Eurogamer

As someone who used to live and die by midnight lattes, playing Coffee Talk was a pleasant jaunt into the past when all I had were college deadlines and a much more resilient body. Now, caffeine after sunset sends me into a sweaty pain spiral, so it was easy to get sentimental over a game centered on sitting over a cozy brew in the dead of night. This charm and simplicity drew me in quickly, and the second chapter, Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly, is more of the same: the player is the enigmatic barista (and ostensibly owner) at Coffee Talk, a tiny cafe that only opens at night, and makes comforting drinks while listening to customers talk about their problems.

The game begins several years after the end of the first, and features previous regulars like neighborhood police officer Jorji and lifelong best friends Hyde and Gala. It's set in the same supernatural version of Seattle filled with otherworldly creatures, from orcs and satyrs to vampires and gnomes, with a "Main Six" list of recognized races and an excruciatingly slow integration process for other previously "unknown" peoples. Thankfully, Coffee Talk's slice-of-life focus helps it avoid the worst pitfalls of hackneyed fantasy-race stereotypes, as characters deal with relatable personal crises on a much smaller and intimate scale than, say, a hundred-year war between orcs and elves. For instance, a socially awkward banshee named Riona harbors dreams of becoming a soprano in an opera scene dominated by sirens, and the ever-exhausted Jorji will vent about his home life and relationship with his family.

Last week, Nintendo released its final trailer for Breath of the Wild's Hylian-ticipated sequel, and since then the internet has run amok with speculation and theories about what the game is actually all about (as always, Nintendo has done a great job of showing us some nice footage, but hasn't really told us anything of substance about the plot).

So, here are some of the current Tears of the Kingdom theories out there. (Beware elements that could be considered minor spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom below. If you want to head into the game as fresh as you can, this is your cue to head elsewhere.)

Tears of the Kingdom has a 'good' Ganondorf

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I was some way into Black Hole Rising. Mission? Reclamation. Day 9 I think, and I made a mistake that cost the whole battle. Brilliantly, I knew it at the time, as well. I knew I'd been too eager to advance. Heading off for the front line, I left a newly captured airport undefended. Yes, busy pressing my advantage and all that - or so I thought - but it allowed an enemy I had seen but not worried about to start taking the airport back. At the time, I had a twinge that this was very bad, and a hope that I could still turn it all around. But deeper, somehow, I also knew that I had just blown the entire thing. I would lose the airport and before I could take it back they would have whacked a perimeter of other units around it - junk units, sure, but time-wasters on a map in which tempo was everything. Somehow I knew I had screwed it up, which is the mark of a good tactics game. The mark of a great tactics game, though? Even as I continued playing, grinding my way towards a defeat I had already seen quite clearly, I was having an excellent time.

I was. It was a mixture of: next time I'll do this then that then this! A mixture of: I'm dead here already, so what happens if I try something weird just to see what happens? The bright paint, the revving of engines, the fog of war being pushed back like snow banking and shifting in front of a holy snow plough! And is there anything in turn-based tactic games better than the corrugated click you get from taking the Advance Wars movement arrow for a quick chug across the map?

Blizzard has called on Overwatch 2 players to stop putting their teammates down.

In a blog post detailing the work the studio has done to combat cheaters and disruptive players, Blizzard called on the Overwatch community to employ positivity in-game.

"While we can't control how each of you communicates with each other, we can tell you that it matters when it comes to performing well in your games," Blizzard said.

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Guerrilla has released a new patch for Horizon Forbidden West which adds a range of new accessibility features - including one designed for those who suffer from thalassophobia.

Thalassophobia is classed as the persistent and intense fear of deep bodies of water, including the sea, oceans and even lakes. It is different from aquaphobia, which is a fear of water itself.

According to Guerrilla, this option aims to ease a player's thalassophobia by "improving underwater ambient visibility". Additionally, Aloy will be able to breathe indefinitely when under the water "regardless of story progression".

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If you've seen the Super Mario Bros. Movie, you may have struggled to get Jack Black's "Peaches" earworm out of your head.

The exuberant Jack Black ballad, in character as Bowser, is a highight of the film, and the catchiest movie track since Encanto's Bruno. I even heard it being chanted by the younger viewers around me as I left the cinema.

