Rock, Paper, Shotgun

CD Projekt have announced plans to pay out $1,850,000 (£1.4 million) to settle a class action lawsuit brought by investors over Cyberpunk 2077's troubles. The suit started in December 2020 with investors primarily upset with the fact that the console version was in such a state, claiming that CDP hadn't been honest about the game and its prospects. CDP say that the proposed settlement terms make clear that though they are paying out, this "does not imply admission of any responsibility".

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It’s been nearly a year since Nvidia started reissuing older GPUs, like the GeForce RTX 2060 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, to help deal with the great worldwide graphics card shortage. More recently, Nvidia went a step further, quietly launching a brand new version of the RTX 2060 that doubles its VRAM to 12GB.

Emphasis on the “quietly”, mind – even if you’ve been regularly checking for available GPU stock or perusing our graphics cards deals guide, you probably won’t have even noticed there’s a 12GB RTX 2060 knocking around. So what’s the deal with this mysterious card, and should you even consider buying an RTX 20 series card in this day and age?

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The Gunk might not be the most sophisticated name in the universe for a gooey black jelly that pulses with an ominous red light, but goodness it sure is appropriate. As space haulers Rani and Becks touch down on a forgotten planet in search of a strange energy signal, the place is absolutely gummed up with the stuff. It oozes and throbs in the caves, plains and rivers of this once vibrant landscape, and the urge to suck it all up into Rani's chunky power glove (a literal hand vac in this case) is overwhelmingly strong. After all, when it turns the ground black and saps the world of all its colour, this is one case of Extremely Bad Vibes you'll want to remedy as soon as possible.

Your reward for scooping up all the gunk in any given area is the kind of graphical wizardry video games do best. A burst of light, a shruum of sound, and the world is instantly transformed back to its former glory. Despite its gloopy namesake, The Gunk is frequently stunning, its soft pastels and coral-esque flora showing such an eye for jaw-dropping visuals that it's hard to believe this is SteamWorld developer Image & Form's first ever 3D video game. If this is what they've been holding back on all these years, then their upcoming action adventure SteamWorld Headhunter should be a real treat for the old eyeballs. That said, while Image & Form have clearly navigated their 2D to 3D transition from an art perspective, their typical flair for adding their own spin to different genres has been less successful. There's a lot to like about this 3D action platformer, but it's missing that spark to really make it sing.

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Roll7 have announced that their next skating game OlliOlli World comes out on February 8th, 2022. This latest OlliOlli game swaps out the 2D style for a cel-shaded 3D world that looks absolutely lovely. Or radical. Or sick. Or other skater words. The action-platformer's plot sounds great too, it drops you into Radlandia on a search for the skate gods. Skate gods! Don't anger them, kiddos, they'll break your collarbones.

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Let's not sugar-coat it: you recognise this door of the Advent Calendar. You've been through it before. In fact it's possible you've been through it many times, now you think about it.

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Here I was thinking Tetris 99 was the strangest game to be turned into a battle royale, but now you can fight to the death in Scrabble too. Babble Royale is a new Scrabble-like battle royale where 16 players fight to be the last letters standing. You have to make words in such a way that you escape a zone that's closing in, and attack other players by building words off of theirs. I honestly didn't think it would work, but man, it absolutely does.

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Final Fantasy XIV is suffering from success, thanks, in part, to its recently released Endwalker expansion. Despite updates to ease server errors and long queue times, players are still struggling to log into the game. So, Square Enix have only gone and done it. They've temporarily suspended sales of the game, as well as new registrations for the free trial version. Even adverts are being stopped for now.

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After eight years of radio silence, Ubisoft are finally bringing Sam Fisher in from the cold, as they've just announced a remake of the original Splinter Cell. In keeping with the series' stealth roots, the game was announced with little to no fanfare this evening via a blog post, with Ubisoft declaring its existence along with some developer chat before scampering back into the shadows. Typical.

