactive has unveiled the fourth and final episode coming to its co-op horror FPS, Sker Ritual, Deadly Lover's Fortress.

The team also promised that "an extended roadmap will be revealed soon to highlight the early access progress with the 1.0 release on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X release in sight", although the horror game – which is a spin-off from atmospheric horror Maid of Sker – was due to leave early access in Q1 2023.

You can check out the action yourself in the teaser below:

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What I find fascinating about Darkest Dungeon, and what I've always found fascinating about it, is how the series rethinks the experience of what being a fantasy adventurer would actually be like.

We take so much of it for granted, that experience, because we've seen it so many times. Take an adventurer - or a party of adventurers - down into a dungeon and have them overcome incredible odds to defeat hundreds if not thousands of monsters, some as big as houses and as terrifying as nightmares. And yet this seems to have no appreciable effect on them, beyond their getting stronger.

But what would that experience really be like to an adventurer, to see all of those things, to do all of those things - to encounter those horrors, and to see those terrible injuries, that anguish, that death? Profoundly traumatic, I imagine. And it's here, in this thought, Darkest Dungeon as an idea, as a concept, was born. "The central thesis that being an adventurer is a shit line of work," Darkest Dungeon co-creator Chris Bourassa tells me.

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Media Molecule has appointed former lead designer John Beech as its new creative director.

Beech steps in to replace co-founder Mark Healy, who left the studio last month after 17 years.

"Today we're extremely honoured to introduce you to our new Creative Director - @Johnee_B!" the studio tweeted.

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The major antagonists of From Software games usually have a lot of shared history. Some are blood relatives, some are lovers, some are enemies with grudges stretching back centuries. A few are all these things simultaneously. But they seldom meet, reconcile or thrash out their differences in-game. By the time we encounter them as players they've become monstrous hermits, isolated and corrupted by their vast ambitions and desires.

Some bossfights do, however, let you summon an ally character from your enemy's past, perhaps to fulfil one of each game's hidden sidequests. A select group of modders have taken this concept further. They've hacked the game to pit bosses against each other, dropping them into each other's arenas and filming the results in first-person. It's a feat of bloody fan service which exposes the nuances of each boss's design.

Garden of Eyes has been making From Software's bosses murder each other since the days of Bloodborne. His first video put the game's mentor figure Gehrman and Lady Maria, coverstar for the Old Hunters DLC, up against Laurence, first Vicar of the infamous Healing Church. It's not a close match. Laurence has the reach, but Gehrman and Maria have the speed and finesse, though Laurence's second phase - in which he tears himself apart to spew lava everywhere - at least denies the pair a spectacular finish.

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UPDATE 27/5/23: In a report released in the aftermath of Naughty Dog's statement, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has shed additional light on the behind-the-scenes decision-making currently impacting The Last of Us multiplayer game.

According to Schreier, development on the long-in-the-works title has "slowed down" after Destiny developer Bungie - which has been individually assessing Sony's many "games as a service" projects since its was acquired last year - raised concerns about The Last of Us multiplayer's "ability to keep players engaged for a long period of time".

As a result of this feedback, the Naughty Dog team working on the Last of Us multiplayer project is said to have been "scaled back", leaving only a "small group" on the project while Sony re-evaluates its direction. Bloomberg's sources say the game isn't cancelled, but that many of its developers have now been moved to other projects.

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Stone Age farming and village life sim Roots of Pacha has returned to Steam following the end of a rights dispute between its developer and publisher, who have now announced the decision to "amicably part ways under terms that are mutually beneficial".

Roots of Pacha, which launched to an extremely positive reception back in April, was pulled from Valve's storefront by publisher Crytivo earlier this month - a move developer Soda Den claimed had occurred "without [its] knowledge or consent".

"We worked hard to amicably resolve our issue with Crytivo internally," it said at the time. "Instead of working with us to address the issue, Crytivo went to Valve and authorised them to remove Roots of Pacha from Steam". Crytivo, meanwhile, claimed Soda Den had unexpectedly moved to "unilaterally rescind the contract we had worked under for three years".

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Just as it said it would, Microsoft has appealed the CMA's decision to block its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and its summary of arguments is now available for scrutiny.

In April, after months of deliberation, the UK's Competition and Market Authority made the shock decision to block Microsoft proposed $69b acquisition of the Call of Duty maker, highlighting concerns relating to the burgeoning cloud gaming sector and arguing the deal would risk "stifling competition in this growing market".

It's a position that was welcomed by some and by rejected by others. The EU, which approved the deal in May after Microsoft agreed to concessions, has been critical of the CMA's stance, and a number of UK politicians, including chancellor Jeremy Hunt, have also raised concerns. Microsoft, of course, has also criticised the decision, confirming it would launch an appeal.