It's also now hit the US song charts as well, and has marked Black's first solo entry in the Billboard Hot 100. On YouTube, meanwhile, the song's music video has racked up 17m views in 11 days. Let's watch:

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Ubisoft may extend the XDefiant closed beta over its "horrible" server experience.

Executive producer Mark Rubin took to Twitter to say Ubisoft will discuss the possibility of extending the closed beta, which is due to end on 23rd April.

Ubisoft has issued a raft of updates to the beta in a bid to improve the experience. My own time with the game on PlayStation 5 has been beset with technical issues that have forced me to restart in order to get a match. Ubisoft reacted to progression problems by unlocking everything for all players.

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Techland has put the feelers out on a potential Dying Light 3.

In the week of the release of rival zombie kill 'em-up Dead Island 2, Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektała took to Twitter to poll followers:

"if we do DL3, would you be most excited if the main hero was (as a 'profession'):

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Today brings a set of four more Sega Mega Drive games for the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service - and more specifically, it's pricier Expansion Pack tier.

Capcom classic Street Fighter 2: Special Champion Edition leads the bunch, alongside Sega sidescroller Kid Chameleon.

Sci-fi sidescroller Pulseman, an early project from Pokémon developer Game Freak, is also now available to try. It's set in the "far future of 2015", which I'd like to go back to.

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Five of the Best is a weekly series for supporters. It's a series about highlighting some of the features in games that are often overlooked. It's also a series about you having your say, so don't be shy, use the comments below and join in!

Oh and you can find our entire Five of the Best archive elsewhere on the site.

Is there a more romanticised weapon than the sword? Think of all the iconic stories from fantasy and beyond: they're littered with them, with Excaliburs, Narsils, Lightsabers, that one that Lion-O has in Thundercats. Stories are built around them. So what better weapon to have you swoosh around in a game than a sword.

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Activision has announced a week-long Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 "free access" multiplayer trial across all platforms, featuring a selection of different maps and modes.

Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer trial kicks off tomorrow, 19th April, at 5pm BST in the UK/10am PT and runs until next Wednesday, 26th April. During that time, players will have access to 10 Modern Warfare 2 maps across 12 different modes.

Participants can sample Modern Warfare 2's 2v2 Gunfight mode, its larger-scale Ground War and Invasion battle modes, plus its 6v6 All or Nothing, Domination, Gun Game, Grind, Hardpoint, Infected, Kill Confirmed, One in the Chamber, and Team Deathmatch modes.

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Crank-based portable gaming curio Playdate has now sold over 53,000 units - more than twice the number its creator Panic had originally forecast.

Playdate was initially announced back in 2019, promising a unique (and dinkily adorable) spin on portable gaming that would see Panic teaming up with a host of noted indie game designers - including the likes of Zach Gage and Bennett Foddy - to produce a curated 24-game "season", as well as offering itch.io sideloading support and, more recently, an on-device store.

It was a pitch that clearly captured peoples' imaginations; Panic has now revealed the initial 20,000 Playdate units it produced based on its early sales predictions sold out within 20 minutes of the device being made available to purchase via a queue system last April.

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Ubisoft is giving The Division fans a glimpse of the series' future (plus a recap of its present and past) during a newly announced livestream airing this Thursday, 20th April.

Proceedings are set to commence at 7pm BST/8pm CEST/11am PDT this Thursday via Twitch and YouTube, with Ubisoft promising news on three of its The Division games.

Up first is the still-popular The Division 2, which will share more on its upcoming rogue-like-inspired Descent mode, alongside details of its Year 5 plans. Ubisoft, you might recall, confirmed a fifth year of content would be happening last July.

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The two opposing forces of light and dark smash merrily together later this week as The Sims 4 turns its attention to extravagant greenhouse suntraps and grungy, dingy basements in two new Kit DLC packs, both arriving 20th April.

With spring now in full swing, green-fingered sorts will have the seasonally appropriate opporunity to fashion their own horticultural hangouts as part of The Sims 4's new Greenhouse Haven Kit. This introduces glass pane windows and doors that can be connected to create new garden spaces, as well as a range of items to go inside - including hanging baskets, starter seedlings, a planting table, and range of pots.

Alternatively, for those who'd prefer to hide away from the sun's rays in grungy comfort, there's the Basement Treasures Kit, offering a selection of hand-me-down inspired furnishings. Expect the likes of worn and torn chairs and couches, crates of vinyl records, old trophies and family photos, battered chests, and even an old cathode-ray tube TV.