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It's not often those Nintendo Directs have PC-related news for us, but today's announceathon had a little treat. Loco Motive is a train-based detective game published by Chucklefish (who also pubbed Stardew Valley and Starmancer), and is the debut game from developers Robust Games. There's been a murder! And it's your job to figure out who committed the crime. Classic whodunnit stuff that we'll get to play next summer.

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If you fancy escaping from reality in 2022 (and let's face it, who wouldn't at the moment?) You can grab the excellent HTC Vive Cosmos Elite VR headset kit for £649. That's £250 off the list price, as well as a return to the price that the full VR kit was going for on Black Friday. Surely, this is a sweeter deal than Tom Cruise's Christmas cake.

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Nerves have been sufficiently jangled as of late, not least thanks to the slew of action packed games that have landed in recent months. I crave an altogether more sedate beginning to next year, and so my mind turns to games in which violence, reflex or any other kind of unblinking attentiveness takes a back seat.

Looking for a broader mixture of games? Check out our regularly updated list of the best PC games you can play right now.

Primarily we're talking violence-free games here, but I wanted to drill a little deeper than that - so nothing that generally requires a competitive streak. I'm chasing a certain feel rather than a certain category. Flying, walking, puzzling, driving, building, dreaming, climbing, stretching, swinging (not like that), swimming, wondering: these are just a few of the ways in which flashing pixels can make you feel a very different sort of accomplishment.

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I really don’t like gaming chairs. They’re expensive, often cumbersome, drastically over-designed things that lean way too heavily into the g4m3r aesthetic, and that’s coming from someone who’s built up something of a tolerance to it from years of unprotected RGB exposure. I’ve sat on them and have even shared homes with some of them, but have never, ever seen the appeal over a halfway decent office chair.

And then the Noblechairs Epic TX comes along, and it’s got me rethinking.

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Christmas is coming, PC gamers. The Untitled Goose is getting fat. Somewhere in the distant north, a scarlet priest works his elven minions into a frenzy as he prepares for the rite of the magic baby. Sprouts will be consumed in their millions, the Great Escape snoozed through by bloated grandparents far and wide. Most importantly, gifts of roughly equivalent financial value will be exchanged to demonstrate affection and prolong the reign of capitalism.

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I’ve been hands-on with Sifu, a beat ‘em up action-adventure game by Absolver developers Sloclap. My hands weren’t exactly “on”, but more “around”, actually. That’s one thing I learned from my time with this kung-fu caper. To keep my fists flowing, I needed to be patient, and not mash the buttons. Seriously, slap those buttons with zero thought and you’re dead.

Death in Sifu means you age, and if you die lots, you age faster. Hit 70 and you won’t be rising from the dirt again. Instead, you'll have to start your quest for vengeance over from the beginning. While it can be tempting to cling onto your youth for this reason alone, I actually liked growing old, with my beard and my harder-hitting attacks. Not only do you develop a relationship with your body in Sifu, but your trips to the afterlife also help you master its myriad of moves. Sifu really does get better with age.

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Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2 are leaving Xbox Game Pass on 31st December. If you need time to absorb this news, please, take it. Back? Okay, so actually we don’t have much time left now. You must play these beat 'em ups before they disappear into the realms of non-free (sort of; you know what I mean). Here’s why.

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One of my absolute favourite platformers, Rayman Origins, is free to keep on Ubisoft Connect right now. Ubisoft are giving the 2D side-scroller away as part of their 35th anniversary celebrations, which is wonderful news. It's one of the best co-op games I've played, so it's a perfectly timed freebie if you're in need of something to keep friends and family entertained over the holiday period.

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The fifteenth door on the Advent Calendar is a bit of a mish-mash, almost as if six different artists had a go at making it at different times. Interesting. Let's see what lies on the other side of it.

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Inscryption is, without a doubt, the best game I've played this year. It's creepy, surprising, and superbly fun, and now you can play the best part for as long as you please. Developer Daniel Mullins has released a "mini-expansion" in beta on Steam, which (minor spoilers ahead!) makes its animal-based card game a standalone roguelike experience. Named Kaycee's Mod, it's slightly tougher than what you might have played already, and adds new challenges too, so you can keep going back in for more.

