Rock, Paper, Shotgun

When The Game Awards start cranking out trinkets and marketing tomorrow night, you'll be able to watch the whole shebang from within an official "metaverse experience" in game-making platform Core. Launched on Monday, it's named Axial Tilt, and what I played of it ahead of the live in-game event is rubbish. This is exactly what I have come to expect from the ongoing "metaverse" gold rush: marketing wrapped in a bad video game.

Read more

The Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker expansion is out now, with plenty of bunnyboys jetting off to the moon. That is, if they’re able to login successfully. The servers have been overwhelmed since early access began last week and the thirst for furry friends in maid outfits simply won’t abate. Not only do the long login queues persist now it's out properly, but there are plenty of errors plaguing the process which makes the wait even more frustrating. Thankfully, an update is being deployed today that should fix those server errors, increase server capacity, and make the login process a bit smoother.

Read more

I don't agree that being mean is always the funniest joke, but it is often the easiest joke, and let's keep that in mind as we talk about next year's Mario movie. You know, the one where Mario will be played by Chris Pratt. In the event that the film turns out to be good, I will enjoy it - like how the Sonic film was actually pretty decent, especially James Marsden's star turn. But for now, Untitled Chris Pratt Mario Movie is bad, and a guilt-free laugh.

I saw this extremely funny bingo card on Twitter and my eye was drawn to a discussion in the replies. One of the square on the bingo card is "Jump by Kriss Kross plays" and someone else says they think it's "50/50 they choose Van Halen's "Jump" over Kriss Kross", which leads yet a third person to bring up House Of Pain. From this exchange I am 100% sure that a jump-themed song will feature in this film - but the question is which?

Read more

Ahead of God of War coming to PC on January 14th, an Nvidia blog post has laid bare the enhancements you can expect from the port, as well as the PC system requirements. In fairness it looks like a pretty comprehensive effort, combining expected tweaks like 21:9 ultrawide monitor support with performance-boosting Nvidia DLSS upscaling and even some general graphical upgrades. There’s a PC features trailer, too.

Read more

Watch out if you're looking forward to playing Halo Infinite's campaign tonight - you'll need to install the game after it goes live. Unlike most other big games this year, Infinite has no preload option, so you won't be able to have it downloaded and ready to go by the time it launches. Though, developers 343 Industries say you can make the download a little smaller by having the FPS's multiplayer beta installed.

Read more

Back when erstwhile PlayStation exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn launched on PC last year, it was a bit of a lucky dip whether you got a smooth-running port or a constantly crashing mess. These days, though, the PC version is in far better shape, and has just today received a major upgrade in the form of support for Nvidia DLSS (Deep Learning Super-Sampling) and AMD FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution).

Read more

To open this door of the RPS Advent Calendar you must first construct a complicated series of production lines, each feeding into more production lines on other planets to facilitate the creation of an automated door-opening machine powered by the sun. Like so.

Read more

It's a big day for Call Of Duty: Warzone, as Verdansk jets off into the sunset and Pacific-themed map Caldera takes its place. Alongside it, all of Call Of Duty: Vanguard's weapons, some dogfighting, and loads of gameplay tweaks including adjustments to loadout drops. Ricochet Anti-Cheat's kernel-level driver also arrives to further combat those pesky cheats.

Read more

Halo Infinite comes out today! That's fun. What's slightly less fun, however, is that you won't be able to replay story missions. Microsoft have said that, while you can keep exploring the game's open world after you finish it, main campaign missions won't be available to repeat. Fortunately, this shouldn't be the case forever, because 343 Industries say that replayability is "being worked on", though they don't have a date for it just yet. (Mild spoilers for Infinite's campaign below).

Read more

There once was a time when buying a new gaming monitor was all about pushing toward a higher resolution. But priorities have shifted over the years, and while yes, it's nice to play a game at a crisp 1440p or 4K, what's equally important is that your game looks smooth and feels responsive. This is where refresh rates and response times come in, making your games flow better and feel more reactive. This is especially important in fast-paced multiplayer games, where a slick and accurate display can mean this between hitting your target and missing them.

Read more

Oh Xbox Game Pass, that subscription service I constantly forget that I have. It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised by new games I didn't expect to play (or had no plans to buy outright). Microsoft have detailed a bunch more games I'll likely be surprised by coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC when they launch over the next year or so - from epic space RPG Starfield, to Arkane's vampire hunting adventure Redfall. It looks like they're revealing more later this week too.

Read more

The Expeditions series is a mixed or middling bag, but each new entry remains thick with potential. Expeditions: Rome is no different: a sprawling, 50-hour RPG in which you can lead a Roman legion through "Greece, Egypt and Gaul." It now has a release date, January 20th 2022, and a new trailer below.

Read more

Well, they've done it. After declaring their desire to be "key players" in blockchain gaming, Ubisoft have announced in-game NFTs on a new platform called Ubisoft Quartz. They're cosmetic items called Digits, and they're coming to Ghost Recon Breakpoint later this week.

Read more

I fell mushy, gooey, sweaty in love with Thirty Flights Of Loving from the first time I played it. It's a rapid-fire, magical realistic heist game, which tells its short story using smash cuts, flashbacks, and no dialogue.