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Daedalic Entertainment, the studio behind the recently released and critically lambasted The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, has reportedly received funding from the German government to develop a second Lord of the Rings title.

As spotted by German website Wirtschaft (thanks Gamesradar), Daedalic has been awarded a €2m grant - approximately £1.7m - by the German Ministry of Economic Affairs to work on what appears to be a second game in J. R. R. Tolkein's beloved fantasy universe.

The project, which is currently listed under the codename "It's magic" on the Ministry of Economic Affairs' website, is described (via Google Translate) as a game that will transport players to a "lush world full of mythical creatures and magic" and tell a "story from a character's perspective that has never been told before."

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Minecraft's long-awaited Trails and Tales Update will launch for all platforms on Wednesday, 7th June.

This is the update which adds bamboo and cherry trees, the latter of which can be found in a new, rare Overworld biome: The Cherry Grove.

Two new mobs are also joining Minecraft in this update, including camels (large enough to seat two players at once) and Sniffers.

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With the season of announcements almost upon us, we're starting to get a much clearer idea of the whats, whos, and, equally importantly, whens, of when the whos will be showing their whats. And in that spirit, developer Turn 10 has now revealed its latest Forza Motorsport game, bound for Xbox Series X/S and PC, will be getting two showings in June.

Forza Motorsport's first appearance will occur almost exactly a year after its official unveiling, during Microsoft's big Xbox Games Showcase for 2023, which kicks off on 11th June at 6pm BST. Here, Turn 10 will, as detailed on Twitter, be giving onlookers an "up-close look at the cars" they'll be a-whizzing in when launch day finally arrives.

Then, with that presumably comparatively swift segment out the way, Turn 10 will be going it alone with its own Forza Monthly showcase on 13th June. Here, it'll be serving up a "full walkthrough of [Forza Motorsports's] single-player career gameplay".

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"Lego 2K Drive" sounds like a charity event: a two-kilometre fun run perhaps, sponsored by, or with the goal of donating, Lego. It is, in fact, a video game - an open-world racer, richly encrusted with bricks - but its mission is no less in the spirit of giving. The aim of any Lego video game, surely, is to provide us with something to do with our completed creations. In real life, the joy (or at least the contended, driven quiet) is in the building. After you have plugged it all together, and you're left with your Death Star, your Batmobile, or whatever, they wind up trophied on the shelf, to be lightly trimmed with dust. Not so in Lego 2K Drive, where life is bright, pre-assembled, and anything but still. If only it were more than the sum of its parts.

What are those parts, exactly? For 2K Drive, developer Visual Concepts has looked to the likes of Forza Horizon, Mario Kart, and Crash Team Racing. This is a wise decision, kitbashing with the choicest of kits, but it invites harsh contrast. The weapons that you collect during races, for example, lack the wit of those in Mario Kart. Take the spiderweb, which fastens onto foes and causes them to come unstuck. It's a spin on the Blooper, the wide-eyed squid that squirts ink on your opponent's screen; but it lacks the slippery humour, the slight taunting pause before the Blooper gets down to his murky work, letting your enemy know that they have been suckered just before it happens. Instead, the web is spring-loaded and instant, cocooning them in bad handling until they hop it off.

UPDATE 5pm UK: Daedalic Entertainment has apologised for the poor state of release of its Lord of the Rings: Gollum game.

In a public statement, it acknowledged the game "did not meet the expectations we set for ourselves".

"We would like to sincerely apologise for the underwhelming experience many of you have had with The Lord of the Rings: Gollum upon its release," reads the statement.

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Movie star Dolph Lundgren has let slip he's set to star in a Witcher spin-off TV show.

Lundgren, perhaps most famous for playing boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky 4, told Swedish publication Aftonbladet he's in South Africa shooting a spinoff series of The Witcher, which Collider speculates is the upcoming show about the Rats.

The Rats are a group of young Nilfgaardian thieves introduced in Andrzej Sapkowski's Time of Contempt novel. The third season of The Witcher (the last starring Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia), adapts this book, and so the expectation is the Rats will be introduced to fans of the show before their spin-off hits the screen.

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Our game of the week is Warhammer 40K: Boltgun, a kind of wilful throwback to the glorious days of early shooters. Rick loved it - with caveats - and the whole premise has a gleeful immediacy that makes it hard to resist.

It's an immediacy that was distinctly lacking from this week's other biggish release. This was The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which I struggled through, intermittently seeing the beauty in it, but more often being frustrated by a game whose many problems ate away at all the potential. I'll remember this game - I do believe that. But I'll remember it with melancholy. A team really tried here, and they had some interesting ideas, but wider problems defeated them.