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Hello there! Apologies for the interuption. If you have three minutes to spare, we'd really appreciate your time filling out our latest anonymous reader survey.

This one has a slightly different focus, so it's worth stressing once again these things are designed to be filled out with as little or as much information as you're happy to share.

As the title of this post suggests, we're keen to understand more about how the current cost of living crisis affects you. It's changing all our lives - including how we interact with our favourite hobbies - and it's important we understand how, in order to better serve you.

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Six to Start and Marvel have announced Marvel Move, an upcoming fitness adventure app that will see heroes such as Thor, Wolverine and Hulk offering encouraging words as users endeavour to run through an interactive story or two.

Now, by run, I mean actual running. One foot in front of the other and all that. And to add that extra layer of adventure and excitement, the app 'gamifies' your run by popping Marvel's heroes in your ear as they join you via the app's interactive stories. That said, you can also walk or jog (or perhaps even trot) your way through the storylines if you prefer.

You can see a little trailer for Marvel Move below:

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The original 2011 Dead Island and its 2013 sequel Riptide have a special place – if "special" is the right word - in the rancid, suppurating hearts of games journalists above a certain age. Their design and promotion captured an era in gaming that isn't entirely bygone. On the one hand, there was Dead Island's brute-force tearjerker of a CGI trailer, depicting the final moments of a little girl in reverse - a piece of cinematic wizardry and a bid for the eternally coveted status of Blockbuster That Made Me Feel Something. On the other, Riptide's tawdry zombie bikini model pre-order collectible.

Put those two things together and you have vintage triple-A culture in a nutshell: arty aspirations and smirking sleaze, prestige melodrama meets splatterhouse guts and cleavage, all of it orbiting a moderately entertaining co-op action-RPG about punching zombies for randomised weapons which, in hindsight, feels like patient zero for schlooters such as Bungie's Destiny.

Dead Island 2, meanwhile, used to be a byword for vapourware: announced in 2014 with Spec Ops: The Line developer Yager at the helm, eventually farmed out to licensed spin-off powerhouse Sumo Digital, and finally reassigned to Dambusters, developer of the atmospheric but underwhelming Homefront: The Revolution. That's the kind of journey to shelves you expect to leave obvious scars. In practice, Dead Island 2 is a slick and substantial 20+ hour looting game that rarely puts a foot wrong, but also never gets your pulse jumping, and struggles to do anything very intriguing with its not-unintriguing setting.

After a year of PlayStation 5 exclusivity, Ghostwire: Tokyo is finally out on Xbox. This open-world horror-first-person-adventure mashup is definitely a unique game, but it did suffer from a range of technical issues when it first launched. Poor performance and sluggish controls plagued the PS5 version of Ghostwire, along with an overwhelming range of graphical options. The good news is that the game looks just as good on Series X, but the bad news is that none of the technical issues have been addressed on PS5 since launch - and so the Xbox versions are similarly affected. Even more disappointing is that performance is lower on Series X, while there are noticeable reductions in quality to the game's striking ray-traced effects.

Ghostwire: Tokyo ships with a sobering variety of visual modes - far too many, really, with none of them providing a definitive experience. On PS5 and Series X, there are an effective 10 visual options for players to choose from - quality, performance, and then multiple variants of high frame-rate quality and high frame rate performance, depending on the refresh rate of the console and whether you want to engage v-sync or not. And on top of that, there are five different settings for motion blur quality - the default looked fine, so we stuck with it. The situation is much simpler on Series S, with a just one quality and one performance mode - but no ray tracing effects.

Microsoft has announced the next wave of new Xbox and PC Game Pass games.

From today, players will be able to get their hands on Minecraft Legends - "The piglins are threatening to consume the Overworld. Are you the hero this gentle land needs?" Microsoft asks.

In her Minecraft Legends review, Caelyn Ellis said that while the series' iconic "blocky charm is present and correct", she felt that the rest of the game was "only as deep as the skins it wants to sell you". She did, however, like the piglins.

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Nintendo will hold its next indie-focused announcement showcase today, Wednesday 19th April, at 5pm UK time (that's 12pm Eastern, or 9am Pacific).

Indie World details upcoming Nintendo Switch games from indie developers, in contrast to the bigger titles often on offer in Nintendo Directs.

It's also a regular source of disappointment for fans waiting to hear more on Hollow Knight: Silksong. But perhaps today will be the day?