It is now nine years old, and so of course it's received a 9th anniversary update. It has been "updated for modern operating systems", with menu, HUD and UI fixes, and Mac and Linux ports. Lovely.

Read more

Yesterday, more than 60 employees of Raven Software held a walkout in protest of parent company Activision laying off around a third of the company's quality assurance team. Today, that walkout has entered its second day, and spread to the QA departments of other Activision studios including Blizzard.

Read more

Geoff Keighley’s annual Game Awards show kicks off this evening, with lots of awards to dish out and plenty of (in your best announcer voice) world premieres. Deathloop currently leads the pack of nominees, but Psychonauts 2 and PlayStation exclusive Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart have also scooped up plenty of nominations. Who will win the public vote? Whether you're here to see your favourite games win those big golden trophies or you’re just here for the big reveals, you’ll want to know how to watch The Game Awards, what time it starts and all the nominees. Luckily, we have all the details right here.

Read more

Nvidia’s updated Image Scaling isn’t the only way in which you can – on paper – give your graphics card performance a free boot up the backside. Earlier this year, Nvidia began enabling Resizable BAR on their GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs and laptops, with the promise of faster frame rates for no additional expense. But what exactly is Resizable BAR, and assuming you have compatible hardware, is it really worth switching on?

Read more

After a pre-order early access period so popular it overwhelmed servers and left players in long queues, Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker has now officially launched. The fourth expansion pack for Square Enix's fantasy MMORPG continues the story with new quests, adds two new player classes, takes us to new areas to fight new enemies, and, most importantly, opens a male option for the Viera race so you can play as a bunnyboy in a maid costume. Yeah, thirst for those bunnyboys will only make the queues longer.

Read more

More than 60 developers at Call Of Duty: Warzone studio Raven Software reportedly held a walkout yesterday to protest Activision laying off quality assurance testers. On Friday, the studio let 12 contractors go due to restructuring, which is said to be around a third of the QA team.

"This has not only destroyed the morale of our workforce, but obliterated trust in the company that has been routinely asking us for patience in improving our work lives," said employee group ABetterABK.

Read more

We're rounding out our first week of the Advent Calendar with a game that'll let you chill out a bit. Listen, and you can hear what sounds like a fight going on. But an adorable one, with lots of cricket chirping.

Read more

I've seen Titan Quest described as the best Diablo 2-like available, and I've seen it praised for its colourful environments when its competitors (including Diablo 2) are either grey or brown. Well, now there's even more Titan Quest. The Eternal Embers expansion is out now, with Asian-inspired locations and loads of new things to hack and slash.

Read more

Loot River has an immediately appealing hook: its dungeon floors can be shifted around like Tetris blocks. So as you venture through procedural levels, slashing at inky monsters, you're also solving shape-shifting puzzles and using their movement to confuse and avoid enemies.

Now it has a demo up on Steam.

Read more

Aiko's Choice, the standalone expansion of the wonderful real-time tactics of Shadow Tactics, is out now. It's five years since the original game, so if you yearn for more sneaking and stabbing in Edo Japan, then here it is.

Read more

If I had to describe Mechajammer in a word, that word would be "brown". A second would be the sounds Joe Pesci makes in Home Alone.

When the first few dilemmas you face in an RPG aren't ethical or character ones, but about whether it would be more tedious to continue with this character or to play through the introduction again, you know there's a problem. By my third restart I'd abandoned all interest in playing any character I wanted, and started trying to estimate whatever would get this over with sooner. Mechajammer is a disaster. And not only because of the bugs.

Read more

If you're bored of Halo Infinite's usual multiplayer modes playlist, there's a sneaky way you might be able to gain access to more on PC. A player has discovered that if you boot the game offline you can look through and save 14 hidden modes that aren't yet available in the online game, including a new mode named Attrition, as well as a bunch of Fiesta and Tactical variants.

Read more

Good news, RSS readers. The way you read RPS articles is about to get a whole lot easier. In addition to our main feed, you can now customise your RSS feed by subscribing to individual channels to get exactly the kind of articles you want in one concentrated dose of RPS goodness. Read on below to see how it works.

Read more

Buying a new mouse is about more than how accurate it is or how many buttons it has. It's about finding a mouse that's the right fit for your hand. You don't want to be cramping up your fingers trying to grip a mouse that's too small or big, or struggling with a shape that's isn't designed for your dominant hand. The feel of a mouse is as important as the fit, too. You're obviously going to be touching it a lot, so you want something with a comfortable texture and a click that feels right beneath your precious little fingers.

Read more

The original Elex was divisive, to say the least. It was a game in which I was perpetually lonely and confused and being battered to death by carcinogenic poultry, but it must have been a profitable enough venture on its own terms to warrant a follow-up. That follow-up is Elex II, which is still several months away from release right now, but one I've been playing an early preview build of recently, showing off the first chapter of the game.

I was talking to Graham (RPS in peace) about this and he said: "Eventually one of these RPG sci-fi fantasy things will get close enough to being a BioWare game that it makes loads of money." This being the games equivalent of monkeys and typewriters. But although I agreed with Graham at the time, I think comparing it to BioWare might be mistaking the particular appeal of Elex II. It would be too simple to say that I "enjoyed" the hours I have spent with it so far. I didn't not enjoy it. I mostly came away respecting it for how little it respected me. Like the popular kids on the playground making life so difficult for you that you wish to become best friends with them.

Read more

It's easy to underestimate the nuances of buying a new keyboard, but it isn't as simple as finding one that's got all 26 letters on it. Whether you want lightning fast keystrokes to get the edge in multiplayer gaming, a fantastic-feeling keypress for a more tactile experience, or an RGB lightshow that makes your desk look like it's hosting a tiny rock concert, there's are many different factors to consider when investing in a new letter-rectangle.

Read more

Even before the official launch of Final Fantasy XIV's Endwalker expansion on Tuesday, the MMORPG's servers have been overloaded during its early access period for pre-orderers, leaving players in long queues to join. Oh, the perils of popularity! Sharing a status update over the weekend, game director Naoki Yoshida apologised again for the problems, and said they plan to give all active subscribers seven days of free game time.

Read more

It's tough to keep the lid on the sixth RPS Advent Calendar door. There's almost too much banter, too many highjinks, too much quipping. It's enough to give you quiplash, I tells ya.

Read more

Epic Games ended Chapter 2 of Fortnite over the weekend with a live in-game event which a live in-game event which involved a hole in reality, a UFO invasion, a sexy babe, and a new character played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The game's island flipped over too, revealing a whole new map for players to explore in Chapter 3 Season 1. And I find myself being lured in by two new features I usually adore in games: sliding on your knees while shooting, and swinging around like Spider-Man.

Read more

Since 2018, Dragon Age fans have celebrated an unofficial Dragon Age Day on December 4th, highlighting all sorts of community work and events. This year, BioWare got involved too, releasing new short stories and hosting charity streams. They also took the opportunity to remind fans that Dragon Age 4 is still on the way, confirming that it'll be singleplayer. Don't get your hopes up for Game Awards news though, because it sounds like we won't hear any more about it until 2022.

Read more

The breakout novelty simulator this year for me is Powerwash Simulator, a game about methodically moving your mouse over the surface of objects to blast away grime and rust with a murderously strong stream of water. It's not a chaotic system like Viscera Cleanup Detail, it's just a game where you slowly make something dirty all sparkling clean. Very chill. Now you can unwind with your pals and clean cars, toilets, fairground rides, and the rest together, thanks to the online co-op added in a recent update.

Read more

Driving around with three snipers in the back of your jeep is overkill. But the shiny soldier boy of the Halo games has never cared less. This is the prime indulgence of Halo Infinite, the latest of the venerable sci-fi shootybangs. Sweet moments where it's just you, an open country of undulating hillsides, and a truck full of trigger-happy marines. The developers have taken the eponymous second level of the first Halo, in which the big tin fella had to drive about helping his marooned space crew, and they've used it as a mood board for an entire game. Aside from a few gripes, it has worked splendidly.

Read more

Time to open the fifth door on the Calendar. I reckon we might need to batter this one down with a solid attack from our infantry, backed up with archers.

Read more

A side effect of fatherhood is that I now see everything through my five-year-old's eyes. Hot Wheels Unleashed is, to me, most likely a middling racing game and lesser Trackmania - but then, if I think about it, I know my kid would love it.

Hot Wheels Unleashed's Batman expansion, featuring a handful of cars and a Batcave? To me, meaningless licensed tie-in. But my kid... My kid must never know this exists.

Read more

It feels at times as if, over a long enough timeline, all first-person shooters trend towards becoming the same game by cribbing modes from one another. Case in point: Quake now has a horde mode. It comes as part of a new update for Quake Remastered, Bethesda's recent spit-and-polish of the classic 3D shooter. The horde mode is made by MachineGames for 1-4 players - and the update also includes a new (or "new") singleplayer add-on.

Read more

Despite being a Forza Horizon 4 mega fan and having played it three times, I've yet to dig into Forza Horizon 5. I'm relishing the experience of still having it to play, like keeping a big chocolate bar on a high shelf in case of an emergency.

When I do decide to head down Mexico way, I'll get a better experience for having waited. Playground Games' second patch for the game went live this week, bringing tons of fixes.

Read more

'Tis the season of charity bundles, in which developers urge you to perform the generous act of giving their videogames a new home in exchange for a fraction of their true value. Next up: a bundle of 66 games on Itch.io. Are you big hard-drived enough to let A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build, Old Man's Journey, Lieve Oma, A Normal Lost Phone, Secrets Of Raetikon, Cosmic Express, Fugl, Botanicula, Hacknet, The Stillness Of The Wind, The Hex - *deep breath* - Art Sqool, Hidden Folks, Cloud Gardens, Signs Of The Sojourner, Wide Ocean Big Jacket, Coffee Talk, Ynglet and many more onto your computer?

Go on, have a heart. It'll cost $5 and 100% of the money goes to the World Land Trust.

Read more