Rock, Paper, Shotgun

An upcoming game about taking planet-wrecking corporations to court hopes to go beyond its onscreen battles by raising money for real-life environmental aid. Behind All Rise is a team including both climate experts and top-notch games talent with credits spanning Horizon Forbidden West, Thirsty Suitors, League of Legends and Paradise Killer.

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Former Fortnite and Blizzard developers have formed new studio Lightforge Games to make a multiplayer RPG that applies the collaborative world-building and storytelling of original tabletop Dungeons & Dragons to the polished video game presentation of its successors in the likes of Baldur's Gate 3.

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Jagex, the British developers of veteran fantasy MMO RuneScape, have announced their acquisition by a potentially surprising new owner: the private equity firm best-known for owning major sports brands including Six Nations Rugby, Spanish football league LaLiga, French football governing body Ligue de Football and the Women’s Tennis Association. The deal was reportedly closed for almost a billion pounds.

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Romance sim masquerading as fantasy RPG Baldur's Gate 3 is putting vaseline on its lips, wiggling a little bit of tongue out and practising in the mirror for its next big update. That’s right, just in time for Valentine’s Day (or maybe just after), Larian are dropping the “Improved Smooches” patch.

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My excitement for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth went into overdrive this week. Not only did we get 20 more minutes of its gorgeous open worlds, mini-games and story nuggets to gawp over this week thanks to Sony's dedicated State Of Play stream for it, but the internet has also been awash with previews, interviews and all sorts of other Final Fantasy-shaped goodies. Honestly, it's like a second Christmas for me over here at the moment, it's great.

But one thing that really stuck out to me this week was a comment made by series producer Yoshinori Kitase in an interview with our friends at Eurogamer. When they asked him why remake Final Fantasy 7 at all, his response hit me much harder than I was expecting. He said that the original FF7 is "probably going to be always that game my dad played, and I don't want it to be that." Aside from making me crumble to dust with irrelevancy, this really got me thinking about older games, the way we play them now, and just what role remakes and remasters have in today's PC gaming landscape. So come and feel incredibly old with me as I try and get my (very jumbled and loosely-related) thoughts in order.

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When playing any character-driven videogame I sometimes experience a sensation akin to my eyes unfocussing, and remember that I'm not, strictly speaking, controlling a body in a world, but interacting with a simulation that includes representations of a body and a world. The character is just an interfacial node in a vast tangle of visible and invisible elements; by moving the character, I cause objects, surfaces, creatures to load or unload, spring into motion or change colour and a million things besides.

Some games foreground these interdependencies by fictionalising the simulation as a giant organism or ecosystem, a more intriguing kind of "living, breathing" environment which is aware of your presence within it. Amongst these games is Ultros, a side-scrolling, psychedelic metroidvania - or as developers Hadoque might prefer, "gardenvania" - which launches next week.

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Dead Cells developers Motion Twin have announced their roguelike Metroidvania will receive its final update with the launch of the appropriately titled Update 35: 'The End Is Near'. It's been a pretty great run as these things go: over the course of seven years, Dead Cells has received four major DLC expanions, a mobile release and, of course, 35 of those big title updates. However, current custodians Evil Empire are now moving on to greener, "secret projects"-flavoured pastures - the emphasis being on pastures plural there, if their Xweet about it is anything to go by, too.

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Take your protein pill and put your headphones on for the free demo of Asterism, an "interactive music album" exploring a solar system one song at a time. Each visit to a planet lasts as long as the song, whisking us through scenes reflecting the lyrics and mood, rendered with a mix of 3D computer art and a range of handmade physical mediums. I was delighted from the first twang. And impressively, it's mostly the work of one developer, Claire Morwood. Do have a look!

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Ah sure I've enjoyed the nostalgic resurgence of Quake/PlayStation-grade 3D art in video games, but I am fully blown away by indie game Fragrance Point looking like the truest classic 3D computer graphics: the shiny pre-rendered CGI from TV show transition cards, adverts for double-disc dance music compilations, and Windows Media Player skins. My eyes are still reeling from the gloss and glitz and pulsating lights of the Steam Next Fest demo, and I welcome this pain. Grab the demo now and set out to explore a space station as a bopping security bot with snazzy boots and endless projectile lipstick.

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In an upsetting confirmation that February is in fact winter (and that the year doesn't just start with summer like my brain thinks it should) publisher Whitethorn Games held a 2024 Winter Showcase, where they revealed the existance of a game that answers the question "what if the slimes in Slime Rancher were in mortal peril, and had swords?". The answer is apparently "be ruddy heroes in a cute Soulslike". I think this game, too, looks very cute, although Slime Heroes doesn't have a release window yet.

