Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The odd mashup of Pokémon-like monsters, crafting, and machineguns, has made each new trailer for Palworld a delight over the past couple of years. Now it's taking the bold step of moving beyond meme by becoming a playable video game, when it launches on January 19th.

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The odd mashup of Pokémon-like monsters, crafting, and machineguns, has made each new trailer for Palworld a delight over the past couple of years. Now it's taking the bold step of moving beyond meme by becoming a playable video game, when it launches on January 19th.

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On January 18th, the Xbox Developer Direct will offer updates on games from some of the studios the behemoth have swallowed over the past several years. Most excitingly, that'll include an update from MachineGames on their in-development Indiana Jones game.

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On January 18th, the Xbox Developer Direct will offer updates on games from some of the studios the behemoth have swallowed over the past several years. Most excitingly, that'll include an update from MachineGames on their in-development Indiana Jones game.

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Some of the makers of planet-tossing real-time strategy game Planetary Annihilation are working on a sequel, called Industrial Annihilation, which aims to blend together RTS combat with factory building. It's now in its last week of investment funding and is aiming to release into early access sometime this spring.

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Some of the makers of planet-tossing real-time strategy game Planetary Annihilation are working on a sequel, called Industrial Annihilation, which aims to blend together RTS combat with factory building. It's now in its last week of investment funding and is aiming to release into early access sometime this spring.

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When the Ryzen 9 5950X debuted in 2020, it was a staggeringly strong productivity and gaming CPU, with 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 3 power for a princely £750. A little over three years later and next-gen Zen 4 CPUs are firmly here, but the 5950X remains the most powerful productivity CPU for the venerable AM4 platform.

That makes the 5950X a tempting upgrade option for anyone using an older Ryzen processor that wants to keep using their existing motherboard and RAM, and today this CPU has breached a new low-water mark: £360 on Amazon UK, 52% off its original recommended retail price. (It's also a nearly-as-good 50% off at the US.)

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When the Ryzen 9 5950X debuted in 2020, it was a staggeringly strong productivity and gaming CPU, with 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 3 power for a princely £750. A little over three years later and next-gen Zen 4 CPUs are firmly here, but the 5950X remains the most powerful productivity CPU for the venerable AM4 platform.

That makes the 5950X a tempting upgrade option for anyone using an older Ryzen processor that wants to keep using their existing motherboard and RAM, and today this CPU has breached a new low-water mark: £360 on Amazon UK, 52% off its original recommended retail price. (It's also a nearly-as-good 50% off at the US.)

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I will not lie to you, reader, I used up about 95% of today's remaining creative energy/caffeine on that headline joke, but let's charge our flashlights, sharpen our hooks and struggle on through the body copy anyway. Remedy's Alan Wake is joining Behaviour Interactive's Dead By Daylight as a playable Survivor, having been conjured from his writing desk by the latter game's villainous Entity.

Mind you, I'm a little unclear on the causality here. The press release includes a cheeky quote from a lost Alan Wake manuscript in which the perennially troubled horror author suggests that he is the creator of Dead By Daylight's universe, not Behaviour Interactive. "As I searched for a way out, memories of a script I wrote for Night Springs about a fog-engulfed place flooded back," it reads. "Surrounded by the same fog, I became a pawn - trapped. I must find a way out. Rewriting that script is key." Oh Alan. Have you tried laying off the coffee and going for a stroll, now and then?

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I will not lie to you, reader, I used up about 95% of today's remaining creative energy/caffeine on that headline joke, but let's charge our flashlights, sharpen our hooks and struggle on through the body copy anyway. Remedy's Alan Wake is joining Behaviour Interactive's Dead By Daylight as a playable Survivor, having been conjured from his writing desk by the latter game's villainous Entity.

Mind you, I'm a little unclear on the causality here. The press release includes a cheeky quote from a lost Alan Wake manuscript in which the perennially troubled horror author suggests that he is the creator of Dead By Daylight's universe, not Behaviour Interactive. "As I searched for a way out, memories of a script I wrote for Night Springs about a fog-engulfed place flooded back," it reads. "Surrounded by the same fog, I became a pawn - trapped. I must find a way out. Rewriting that script is key." Oh Alan. Have you tried laying off the coffee and going for a stroll, now and then?

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Corsair's RM1000x Shift power supply is quite a tempting one for any PC build, providing 1000W of power at 80+ Gold efficiency - but the best feature here is its conveniently reachable side-mounted connector placement. Corsair charges a premium for this feature, with the PSU normally going for £160, but today you can pick up a refurbished unit from Scan in the UK for just £110. That's a sizeable savings and well worth considering.

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Corsair's RM1000x Shift power supply is quite a tempting one for any PC build, providing 1000W of power at 80+ Gold efficiency - but the best feature here is its conveniently reachable side-mounted connector placement. Corsair charges a premium for this feature, with the PSU normally going for £160, but today you can pick up a refurbished unit from Scan in the UK for just £110. That's a sizeable savings and well worth considering.

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If you've ever been to Shinjuku station in Japan, you know what it's like to be transported to a dizzying realm of limbs and tickets and signage with myriad squiggly lines that make about as much sense as rainbow spaghetti that's been hurled at a white rectangle. You, quite literally, need to plunge yourself into an entire city within a city to get from one place to another.

Surface from the chaos, though, and it can feel like quite the achievement. Small horror game The Exit 8 captures this sense of elation perfectly, as well as all the subtleties that come from navigating a crash of noise. I'd say it will make for an initially cursed start to your 2024 endeavours, with the promise of a big reward at the end if you can stomach it.

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If you've ever been to Shinjuku station in Japan, you know what it's like to be transported to a dizzying realm of limbs and tickets and signage with myriad squiggly lines that make about as much sense as rainbow spaghetti that's been hurled at a white rectangle. You, quite literally, need to plunge yourself into an entire city within a city to get from one place to another.

Surface from the chaos, though, and it can feel like quite the achievement. Small horror game The Exit 8 captures this sense of elation perfectly, as well as all the subtleties that come from navigating a crash of noise. I'd say it will make for an initially cursed start to your 2024 endeavours, with the promise of a big reward at the end if you can stomach it.

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Acts! It used to be just those old-timey theatre productions that had them, but as in many other respects, videogames have nipped through a stage exit and stolen theatre's underpants. One act isn't the same as another, however: take the third act of Baldur's Gate 3, which many players feel isn't a patch, or indeed a hotfix changelog, on the thunderously well-received RPG's first two acts. According to senior RPG designer Anna Guxens, Larian have been following the reaction and are thinking about how they can handle the third act's "drastic" tone shift better in future releases. It's a timely observation, because in separate news, Larian's CEO Swen Vincke has posted that he's "figured out" the first act of Larian's next unannounced project.

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Acts! It used to be just those old-timey theatre productions that had them, but as in many other respects, videogames have nipped through a stage exit and stolen theatre's underpants. One act isn't the same as another, however: take the third act of Baldur's Gate 3, which many players feel isn't a patch, or indeed a hotfix changelog, on the thunderously well-received RPG's first two acts. According to senior RPG designer Anna Guxens, Larian have been following the reaction and are thinking about how they can handle the third act's "drastic" tone shift better in future releases. It's a timely observation, because in separate news, Larian's CEO Swen Vincke has posted that he's "figured out" the first act of Larian's next unannounced project.

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It’s been a good handful of years for fans of secret-ridden games. The sort of secrets that make the game world feel huge and unknowable and transform the post-game into a scavenger hunt more akin to ARGs than classic secret endings. After 2021’s meta deckbuilder Inscryption, and enigmatic Zeldalike Tunic a year later, 2023 brought us Cocoon. Set in a cryptic world of insect-like aliens and their impossible machines, Cocoon is a puzzle game all about mystery.

What best sells the mystery is a minority of puzzles that are so well-hidden, that a lot players might never know they exist. Those are the optional challenges that guard the way to Cocoon's secret ending. Any given player might stumble on one or two clues for those puzzles, before shrugging and finding their way back to the main story. But as the game goes on and the clues remain unresolved, those players will wonder what other secrets are hidden around them. I talked to Jeppe Carlsen and Edwin Kho from developer Geometric Interactive, to learn why those puzzles were made, and how it feels to watch a community track them down in real time.

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It’s been a good handful of years for fans of secret-ridden games. The sort of secrets that make the game world feel huge and unknowable and transform the post-game into a scavenger hunt more akin to ARGs than classic secret endings. After 2021’s meta deckbuilder Inscryption, and enigmatic Zeldalike Tunic a year later, 2023 brought us Cocoon. Set in a cryptic world of insect-like aliens and their impossible machines, Cocoon is a puzzle game all about mystery.

What best sells the mystery is a minority of puzzles that are so well-hidden, that a lot players might never know they exist. Those are the optional challenges that guard the way to Cocoon's secret ending. Any given player might stumble on one or two clues for those puzzles, before shrugging and finding their way back to the main story. But as the game goes on and the clues remain unresolved, those players will wonder what other secrets are hidden around them. I talked to Jeppe Carlsen and Edwin Kho from developer Geometric Interactive, to learn why those puzzles were made, and how it feels to watch a community track them down in real time.

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I have a sneaking affection for slightly jarring genre hybrids - games like the relatively recent Disintegration and the much older Battlezone 2, which smush action mechanics together with real-time strategy, or the rather more elegant Puzzle Quest, in which you roll around a parchment landscape fighting wizards using the power of match-3. New open world RPG Archaelund, which launched in early access this week, and was brought to my attention by RPS supporter cpt_freakout, has something of that curious enchantment to it.

You'll explore its landscape in first-person, roving sandy plateaus and frontier towns that remind me of Morrowind, at times. Bump into a foe, however, and your first-person perspective undergoes a fission reaction, splitting into a full group of warriors who are controlled in top down.

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I have a sneaking affection for slightly jarring genre hybrids - games like the relatively recent Disintegration and the much older Battlezone 2, which smush action mechanics together with real-time strategy, or the rather more elegant Puzzle Quest, in which you roll around a parchment landscape fighting wizards using the power of match-3. New open world RPG Archaelund, which launched in early access this week, and was brought to my attention by RPS supporter cpt_freakout, has something of that curious enchantment to it.

You'll explore its landscape in first-person, roving sandy plateaus and frontier towns that remind me of Morrowind, at times. Bump into a foe, however, and your first-person perspective undergoes a fission reaction, splitting into a full group of warriors who are controlled in top down.

Read more

The quest to appease the immortal share price continues as game engine provider Unity announce that they're laying off another 1,800 people, or around 25% of their current workforce, in a bid to "position" the company "for long-term and profitable growth".

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The quest to appease the immortal share price continues as game engine provider Unity announce that they're laying off another 1,800 people, or around 25% of their current workforce, in a bid to "position" the company "for long-term and profitable growth".

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MSI are the latest gaming gear makers to unveil a Steam Deck-alike, announcing the Claw as part of their CES 2024 showcase. The Claw – great name, by the way – actually looks and sounds closer to the Asus ROG Ally than Valve’s handheld, being a Windows 11-based device without any flashy hardware tricks like the Lenovo Legion Go’s detachable controllers. All the same, it’s aiming to stand out among these portable PCs through two means: its engorged 53Whr battery, and the industry-first use of a 14th-gen Intel Core Ultra chip as its APU.

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MSI are the latest gaming gear makers to unveil a Steam Deck-alike, announcing the Claw as part of their CES 2024 showcase. The Claw – great name, by the way – actually looks and sounds closer to the Asus ROG Ally than Valve’s handheld, being a Windows 11-based device without any flashy hardware tricks like the Lenovo Legion Go’s detachable controllers. All the same, it’s aiming to stand out among these portable PCs through two means: its engorged 53Whr battery, and the industry-first use of a 14th-gen Intel Core Ultra chip as its APU.

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Among the slew of reveals for Final Fantasy XIV during Fan Fest Tokyo last weekend was a new town players will visit during upcoming expansion Dawntrail. While a new corner of Eorzea to explore is exciting by itself, the cyberpunk city has added to my hope that the MMO is set to shower a bit more love on the best Final Fantasy game. That’s right: Final Fantasy IX.

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Among the slew of reveals for Final Fantasy XIV during Fan Fest Tokyo last weekend was a new town players will visit during upcoming expansion Dawntrail. While a new corner of Eorzea to explore is exciting by itself, the cyberpunk city has added to my hope that the MMO is set to shower a bit more love on the best Final Fantasy game. That’s right: Final Fantasy IX.

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If you’re like me, you probably have at least one treasured memory of being allowed to play an edutainment game at school under the guise of learning. What a blast, getting to play video games at school! For me, it was a floppy disk with a bizarre Pac-Man clone where you had to answer maths questions every time you ran into an enemy or obstacle. I’m sure for others it might be unforgiving classic Oregon Trail or globetrotting trivia quiz Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

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If you’re like me, you probably have at least one treasured memory of being allowed to play an edutainment game at school under the guise of learning. What a blast, getting to play video games at school! For me, it was a floppy disk with a bizarre Pac-Man clone where you had to answer maths questions every time you ran into an enemy or obstacle. I’m sure for others it might be unforgiving classic Oregon Trail or globetrotting trivia quiz Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

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Seemingly not content with swallowing up Animal Crossing and spitting out its own farm-and-craft minigame, Final Fantasy 14 has apparently now guzzled down Starfield and is readying to unleash its own way to sink dozens of hours into galactic wandering.

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Seemingly not content with swallowing up Animal Crossing and spitting out its own farm-and-craft minigame, Final Fantasy 14 has apparently now guzzled down Starfield and is readying to unleash its own way to sink dozens of hours into galactic wandering.

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Final Fantasy 14 has revealed the second new job arriving in its upcoming Dawntrail expansion. The Pictomancer is a new-oldie, bringing back the magical artist class from Final Fantasy 6 - albeit with some colourful new powers for magical ranged DPS players to enjoy. Meanwhile, we now know that the MMO's second limited job will be the Beastmaster.

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Final Fantasy 14 has revealed the second new job arriving in its upcoming Dawntrail expansion. The Pictomancer is a new-oldie, bringing back the magical artist class from Final Fantasy 6 - albeit with some colourful new powers for magical ranged DPS players to enjoy. Meanwhile, we now know that the MMO's second limited job will be the Beastmaster.

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Danish audio brand Epos is getting out of the gaming space, so its (actually great) headsets are going cheap right now. The H6Pro, a closed-back gaming headset with a neutral sound signature, robust design and wired connectivity is down to $67 at both Best Buy and Amazon US, from an original MSRP of $180.

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Danish audio brand Epos is getting out of the gaming space, so its (actually great) headsets are going cheap right now. The H6Pro, a closed-back gaming headset with a neutral sound signature, robust design and wired connectivity is down to $67 at both Best Buy and Amazon US, from an original MSRP of $180.

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Building a small form factor PC is difficult. Not only do you have to find the perfect SFF case, but then you have to spec out all of the components to fit inside it - and miniaturised motherboards in particular often come at a premium, especially if you're building a current-gen system.

Thankfully, right now Amazon UK is doing a great deal on ASRock's best Mini ITX motherboard for Ryzen 7000 CPUs, with a £146 asking price that comes 20% below its £187 RRP and more than £20 cheaper than the next-closest UK retailer.

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Building a small form factor PC is difficult. Not only do you have to find the perfect SFF case, but then you have to spec out all of the components to fit inside it - and miniaturised motherboards in particular often come at a premium, especially if you're building a current-gen system.

Thankfully, right now Amazon UK is doing a great deal on ASRock's best Mini ITX motherboard for Ryzen 7000 CPUs, with a £146 asking price that comes 20% below its £187 RRP and more than £20 cheaper than the next-closest UK retailer.

Read more

It is said that for every human being in existence there is a dedicated species of job simulator, a variety of job sim that speaks to that person, body and soul. In my case, that job sim is Medieval Machines Builder, probably better known as Siege Weapon Builder.

Its free-to-play prologue goes live later this week, on top of a demo from last year. I haven't played either the prologue or the demo and who knows, they could be rubbish, but look, I had to spend three hours this morning queuing for an appointment, and all I wanted to do during those three hours was cobble together a trebuchet from plastic chairs and retractable tape. Let me do a quick 400 words on this? Pretty please?

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It is said that for every human being in existence there is a dedicated species of job simulator, a variety of job sim that speaks to that person, body and soul. In my case, that job sim is Medieval Machines Builder, probably better known as Siege Weapon Builder.

Its free-to-play prologue goes live later this week, on top of a demo from last year. I haven't played either the prologue or the demo and who knows, they could be rubbish, but look, I had to spend three hours this morning queuing for an appointment, and all I wanted to do during those three hours was cobble together a trebuchet from plastic chairs and retractable tape. Let me do a quick 400 words on this? Pretty please?

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Nvidia have resurrected their Super refresh branding for a new trio of GeForce graphics cards: the RTX 4070 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, and RTX 4080 Super. The announcement, part of the GPU giant’s CES 2024 showcase, was light on specifics about gaming performance – but all three promise marked improvements on their 40 series predecessors. And, in the RTX 4080 Super’s case, even a big ol' price drop.

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Nvidia have resurrected their Super refresh branding for a new trio of GeForce graphics cards: the RTX 4070 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, and RTX 4080 Super. The announcement, part of the GPU giant’s CES 2024 showcase, was light on specifics about gaming performance – but all three promise marked improvements on their 40 series predecessors. And, in the RTX 4080 Super’s case, even a big ol' price drop.

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