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Remaking a game is such a tricky thing because, in doing so, you risk losing some of what made it special in the first place. Games are a collection of things, elements, and if you pull even a small part of that stuff apart, the whole thing can change into something else.

Desktop Dungeon is a case in point, a 10-year-old Roguelike known for looking a bit like Minesweeper, and with a cult following. It's won awards, it's well regarded, and now it's been remade as Desktop Dungeon: Rewind, and it's out this week.

But it's not top-down and flat any more: it's 3D. And in changing that perspective, it's lost some of its inherent charm of the original - some of app-ness and puzzle game immediacy of it, and some of the hand-drawn charm on the world maps. Now it looks like many other 3D dungeon games, and quite murky, unremarkable ones at that, and because of it, it's much harder to forgive the rougher edges and clunks.

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To audiophiles, the term 'Grado' is quite a special one. It refers to a firm who've been making headphones in New York City for the last seventy years, and over the course of the last few years, John Grado's business has become a byword for fun-sounding open-back headphones that are almost obligatory for audiophiles to own. Here, I've got a pair of their SR325x headphones within their entry-level Prestige lineup, and boy are they good.

Upon first inspection, the SR325x don't look like a £262/$295 pair of headphones, with a retro-inspired aesthetic that looks closer to 1953 than 2023. However, it's arguably that retro aesthetic that sets these Grado headphones apart from other similarly-priced choices. They look absolutely fantastic to my eyes, and feel excellent in hand too.

What sets the SR325x's apart from the cheaper options in the Prestige range by way of their construction is the fact the earcups are comprised of aluminium. This gives them a little bit of weight and justifies the price tag a little more than the plastic models do. In addition, the headband on the SR325x is made from actual leather, as opposed to vegan alternatives, and feels excellent, too. My only qualm about their construction is that the earpads here are made of a thin foam, as is typical for Grados, and they do feel as if they could end up falling apart... although at least replacements are pretty inexpensive. Other than the earpads though, the SR325x feels rugged and their construction is excellent.

Multiple Mario games have seen their position in the UK boxed charts climb following the success of the Super Mario Bros. Movie (which is now the biggest video game adaptation ever). Perhaps this isn't a huge surprise - after all, when I saw the film over the weekend, several Switch game trailers played before the movie began, including one for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Mario Kart 8: Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey and New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe all made the UK physical chart top 10 this week, with Mario Kart 8: Deluxe currently sitting at number two, only behind Fifa 23. This is a climb of two places for Nintendo's racer, which has seen a nine percent increase in sales week-on-week (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz)

As for the other two, Super Mario Odyssey jumped from tenth to fifth position this week, while New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe climbed from 17 to ten.

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Alleged details of an upcoming Doctor Who Fortnite crossover continue to leak - including the suggestion you'll be able to play as incumbent Fourteenth Doctor David Tennant, as well as upcoming Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa.

Screenshots and file details suggest a major in-game event is planned ahead of Doctor Who's upcoming 60th anniversary later this year.

Initial details shared last week by prolific Fortnite leaker iFireMonkey included word of a two-week event with free cosmetic rewards, and additional items available to buy.

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Blizzard has confirmed it has "no plans" for a Diablo 4 tab overlay map.

The "Automap" tool is a feature of the previous Diablo games. In Diablo 1 and 2 it appears as a faint overlay in the middle of the screen. Diablo 3 shifted the overlay map to the top right-hand corner of the screen, making it more of a mini-map.

Diablo 4, however, has a dedicated mini-map on the top-right corner of the screen, with the tab button used to display the full map and journal. The game will not have a tab overlay map as seen in Diablo 1 and 2, Diablo chief Rod Fergusson confirmed on Twitter.

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Those on base Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles will not be able to host a co-op session on Dead Island 2's release. Instead, they will have to rely on players with more recent consoles (from the same console family) to be the host.

In a recent blog, developer Dambuster Studios stated that, due to Dead Island 2's graphic requirements, "the host must play on the latest generation console (PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X S) or one of the Generation 8+ consoles (PlayStation 4 Pro/Xbox One X)". The host can then be joined by up to two more players.

As such, those on original PS4 and Xbox One consoles will not be able to host a session on the game's launch. The developer is working on a solution for this, with the plan being that everyone playing Dead Island 2 will eventually be able to host a session, regardless of console. Dambuster has not given a timeframe for this update as yet, merely stating it is planned to come "in the future".