You know what does have a launch date now? Botany Manor, a lovely 3D puzzle game about growing plants, which I first learned about via the Steam Next Fest demo, and with which I immediately fell in love. I am heartened to know it is coming out really quite soon - April 9th. A mere two months from now!

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It's time to play everybody's favourite game - no, not GTA 6, but the GTA 6 Release Date Quiz. Who's stepping up to the podium this time? Why, it's Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, who offered thoughts on the matter in a recent investor Q&A. Fingers on the buzzers, everybody!

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One-Punch Man is a manga, anime and nowadays, videogame series that began life as a webcomic in 2009 - a drawing exercise for budding artist "One" that found popularity and evolved into a full-bore parody of the shonen action genre. One-Punch Man himself, aka Saitama, is essentially a NEET Superman - an apathetic homebody in yellow pants and red wellies who begins his story as the most powerful superhero in existence, for reasons unexplained.

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First spotted when James and Liam (RPS in peace) covered the PC Gaming Show 2023, Mullet Mad Jack is a roguelike FPS with a Steam Next Fest demo out right now. And my goodness me, it rules. The retro anime aesthetic is cool, sure, but I particularly love its setup, which forces you to blast through corridors as fast as you possibly can. Yeah, this is extremely a bit of Edders, and it's gone straight on the wishlist.

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Against The Storm is a peach; a fantasy citybuilder that was excellent in Early Access, a Bestest Best when it hit 1.0, and which has been tweaked and improved through post-release patches.

The patches won't stop, either. In a 2024 roadmap, its developers have outlined two further free updates still to come, as well as confirming that paid DLC is in the works.

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Last month we reported that a highly rated 1200W PSU was going cheap on Newegg, where you could pick up the Super Flower Leadex 1200W 80+ Platinum for just $160. After selling out rapidly, Newegg has restocked and is offering the same deal again, giving you a second chance to get a PSU that could well outlast every other component in your system!

To get the quoted $160 price rather than the standard $220, you'll need to use code YPCDP6233 at the checkout!

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Need to store a lot of non-critical data? Live in the US? Want to maximise value over speed? Have we got the storage device for you: a refurbished 12TB Seagate enterprise HDD. These drives typically go for around $130 new, but you can pick them up for just $82 in "refurbished - excellent" condition on Ebay US. Their specialist HDD seller promises fully tested drives with zero bad sectors and a three-year warranty, which sounds great at $6.83 per TB!

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Helldivers 2 launched earlier today and has been sat at the top of the Steam sales charts, with a healthy 60,000+ currently in-game. Alas, the co-op shooter also has a "Mixed" user review rating on the platform, thanks in part to optimisation and matchmaking issues.

Developers Arrowhead say they're working on a hotfix to address the issues as fast as possible.

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A financial report from Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton said the underwater survival sequel would adopt a "game-as-a-service model". Cue much gnashing of teeth and rending of shirts, so much so that developers Unknown Worlds have clarified what that means. "No season passes. No battle passes. No subscription."

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In a financial report released today, Ubisoft said they intend to release Star Wars Outlaws in 2024. That was already expected. More interesting is that Assassin's Creed Codename Red, the stab 'em up set in feudal Japan, is also due to launch in the "fiscal year 2025". That's also known as "before March 2025", for all you non-CEOs.

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The success of Baldur's Gate 3 is a double-edged sword for other CRPGs launching in its wake. On the one hand, there's arguably a hungry new audience for such games; on the other, you're going up against one of the best RPGs ever made. Expectations are high, but Tiny Trinket Games' co-founder Stefan Nitescu remains unfazed as his three-strong team prepare to release Zoria: Age Of Shattering on March 7th. Zoria is carving an altogether different path through the RPG landscape, fusing isometric exploration with XCOM-like combat and 50 playable characters who are more like unit classes than personalities. The latter is a decision that comes with its own "repercussions", says Nitescu, but he's confident that it will help Zoria stand apart, with character abilities being unusually central to exploration.

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Calling dusty post-apocalyptic city builders a trend is probably a stretch, but not by much. I suppose it's a natural extension of the post-2000s explosion of the survival sim from "literally about 3 ever made" to "does your tetris remake really need the hunger meter". Games like Against The Storm porting over the roguelike element as well certainly suggest it. In my head, that's probably why New Cycle hangs out more with Endzone Dash A World Apart, and Surviving The Aftermath. It's more a traditional building game than a punishing test to be retaken, or the intense "survive the ordeal" narrative of Frostpunk, despite the superficial similarity that your town expects to be ravaged by scorching solar flares.