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When I finished watching The Game Awards reveal trailer for Rumbleverse, the new Epic-published battle royale game that looks a bit like Fortnite but with melee combat, I raised a practiced eyebrow of derision. "Well, that looks terrible," chortled I, knowing full well that I'd still give it a go at the earliest opportunity because I am an absolute sucker for battle royales.

Two things happened later that day that I did not expect. First: I got the opportunity to dive into Rumbleverse's action-packed 40-player matches far earlier than I'd anticipated, as part of a one day early look at the game. I downloaded and installed it in short order, and jumped right in. Two hours later, at 1am in the morning as the servers shut down, I happened across a second, far more unexpected thing. I found myself absolutely desperate to play more. I've sunk thousands of hours into Apex Legends, Fortnite, Plunkbat, Hunt: Showdown, Warzone, and various other behemoths of the genre. Yet those two hours I spent playing Rumbleverse might be the most fun I've ever had in a battle royale.

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Praey Of The Gods initially looks too similar to Shadow Of The Colossus for comfort. And then you think: why wouldn't someone make another game where you climb and bring low gigantic beasts? After almost three years in early access, Praey has reached v1.0, adding two new boss battles in the process.

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I don't know my Warhammer from my Warlathe, Warchisel or Warphillipsheadscrewdriver. You, you might watch the reveal trailer for Total War: Warhammer III's campaign map and think, "Gosh, what a beautiful rendering of the home of Katarin Bokha, the ice queen of Kislev." Me, I'm just enjoying it for the pretty textures and fog effects.

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Stargate: Timekeepers was announced back in May with little more than a cinematic. Most of my initial interest was tied to its developer, Creative Forge Games, who made interesting-but-flawed stealth XCOMlike Phantom Doctrine.

Now there's a soundless gameplay trailer of Stargate in action, and ooh, it looks a lot like Commandos.

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Kingdoms Of Amalur: Re-Reckoning arrived late last year, offering a chance at re-redemption for the cult fantasy Re-PG. Now Re-Reckoning has received its first new expansion in nearly ten years. Called Fatesworn, it's out now and offers a new, six-hour storyline.

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Come one, come all, and witness one of the coolest Minecraft homes I've ever bothered to help make. Look, I'm not usually a builder in survival crafting games. I'm an explorer (and frequent dier). But, with the Caves & Cliffs Part 2 update that arrived last month, I've had a newfound purpose: create the coolest home I can find in the biggest cave I can find. And so I give to you, the upside down deepslate pyramid (located right beneath some festive tundra!)

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Like many people, I've had a difficult year. My dad died, an uncle died soon after, and everything is a lot, you know? Even in the best of years, I find Christmas challenging. That's why I'm filling my ears with the maximalist sounds of a song which knows true suffering, a song from a fictional musician in a video game. Reader dear, it's that time of year: if you've not already started, pour a cocoa and join me for Christmas Pain In Christmas Town.

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Peter Molyneux's 22cans studio have sold around £40 million of NFTs for their "blockchain business simulator" Legacy, before it's been released. The town management game has its own cryptocurrency, of course, and this weekend they sold NFTs of virtual land for real money. The hope for crypto land barons is that they would be able to earn money back from other players through in-game business partnerships.

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Paralives Studio has given us all an early Christmas present, in the form of a look at Paralives' character creation tool. The video is pre-alpha footage and it emphasises that this is still a work in progress, but the character creator (called Paramaker, a name chosen by the game's community) looks ridiculously detailed even so.

Paralives is a life sim game that may even have the chops to topple The Sims' supremacy when it launches. This video of the character creation is the beefiest look at Paralives we've had for a while. Marvel as the Paras change musculature, fat distribution and weight before your eyes. Importantly, you can give your Paras some sick tattoos and amazing patterned jackets, because what's the point making a tiny puppet to play with if they're not well cool?

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As part of our relaunched supporter program this year, we've been busy organising lots of great free game keys for RPS premium supporters. Admittedly, the last two we've done (Darkest Dungeon and Wartales) have both been quite small with only limited numbers of codes available, but I'm pleased to say we've finally put together that long-awaited 'big' free game drop that all premium supporters will be able to get involved with.