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Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser has been freed from prison, but will remain in debt to the company for the rest of his life.

In February 2022, Bowser was sentenced to 40 months in prison for the distribution and sale of piracy-enabling devices. He pleaded guilty and agreed to a $4.5m fine, plus an additional $10m fine to settle Nintendo's own civil lawsuit against him.

Speaking to podcaster Nick Moses (via Kotaku), Bowser explained that Nintendo is now able to recoup 25-30 percent of his personal income for the rest of his working life.

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Bungie has tried to draw a line under the recent controversy surrounding a Destiny 2 community member accused of leaking upcoming game details.

In a fresh statement shared via Twitter, the studio stated it had "irrefutable evidence" including "video recordings, verified messages and images" regarding an individual who has leaked privileged information shared over the course of "multiple years".

The issue first came to light last week, when Bungie said it had suffered a "breach of trust" after identifying a leaker amongst the small group of community members it sometimes invited to its studio to provide feedback on the game and share upcoming plans.

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Monster Hunter Now is the next project from Pokémon Go developer Niantic, made in collaboration with Capcom, and you'll be able to try it next week.

Niantic describes it as a hunting action role-playing game, which mixes Capcom's menagerie of creatures with the Pokémon Go maker's trademark brand of smartphone-based real-world gameplay.

Monster Hunter Now is set to fully launch in September 2023, but will roll out in closed beta form starting 25th April - which you can sign up for at MonsterHunterNow.com.

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Having teased the introduction of difficulty modifiers to its viking survival game Valheim back in January, developer Iron Gate Studio has now offered a first look at the feature's progress.

Word that Iron Gate was looking to introduce difficulty settings to Valheim first came as part of an very early glimpse at the game's upcoming Ashlands biome. And now, three months on, development has reached a point where the studio is able to share more.

As detailed by Iron Gate's Jonathan Smårs on Twitter, Valheim's difficulty settings will take the form of both pre-set and customisable "world modifiers". Some you'd expect - Easy, Hard, and Hardcore variations are all present and correct, for instance, impacting combat difficulty, the frequency of enemy raids on player bases, and items kept on death - but Iron Gate is throwing in a number of more unusual presets too.

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A French court has sided with Nintendo in an appeal launched by filehosting website operator Dstorarge, which was previously ordered to pay €935,500 (around £826k) after it refused to withdraw access to pirated Nintendo games.

Nintendo initially took legal action against Dstorarge after it ignored copyright notifications demanding it remove illegal copies of Nintendo games hosted on its 1fichier service. The Judicial Court of Paris ultimately ruled in Nintendo's favour, saying filehosting services such as 1fichier were responsible for blocking access to pirated content and ordering Dstorage pay the Mario maker €935,500 in damages.

Dstorage, in turn, launched an appeal against the ruling, and, two years on, that appeal has now failed. The Paris Court of Appeals has once again sided with Nintendo, ordering Dstorage to pay the company €442,750 (£391k) in compensation, plus €25,000 (£22k) to cover legal fees.

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Following news of his departure from Microsoft earlier this month, former Halo Infinite creative head Joseph Staten has joined Netflix to begin work on a "AAA multiplatform" game.

Staten has been closely associated with the Halo series since 2000, serving in various roles across both Bungie and 343 Industries. He started out as writer and director of cinematics for Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, and would become Halo Infinite's head of creative in 2020.

Word of his departure from 343 Industries arrived in January, amid extensive layoffs at Xbox Studios, when it was reported he would remain at Microsoft in a creative director role. Earlier this month, however, Staten confirmed he had now left Microsoft entirely, only saying he was preparing to embark on a "new adventure".

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The Sonic Cinematic Universe is picking up steam: the Paramount+ live-action Knuckles series has now set its cast and entered production.

Variety reports Idris Elba reprises his role as Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, as does Adam Pally as Wade Whipple.

According to Variety, the Knuckles show is set between Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie, which comes out in cinemas on 20th December 2024.

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There's only one topic we could plausibly choose to kick off the latest edition of DF Direct Weekly - the decision from Bethesda to launch Arkane Studios' Redfall with the game locked to 30 frames per second, with a 60fps performance mode to follow at some point in the future. It's fair to say that the announcement went down like a cup of cold sick with a range of Xbox fans online, with industry commentators suggesting that Microsoft really should be doing better.