But it might also be because after playing it more than I really wanted to, New Cycle matches those two peers by leaving me with a vague feeling of disappointment. I'm just not sure what it really has to say.

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In survival games, I leave the building to everyone else, or I build the absolute bare minimum unless I really enjoy the world I'm in. I think that's a thing inherent in me, as I've never taken great pleasure in snapping together pieces of Lego, and would much rather earn killstreaks than decorate a back garden. For me, building in most games is laborious and predictable and does not sate my impatient brain.

But I like Neal Agarwal's Infinite Craft, a browser game where you slide words on top of each other and see if they generate something new. For instance, "water" and "fire" combine to make "steam", with what's practically infinitesimal possibilities. It is immediate, simple, and unpredictable. More games should facilitate haphazard engineering and silliness.

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I've long been enamoured with the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, from the Douglas firs and waterfalls of Twin Peaks to the redwoods I once swam beneath on a road trip. Thanks to Pacific Drive's Steam Next Fest demo, I have now also barrelled through the woods and backroads of a spooky alt-history PNW in a banged-up car which is itself a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-esque artifact. I've had my eye on Pacific Drive for a few years and after playing the demo, I am delighted by parts of it but not entirely sold on its roguelikelike survival scavenge-o-rama structure. Hmm! Give it a go and tell me what you think.

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This week The Electronic Wireless Show podcast is a bit shorter because I accidentally stopped recording in the middle of it, and then had to sort of restart. Though movie magic you will never know the difference, except I just told you. Oh no! Anyway, with the Steam Next Fest ongoing, I noticed an uptick in games and demos for games that are just about making a nice diorama, and have no goals or real restrictions. Interesting! I ask my co-hosts why they think this is, if that even makes a game a game, is making your own play less fun if you're not breaking someone else's rules, and so on. Plus: we reveal why James was in LA before!

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Elias Toufexis, voice actor for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided's cyborg protagonist Adam Jensen, has bid a formal "goodbye, but hopefully not farewell" to the character, expressing hopes that somebody with a lot of money will buy the license and restore poor moody Adam to our screens. Toufexis also shared a few parting speculations about the unannounced Deus Ex sequel from Eidos Montreal that was reported cancelled last week. Toufexis wasn't involved with this one, and according to him, it likely wasn't a continuation of Jensen's story from Mankind Divided.

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Not to denigrate either the efforts of either the comms or dev teams, but when a game has been knocking around my consciousness for a while, eventually I just move it it from a mental box marked "in development" to "probably out now, innit" without any input from anyone else. Inkulinati, a turn-based strategy game where you play a medieval artist duking it out with another artist on the pages of an illuminated manuscript, is one such. It's been kicking about on Steam since at least 2019, and in fairness to me it did launch in January last year - it just went into early access. These factors contributed to me being sort of surprised at the reveal of the actual release date for 1.0, which is February 22nd.

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Disney are taking out a $1.5 billion minority equity stake in Fortnite publisher Epic Games, and have announced "an all-new games and entertainment universe that will further expand the reach of beloved Disney stories and experiences". According to Disney CEO Robert A. Iger, it's "Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games". Friends, we are witnessing the birth of a franchising megamoeba of titanic proportions - a new, Unreal Engine-driven "persistent universe" of playing, watching, shopping and other content-tickling opportunities, featuring characters and stories from Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar "and more". Where are your puny gods now?

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Continuing their great prank of pretending they plan to release Skull And Bones, Ubisoft today launched an open beta for their multiplayer open-world pirate boat game. The free beta will run until Sunday night, after which Ubisoft will presumably delay the game for another seventeen years while once again redesigning the whole thing. When you buy your great grandniece Skull And Bones for her 17th birthday, you'll be able to tell her you were there for the mythical open beta of '24.

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Homeworld 3's release date has been pushed back from March 8th to May 13th 2024, in order to build on player feedback to this week's Steam Next Fest War Games demo, which will be available till February 12th, 10am PT or 6pm GMT. The associated joint statement from developers Blackbird Interactive and publishers Gearbox arrived within hours of me posting about said Homeworld 3 demo and saying that while I am fully onboard with many aspects of the new space strategy game, I do have reservations about its controls.

Naturally, and self-flatteringly, I'm now petrified that I'm single-handedly responsible for the delay. Please come back, Homeworld 3! I didn't mean it! I'm pretty sure I'll acclimatise to the control scheme with practice! True-3D starfleet management is always a bit fiddly! Besides which, I might not get to review it now!! I'm moving flat in May!!!

