Halo Infinite surprise-launched its multiplayer a couple of weeks ago. People seem to like it a lot, grindy and unrewarding battle pass aside. If you, like me, are more interested in the game for its singleplayer, then have a gander below for the launch trailer put together ahead of the campaign's December 8th release.
I don't much envy Bethesda. All game development seems like a bunfight with the impossible, but following in the footsteps of Skyrim is surely cursed. Starfield, the team's sci-fi open-world game, needs to be the same and different and better than Skyrim, a game that has been consistently popular for ten years.
In the latest, teasing, behind-the-scenes Into The Starfield video, the development team discuss some of the values that remain the same between Starfield and Bethesda's other games. It maybe starts with the cups.
CD Projekt say that they're re-focusing GOG, their digital storefront, "more on its core business activity." This is in response to the store losing money - around $2.21 million year-to-date.
The Grand Theft Auto games are full of jokes - or, as I like to call them, "jokes". I'm referring to the series' habit of replacing words in signs and company names with rude soundalikes or double entendres.
These jokes have been restored by GTA: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition's latest patch, which corrects spelling on signage, puts the hard angles back on the Tuff Nut logo, and stops it raining indoors quite so often.
If you enjoy games where people are trapped somewhere mysterious in a deadly game, here's a new one for you: World's End Club. Released on PC today following Apple Arcade and Switch versions, it's made by a team including two heavy-hitting murdergame veterans: the director of the Zero Escape series, and the writer of Danganronpa. It's about a group of schoolchildren who find themselves in an undersea theme park and are forced by a clown to- oh for, what is it with these cheery mascots who have one jacked-up eye and a propensity for violence?
We've waited so long for Minecraft's Caves & Cliffs update to be complete, but it's finally here. Caves & Cliffs Part 2 arrived today, bringing with it deeper underground layers, taller mountains, and a couple of new biomes to explore. I've been really eager for the 1.18 update specifically so I can build a nice home in the new Lush Cave biomes. Underground houses are the best! And now I can live near pretty cave plants!
Fancy kicking off your advent calendar with a spot of 80s strategising? Atari are releasing Sid Meier's classic Command series on Steam tonight, so you'll be able to get your hands on Decision In The Desert, Crusade In Europe, and Conflict In Vietnam. They're a vintage bunch of RTS games that make you a commander in various wars, you know, if wars were about controlling tiny little blocky tanks in a bright blue desert.
In the last few weeks I’ve spent a lot of time looking through scopes. Red dots and ACOGs and telescopic ones. From one FPS to the other, I put my eye up to a lens and I press triggers. Sometimes I’m a sniper dropping Nazis to protect my father, sometimes I’m a soldier surrounded by 127 other players. Lately, I’m a chunky spartan with crunchy crayon armour.
All this time with the three big FPSes of the year, each packaged in their own ways, has left me wondering what’s important nowadays. Do they need campaigns, or is multiplayer-only the way to go? How about introducing one a bit later than the other?
Ubisoft's tactical FPS Rainbow Six Siege ushered in Year 6 Season 4 today. Named High Calibre, it introduces new defensive operator Thorn, who's special gadget is a sticky grenade that explodes into razors when it detects an enemy. Ouch. The other big change with this season is a rework of the Outback map, which cleans up a lot of junk to improve sightlines, and help attackers strategise.
You might be familiar with the Fnatic Streak65. Very small? Lives on our best gaming keyboards list? Answers to “Fnatic Streak65”? Whether it rings a bell or not, there’s a new version of this low-profile mechanical keyboard out, adding a handful of hardware enhancements. It’s brilliant.
“Play against type,” Sin Vega advised in her well good piece on getting the most out of strategy games. I’m sorry Sin. I failed. Tactical RPG Wartales gave me the opportunity to promote a wild boar to the captain of my troupe of wandering mercenaries. I did not. Instead, I fell back into stale, boring habits like “entrusting the lives of my comrades to someone with ambitions outside of ‘moar acorns plz’.” Not a moment goes by that I don’t wistfully consider what might have been.
Microsoft are now testing a feature to improve image quality in Xbox Cloud Gaming, their service which lets you play fancy new games through an Internet browser even on a cruddy old computer. Clarity Boost, as they call it, aims to make games look better through some client-side processing fanciness. The feature is currently only supported in a test version of the Microsoft Edge browser, planning to roll out to regular Edge soon.
Though Halo Infinite launched in decent shape (our Ed called it "the most stable FPS I've played all year"), one bone of contention has been the slow pace to unlocking things on the battle pass. The developers, 343 Industries already boosted progression pace, but evidently that wasn't enough, and now they're coming round for another pass at the pass. From today, they're planning to offer bonus XP for the first six matches you play every day.
I'm sure one day we'll get to masquerade as vampires, but it seems we'll be waiting a little longer than expected (again). Developers Big Bad Wolf have delayed Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong into May 2022. They say the extra three months will help ensure their team keep a healthy work-life balance, while having more time to add polish and go through QA.
As CD Projekt Red continue to fix up their fancy-but-oh-so-flawed futuristic RPG Cyberpunk 2077, they've confirmed that we should expect a "major update" next year, by the end of March. CDPR had previously said Cyberpunk 2077's next-gen console update would be out by then, but confirming another big patch for everyone then too is news. Not big news, but welcome news, especially considering how many new players the game has picked up since going half-price in Black Friday sales.
Here we are, chums, Cyber Monday. Ahh, how the mighty have fallen. What was once an interesting online addition to the Black Friday feeding frenzy, is now a withered and useless appendage. We all shop online now and Black Friday lasts for at least three months of the year. Well, either that or I’m in some kind of deals post writing, Groundhog Day-esque limbo. Whatever the case may be, Cyber Monday is still a weird 90s relic, like many other things with cyber as a prefix. Cybergoth, for example, a sub-sub-culture whose chief point of relevance in the modern era is having their entire aesthetic appropriated by gaming peripheral manufacturers. You can’t move for black and neon doohickeys with LEDs dripping from every orifice. While I’ll be the first to argue that anything is better than the beige everything of yesteryear, sometimes you need to be a bit grown-up and accessorise your PC with reliable, understated, no-nonsense black. