Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Urbek City Builder looks like a traditional entry to the genre: you place buildings, cars and little people begin to scurry about, and you gradually expand your urban sprawl. The twist is that there's no money fuelling your construction. Instead, your city flourishes or not based on your ability to fulfil each building's resource requirements, which quickly turns progress into more of a puzzle than a management game.

It's out on Steam now, and you can find a trailer of its pretty voxel world below.

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Tactics Ogre: Reborn will reportedly launch on November 11th, according to a new leak. The same leak also includes the first screenshots of Reborn, and a feature list that suggests Reborn is more than a straight port of 2010's Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together.

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Bank robberies are classic cowboy fare. Whether you're up to no good in Red Dead Redemption 2 or stealing from the rich to (sort of) give to the poor in the original Desperados, these temples of cash have long been the scenes of messy shootouts, upturned tables, and big, golden pay-outs. At least when your heist strategy's going according to plan, that is. In an exclusive demo for one of the later levels in Hard West 2, the upcoming sequel to the 2015 turn-based tactics original, Ice Code Games' chief technology officer Mateusz Pilski is starting to feel the heat a bit. The bank is well guarded, with at least half a dozen gunslingers staking out the doors at the front, and untold numbers waiting in hidden nooks and crannies further back. He takes a moment to consider his approach, but he begins his assault with confidence.

"In any XCOM-like, when you see that many enemies and that much firepower, in that good a position, you think, okay, I'm fucked up," he tells me. "In just a second, I will show you how you can use Bravado to totally overturn the situation."

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Meta are increasing the price of all versions of the Meta Quest 2, their flagship wireless VR headset, by $100. They announced the decision in a post on the Oculus blog, saying that the increase in price would help them "continue to invest for the long term and keep driving the VR industry forward." Basically, Meta would like to lose less money now.

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Aliens: Fireteam Elite's season four kicks off today, and there are substantial new features to tempt you back to the co-op stand up fight. That includes crossplay, a new 'prestige' progression system that starts when players reach level 20, and a new game mode.

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I will hoover up any crumb about Return To Monkey Island I can find, no matter how small, so 43 seconds of new footage feels practically like a full meal. That's the length of a new clip shared by Ron Gilbert on Twitter, and it shows Guybrush exploring a snowy town as well as how Return's dialogue trees look for, I think, the first time.

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The RTX 2060 is the most affordable RTX graphics card, making it your best shout for gaining the hardware to do real-time ray tracing and frame-rate-boosting DLSS without overpaying. This model debuted at £330, got more expensive over time as the worst of the GPU supply shortage hit, and was impossible to find below RRP even after its next-generation successor, the RTX 3060 launched two years later.

Now the RTX 2060 has finally dipped in price, making it an ideal time to pick up what is still a powerful and feature-complete graphics card for 1080p or even 1440p gaming. You can pick up a compact EVGA RTX 2060 SC model for just £212 on Amazon right now, a 52% drop from its peak price and a fair deal for the level of performance on offer.

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The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is Team Red's fastest gaming processor in many titles, yet it costs far less than the slightly older 5950X and only a bit more than the 5900X. Reason being? You get fewer cores than those processors, and slower clock speeds, but dramatically increased cache - a trade-off that often provides a massive performance improvement for gaming.

The 5800X3D was extremely hard to find at launch, with AMD's limited inventory being claimed as soon as the first reviews rolled in, but now we're starting to see better availability - and today, the first proper discounts. You can pick up the 5800X3D for £384 from CCL, thanks to a £15 off discount code: AFF15.

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Free-to-play action RPG Torchlight Infinite is going into open beta on PC in October alongside iOS and Google Play, a spokesperson for the developers XD has told RPS. XD unveiled more of the game's PC version over the weekend, but at the time it was unclear when it would launching. Now we know it will be cross-play across PC and mobile this autumn. Check out some footage of Torchlight Infinite’s bosses in the trailer below.

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"Do you do Strava?" people often ask upon learning I like cycling. This is not the question they wish to ask. They are trying to feel out a stereotype, attempting to maintain the civil spirit of small talk by not saying aloud, "So are you a prick about cycling?" To broach the subject of stats, let's talk about Wren, an idle RPG powered by going for a real bike ride then connecting the game to your Strava or Fitbit. I got a puncture in the course of playing the game for this post, such is my dedication to you, reader dear.

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Fancy a wrestle? Well, you’re more limited in choice now, because 2K have removed four of their past WWE games from sale on Steam, leaving just the recent WWE 2K22 and the arcade-style 2K Battlegrounds up. Console yourself by watching the 2K22 launch trailer below, as you weep into your tasselled and bespangled leotard.

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It’s not just Stranger Things that gets to star undead wizards this year. World Of Warcraft: Wrath Of The Lich King Classic releases on September 26th, Blizzard have revealed. Take a nostalgic trip back to Northrend to tackle the evil Lich King, Arthas Menethil, and check out what’s changed since the original. Watch the trailer below to refresh your memory from all the way back in 2008.

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Bullet time has gone in and out of fashion, yet it remains accepted as cool by everyone who has ever knocked back a fistful of painkillers and murdered half of New York City. Rollerskating has gone in and out of fashion too, and anyone who's glanced at Instagram for the past couple of years will know which stage of the wave we're at. Rollerdrome fuses these two oscillating trends in the story of a rollerskating hotshot with a vendetta against human heads. I got a look at the first few levels and, so far, it's a flashy spin on the slow-mo gun fight.

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Free-to-play Warner Bros. brawler MultiVersus slams into open beta today at 5pm BST/6pm CEST/9am PST. We’ll be bringing you some thoughts later this week on whether MultiVersus is any good now it’s out of alpha but, for now, here’s a rundown of when and how you can play today. Check out the trailer below for a quick heads-up on how progression and rewards feature in the game.

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Even more giant lumbering beasts are heading straight for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak when the first of its free title updates lands in August. Expect two new rare species along with a fresh area to explore. Let your finely crafted trousers tremble with anticipatory terror while you watch the trailer below.

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Rumours began to circulate over the weekend that Ubisoft were planning on cancelling their free-to-play fantasy sports game Roller Champions. The rumours grew to the point where Ubisoft have commented on them to say: nuh-uh. In a statement posted on Twitter, its developers say "Roller Champions isn’t getting cancelled, and Ubisoft fully supports it."

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American Truck Simulator's tenth expansion is almost upon us. The freight simulator's Montana DLC was announced in November last year, and now developers SCS Software say it'll begin its journey on August 4th. There's a new trailer and a longer in-game video to watch below.

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RTX 3080 graphics cards have hit a new low-water mark on Ebay, where a 10% off code (HOT10) has brought them to £660. This is the price for a Zotac Trinity model, but if you prefer Inno3D's designs then you can get one of their cards for just £10 more. Either way, you get an impressive level of performance for half the price that some were paying just a few months ago.

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I'd rather play almost any game in first-person rather than third-person. A game in which I'm a cat might be one of the few exceptions. If you feel differently, and you'd really like to get inside the head of the feline protagonist in Stray, then there's now a first-person mod to help you.

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AMD's Ryzen 5000 processors are getting ever cheaper, with the mid-range Ryzen 5 5600 today crossing the £130 barrier for the first time. You can now pick up this super-fast gaming CPU for less than £130, while the more powerful 5600X costs £170 after a similar discount - some way below the last sale price we saw it at. To get the reduced price, you'll need to use code HOT10 at the checkout to knock 10% off the price.

Higher-end Ryzen processors have also seen discounts in recent weeks. We spotted deals on the Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 9 5900X using the same Ebay HOT10 code.

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Sneaky little hobbitses 'em up Lord Of The Rings: Gollum needs more time, say developers Daedalic. In a statement posted on Twitter earlier this evening, they say they're delaying the game by a few months "in order to deliver the best possible experience."

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Every Monday, Super Auto Pets shakes its big bag of animals and draws a fresh selection for its 'Weekly Pack' mode. SAP is my favourite auto-battler, and offering a whole new meta every week has me coming back long after I would've stopped playing. I do enjoy the flow across a week as builds rise and fall on an accelerated timescale before everything is wiped clean and starts over on Monday. Which makes me wonder: what's the best day of your gaming week, reader dear?

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Fed up with waiting for big-name console games to come out on PC after they’ve landed on current-gen consoles? Good job that a Naughty Dog artist has said that The Last Of Us Part 1 remake will be launching on our beige box of choice “very soon” after coming to PS5 on September 2nd then. Senior Environment Texture Artist Jonathan Benainous made the comment to a The Last Of Us fan who tweeted at him about the PC version.

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British actor David Warner, who voiced dark wizard Jon Irenicus in classic CRPG Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows Of Amn, has died at the age of 80, the BBC reports. The actor also appeared in other games during the late 1990s and early 2000s, mostly on PC. You can hear Warner’s evocative performance as Irenicus in the trailer for Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition below.

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Rick And Morty’s Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith are joining the roster of Warner Bros. brawler MultiVersus, but not before Space Jam basketballer LeBron James. LeBron is up first, so you can expect to play as him when the open beta begins on July 26th. Rick and Morty will be added during the game’s first season. Watch the LeBron reveal trailer below.

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Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This time, my eye has been caught by an adventure game inspired by Flann O'Briend, a celebrity reality show in a McMansion, livestreamed occult horror rituals, and more.