That next free game is Plunder Panic, a swashbuckling pirate 'em up in which teams of up to six players battle it out on the high seas. Here's how to get your copy.

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The question isn't where is the fourteenth door on the RPS Advent Calendar, but when is it.

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On Friday, a report into Bungie's work culture unearthed allegations of racism, sexism, discrimination, toxic leadership and more besides. Current and former employees of the Destiny developers claim they've experienced "overt sexism, boys' club culture, crunch, and HR protection of abusers, as well as more complex stories of microaggressions, systemic inequalities, and difficulties in being heard". CEO Pete Parsons has since issued an apology "on behalf of everyone at Bungie", acknowledging that the studio needs to listen to these accounts, and do better.

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When it comes to PC upgrades, no single change can give you a bigger performance jump than a new GPU – so availing yourself of one of the best graphics cards deals is just good sense. Especially if you want to make the switch from 1080p to 4K gaming, or to start enabling pretty ray tracing effects in your games.

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It’s been six long months since we’d seen anything about Trek To Yomi, a stylish samurai game by developers Flying Wild Hog in collaboration with filmmaker and game developer Leonard Menchiari. But publishers Devolver Digital yesterday revealed a new gameplay trailer that shows off a mixture of exploration and combat and yes, it still looks cool as heck.

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The studio co-founded by former Valve writer Chet Faliszek and former Riot designer Kimberly Voll have announced an early access launch date for their first game, the cooperative first-person shooter The Anacrusis. On the 13th of January, we'll get to shoot sci-fi aliens on sci-fi spaceships with sci-fi weapons and sci-fi gadgets. It has a nice 60s spy-fi sorta vibe. And it'll be on Game Pass too.

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Is this pandering? If it is, I'm okay being pandered to. House Flipper Pets VR is a new spin-off from the fixer-upper floor-scrubbing sim which adds dogs, cats and co-op multiplayer. So you can tidy a house with a friend and then fill it with furniture your pet pal will like.

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Back in February, Spiritfarer developers Thunder Lotus announced a roadmap of updates for 2021. Today, the last of those was released with the addition of spirit pals Jackie and Daria to the game. With them came another announcement: this is the cosy management game's final update, and its developers are moving onto new things.

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Ubisoft is a leaky boat, so we already knew most of the details about Dawn Of Ragnarok thanks to weekend Reddit posts. Now it's official: Valhalla is getting a new 35-hour DLC in which Eivor gets new magic powers and goes to biff up some ice and lava monsters.

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Assassin's Creed Valhalla is getting a second year of updates, and alongside a major new expansion comes two crossover missions in which Valhalla's Eivor will meet Assassin's Creed Odyssey protagonist Kassandra. The missions will be available for free tomorrow, with one available in each game.

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Ever wanted to stick your pick deep into the centre of an octopus? How about a bug or a barnacle? If none of that tickles your pick(le)s you could try a keyhole which twists dimensions? Or perhaps one with a steampunk or frost-bitten feel? If literally any of that got your immersion senses tingling then three Skyrim modders have something for you. Creating a cache of realistic looking catches, they have brought the Dragonborn what they've been desperate for; a more riveting lockpicking experience.

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As someone with bipolar, I have often wondered why sinking several hours into something soothing such as Shovel Knight does so much for my soul. However I recently read that Geek Therapy, a non-profit advocating the use of video games for wellness, promote using world-building games such as Minecraft, Roblox, Animal Crossing, and Fortnite to help people deal with mental health issues. While play therapy has long promoted the therapeutic powers of escapism to imaginary worlds, it is more recently that thought has gone into how these online experiences can be used to combat my, I mean someone's, anxiety and depression.

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If you've not yet enjoyed the splendid real-time tactical squad action of Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun, here's your chance. GOG started their Winter Sale today, and for the first 48 hours they're offering Shadow Tactics free for keepsies. They plan to give more games away free later in the sale. Also they have discounts and things.

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