There may not seem to be a lot in common between the two biggies this week, but look sideways and they share one thing. They're both licensed games. They're both licensed games in the modern sense, too. Both Warhammer and Tolkien are licenses we see a lot. Scrolling Tiktok, there are a handful of these forever licenses - mobile games for 40K and for Star Trek and Star Wars always seem to be scrolling past.

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Have you ever looked at Mega Man's all blue aesthetic and thought, "yes, I like that ensemble, and I would absolutely wear it, but those boots just don't look comfortable"?

If you answered yes to that question, well I have some good news. The officially-licenced Mega Man slippers will be available this summer (23rd June, to be precise).

Clothing and costume store Fun has unveiled this new pair of Mega Man slippers, which have been designed to resemble Mega Man's classic series look. They have a stitched Mega Man on the side, and red emblems on the sole. Surely, a much more comfortable option for lounging around the house in than Mega Man's own, robotic booties.

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Earlier this week, Konami revealed not only the existence of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater - a remake of the series' third game - but also the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1.

This collection will include the first three Metal Gear Solid games - Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (both HD Collection versions), and will launch in the autumn.

However, the Konami website for the collection includes a blank space with "stay tuned for more information", which the PlayStation Store has revealed will be Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.

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The boss of the European Commission has explained in detail why her agency approved Microsoft's $68.7bn Activision Blizzard deal - and why she thinks the UK was wrong to block it.

In a speech given yesterday, European Commission executive vice president Margrethe Vestager laid out the regulator's own "call of duty" to only block buyouts when really necessary.

"Merger control is by nature a forward-looking exercise," Vestager said. "But that power comes with challenges... And to make things even more complicated, for global deals many authorities are predicting the future, at the same time. Of course we cooperate, but disagreements sometimes happen. No less recently than last week, we cleared the Microsoft/Activision deal, while the CMA decided to block it."

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Adeline Rudolph, who previously starred in Netflix's The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, has joined the Mortal Kombat 2 film cast.

Rudolph will play Princess Kitana, The Hollywood Reporter reports.

Kitana has remained a popular character in Mortal Kombat ever since her debut in 1993's Mortal Kombat 2. She is known for her steel fan weapons, although she has also used sais and a flying blade throughout the series.

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Nintendo has released a new patch for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that appears to remove item duplication glitches.

The patch notes themselves are minimal, stating some audio bug fixes, a fix to the quest 'Camera Work in the Depths', and "several issues have been addressed to improve the gameplay experience".

It's this last point that presumably covers the duplication glitches that seem to have been removed.

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Games Workshop has teased the upcoming release of Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine The Board Game.

Yes, it's a board game based on the Space Marine video game, which itself is based on Games Workshop's famous tabletop game.

The video below shows the Space Marine board game box as well as some miniatures, including a slightly awkward-looking Lieutenant Titus, star of the Space Marine video games.

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Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: Zelda, Bloodborne, and a bit of RollerCoaster Tycoon.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

Don't laugh but I only started playing Zelda this weekend. Breath of the Wild that is - have you heard of it? And have I got some burning hot takes for you!

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We've not heard much from THQ Nordic's Alone in the Dark reboot since its surprise unveiling last year, but now the promising project is back with a 25th October release date and - for the impatient among us - a playable prologue that's available now.

The original Alone in the Dark, for those too young to remember, released in 1992 and offered a genuinely groundbreaking journey into the unknown. It's widely considered to be the granddaddy of the survival horror genre, pioneering the fixed-camera spook-house formula that would go on to influence the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill.

THQ Nordic's reimagined version of Alone in the Dark - which is being handled by Swedish developer Pieces Interactive with Soma and Amnesia: The Dark Descent writer Mikael Hedberg at the helm - takes the basic premise of the 1992 original, in which private detective Edward Carnby helps Emily Hartwood investigate her uncle's suicide at the gloomy Derceto Mansion, and cranks up the Southern Gothic as it attempts to filter the originals' blend of exploration, combat, puzzles, and story through a more modern lens.

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Gearbox has announced a significant delay for Homeworld 3, moving the long-in-the-works real-time strategy sequel's launch out of the "first half of 2023" and into February 2024.

Homeworld 3 is being developed by Blackbird Interactive and marks the first new numbered game in the series since Relic Entertainment's Homeworld 2 in 2003. However, news of its progress has been erratic following its official unveiling by publisher Gearbox in August 2019.

After an extended silence, the tail-end of 2021 bought a Q4 2022 launch window, but that then slipped to the "first half of 2023" so Blackbird could deliver the game "at the highest quality". Now, however, with time to hit its most recent release target rapidly running out, Gearbox has announced another delay, this time shifting Homeworld 3's release into early next year.

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