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We all knew it would happen eventually. Plastic statue makers Funko have revealed at San Diego Comic-Con that their Funko Pop collectibles will star in games produced by relative newcomers 10.10 Games. However, 10.10 was started up by Jon Burton, who also founded Traveller’s Tales, the purveyor of Lego games. You can watch the very short announcement teaser trailer below.

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Less than a week after Stray launched, the smash-hit cyberpunk cat adventure has dozens of mods available with new looks for our little friend. My favourites are when modders make the game's cat look like their own real cat, and show me photos of that pretty cat. Then... you have some weirder options, like turning it into Garfield (in both realistic and cartoon forms) or a horrifying quadripedal version of GTA: San Andreas star CJ.

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Looking at signs in open-world catventure Stray makes me think I’m due for an eye-test. The code language in the game appears a lot like something that should be legible, but it’s not. At least, not straight away anyway. Luckily, these things don’t ever stay cryptic for long. HalfGlassGaming’s Josh Wirtanen has proffered a handy guide to how to read the chapter titles, signs and music sheets, with help from the growing Stray community.

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Sundays are for going for a walk to your nearest big Tesco. Before you set out, let's read this week's best writing about games (and game related things).

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Hotline Miami inspired a lot of topdown, ultraviolent copycats, most of which failed to replicate its propulsive action. Midnight Mercenaries does it better than most - while also being a free fangame that mixes that Hotline Miami structure with characters and weaponry from Team Fortress 2.

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Last year, the demo for Ex-Zodiac offered a sugar rush of Star Fox-inspired checkboard floors, glowing weak spots, and hibber-jibber radio chatter. Now Ex-Zodiac has entered early access, and it looks like it's got more going on than straight homage. Fox McCloud never rode a motorbike, for one.

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The developers of blocky survival and construction game Hytale say they've made the decision to "redevelop" its engine. In a lengthy development update, they say the switch should make it easier to patch and maintain the game after release, among other benefits. They also show off some fancy creator tools, and say Hytale won't release in 2023.

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I've been experiencing Marvel fatigue for, oh, around seven years now. To compensate, I decided to watch Marvel's Midnight Suns latest trailer while pretending it wasn't about Marvel superheroes, but just a Firaxis-made tactics game with character classes who have wildly divergent skillsets. The video focuses on the spider-powered class - and heck, it does look pretty cool.

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It feels like Not-E3 only just ended and suddenly my inbox is full of Gamescom? We're going to need to rethink this 'time' thing. Yet I cannot escape time because I must ask: what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!

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It’s fair to say that this hasn’t been the coolest week on record in many places around the world, so I’m giving Fortnite the side-eye for the No Sweat Summer event that’s running until August 9th. It’s a bit daft, as you’d expect from Epic Games’ battle royale by this point. You’ll get the opportunity to boogie down, race boats and help rebuild Tilted Towers. Watch the trailer below and marvel at how they can all dance without keeling over.

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On this week's episode of the Ultimate Audio Bang, we turn our attention to shooters and their demands. They all want our undivided attention and for Hayden and I, it's fast becoming a bit much. Believe it or not, we're adults with clothes to fold and ovens to pre-heat! Daily quests and inane challenges aren't bringing us back, if anything, they're beginning to drive us away.

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There’s so many dodgy things I could say about Resident Evil Village’s upcoming DLC’s The Mercenaries Additional Orders mode and its inclusion of a playable Lady Dimitrescu, along with magnetic Nic Cage wannabe Karl Heisenberg and perennial favourite Chris Redfield. Instead, I’ll be a nice lad and keep shtum. Aside from the extra characters, Additional Orders brings more stages and some other improvements to Mercenaries that Capcom haven’t elaborated on. Watch the trailer for it below and imagine being inside Lady D. Oh crap.

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Cycling in video games leans towards the extreme and the exciting: bombing downhill at murderous speeds, professional racing, treasure hunt, and such. I'd like to see more of the mundane too. For many adults, a bicycle is simply a way to get to work, to the shops, or to see your pals. So after battle royale shooter PUBG: Battlegrounds added bicycles, I decided to commute around the stag & hen weekend warzones by bike as much as possible.

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I like a building game that doesn't need constant babysitting. I also like one where you get to be a bit creative and build according to your whims as much as to necessity. The Final Earth 2 is an ant farm kind of game that places very few limits on what you can build where, and lets you cheaply restructure as needed even if you mess it up.

The idea is you build vertically, with each building taking up a block, and your people freely travelling through all of them to get to work or home or the pub. Everyone else who plays it seems to build enormous, elaborate, impressively well organised structures that are even kind of beautiful. I build a random pile of crap. I am absolutely rubbish at it.

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