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If you're on the lookout for a powerful yet inexpensive CPU cooler, this discounted option from Thermalright might be a good shout. It's down to £15.90 from £18.90, turning an already good value CPU cooler equipped with two fans into an absolute bargain.

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Elden Ring is a colossal action RPG, home to dozens of characters and intricate regions. And as someone who struggles to draw a smiley face at the best of times, my attempts to draw a dragon would result in FromSoftware rolling into my house and kicking me in the shins. Well, that won't be happening with Artyz Artifacts, who only deserves applause for chronicling his entire Elden Ring playthrough through a series of very good sketches. It is, perhaps, the most diabolical amount of effort put into something that I've ever seen.

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Lenovo's Legion Go is the most powerful and specced out PC handheld we've seen yet, with a mammoth 8-inch 1600p 144Hz screen, Z1 Extreme chipset and detachable controllers - one of which turns into a pseudo-mouse for FPS action. The Legion Go debuted at £699, a price at which we found it largely compelling, but now it's dropped to something a bit more reasonable - £649.

That £50 discount doesn't make it a budget option by any means, especially with the most affordable Steam Deck at £349 and an OLED model at £479, but it's still a welcome price drop on one of the most intriguing PC handhelds we've seen yet.

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League Of Geeks's remake of cult strategy game Solium Infernum is having its release date pushed back by a week, the studio have announced. It will now launch on February 22nd, instead of its original date of February 14th - which is a damn shame, if you ask me, as nothing screams "romantic Valentine's night-in" like trying to backstab your other half in a bid to rule hell in Satan's absence. Alas, we'll just have to make do with the altogether more pedestrian date of a regular Thursday in February, as the team need just a bit of extra time to ensure it's "as polished as possible" before release.

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A PC version of Dreams, the PlayStation 4-exclusive toybox-slash-game creation platform from LittleBigPlanet makers Media Molecule, was nearly completed before being cancelled late last year, according to a new report.

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The director of Final Fantasy 8 has shot down hopes that the next numbered Final Fantasy might see a remake once the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy comes to its conclusion. The reason? Simply that it’s a lot of damn work.

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Visual Concepts Austin, the 2K Games studio behind sports franchises including WWE and NBA, as well as last year’s kart racing game Lego 2K Drive, has reportedly laid off a number of employees. The cuts come fewer than six months after the last round of layoffs at the Texas outlet.

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Last week, you decided by 60% to 40% that vampires are better than werewolves. I trust we will never hear of this again. Alas, I must respond to serious allegations. RPS reader Truffles commented, "This is an absurd comparison, I thought this was meant to be scientific! How are we meant to decide between two completely unrelated things?" You're right. I'm sorry. I'm failing you all. "I hope next time we're back to proper sensible comparisons," Truffles added, "like instant-death bottomless pits vs. being able to reroll your build." Alright, let's find out. What's better: instant-death bottomless pits, or being able to reroll your build?

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After years without a new The Sims game, it seems like three are likely to land in fairly close proximity - sort of, anyway. We know that Paradox’s ambitious competitor Life By You will arrive this June (assuming no more delays), while EA’s own free-to-play evolution of the OG life-sim series - currently codenamed Project Rene rather than The Sims 5 - is probably still a while off yet. Dropping somewhere in the middle will be Paralives, the promising Patreon-funded up-and-comer led by indie dev Alex Massé, which has been given a fresh look and confirmation of a release date sometime next year.

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“I really fight being envious of Larian,” says indie RPG designer Jeff Vogel. “Or any other big company. Because everyone’s scared, everyone has hard times, and the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I’ve had a very successful life where I’ve earned enough and gotten enough stability. And so I'm really happy with my choices. It would be awesome if I could write a big hit that everyone played, or had a big team and could do a big thing. But you know, I’m content. I’ve had enough people play my games.”

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Good news, star admirals with decent CPM! Gearbox and Blackbird Interactive's strategy escapade Homeworld 3 has a demo on Steam. It's been live for a few days, actually, but whether due to the bombardment of other Steam Fest goodies or my being led astray by the similar-but-nerdier Nebulous: Fleet Command, I didn't try it till last night. The demo includes a tutorial mission, four maps and the War Games mode, a one-to-three player affair which essentially turns Homeworld into a roguelike - pitching you up against unpredictable opposition while unlocking new fleets and doling out Artifacts that augment your vessels.

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