In this week's Direct, we discuss the news to the limited extent that we're able to. Bethesda's tweet didn't provide any real context for why the game isn't going to launch in a state that reflects every single piece of marketing video we've seen to date. Every trailer and gameplay showcase appeared to run at a locked 60 frames per second and up until recently, the Xbox store page for Redfall indicated that this would run at 60fps or higher. So, the sobering fact is that the launch experience is not going to be the game as it was presented to date - and that's a problem.

Putting aside the marketing for a moment, there's the question of why 60fps is so important - and that's owing to the nature of the game. A shooter thrives on faster frame-rates for two reasons: firstly, more visual feedback on a fast-paced experience greatly aids the experience. Secondly, the higher the frame-rate, the lower the input lag - again, crucial for a first-person shooter and why the likes of Call of Duty and Fortnite offer 120fps options. For a game like this, 60fps looks better and feels better.

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Media Molecule co-founder Mark Healey has left the studio after 17 years.

Healey co-founded Media Molecule in 2006 in Guildford alongside Kareem Ettouney, Alex Evans and David Smith, after working at Fable developer Lionhead (and creating Rag Doll Kung Fu, the first non-Valve game on Steam). Media Molecule's first game was 2008 PlayStation 3 user-generated content platformer LittleBigPlanet, which did well enough that Sony bought the company two years later in 2010.

Healey went on to work on 2011's LittleBigPlanet 2, 2013's Tearaway and, most recently, PlayStation 4 game Dreams.

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Blizzard has revealed some of the changes it's making to Diablo 4 following the recent beta playtests, and from what I can see, it's addressing the biggest concerns I believe people had.

One of those was boredom with dungeons, particularly in having to traipse back and forth across them. "One of the most common pieces of feedback we received is that players felt they were doing a lot of backtracking within certain dungeons," the company said in a blog post. "We have optimised multiple dungeons across all zones to minimise the need for backtracking."

In Fractured Peaks alone - the zone in the demo - nine dungeons have had their layouts changed. And wherever a dungeon has an objective, especially one you have to carry around, there are now movement speed buffs as well as other enhancements to keep the pace up.

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Microsoft has confirmed five games leaving Game Pass in the next two weeks.

The wonderful Tetris Effect: Connected is one of the games leaving by the end of April. I've had this one on my Xbox Series S for what feels like forever. Now it's finally time to decide whether to buy it (yes, of course I will!).

Other games leaving Game Pass are Dragon Quest Builders 2, Destroy All Humans!, Unsouled, and Bugsnax.

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Dead Island 2 is set to release this Friday (21st April), but its first 30 minutes are already viewable online, via a streamer who managed to get hold of their copy of the game early.

Lucas Cosmico streamed the game last night, with the first 30 minutes still up on YouTube at the time of writing.

Without going into too much detail, the footage shows Dead Island 2's opening sequence and cinematics. There's some general (and to be honest, expected) blood and gore. The stream also shows off some of the game's user interfaces and locations.

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Naughty Dog has released another update for The Last of Us Part 1 on PC, known as patch 1.0.3.

The developer has been doing its utmost to fix the game, which infamously released in an incredibly broken state earlier this year. In fact, Joel and Ellie quickly became memes on the PC game's release, with the characters becoming inexplicably wet during cutscenes and, well, the eyebrow situation.

Since its PC launch, Naughty Dog along with Iron Galaxy has been steadily releasing patches to address things such as game crashes and various UI issues.

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It doesn't take long in a conversation with the people behind LCB Game Studio for them to start recommending books. The two-person team is based in Argentina where they make the Pixel Pulp games, ingenious and quietly literary visual novels with that splinter of shock and spooky sensationalism that would have made Walter Gibson very happy. Writer and game designer Nico Saraintaris tells me he is proud of Argentina's literary heritage. So, have I read Mariana Enriquez? I haven't! Are the translations good? Where should I start? In return, I recommend Maria Gainza, another Argentinian writer, whose Optic Nerve is a dazzling book about memory and art and life in Buenos Aires. I've read it once and I'm already itching to read it again. Pretty soon we're busy writing down recommendations while the Zoom call transmits nothing but images of heads bowed over notepads and the brisk scratch of pens and paper. It feels, I have to admit, exactly as I had imagined this conversation going.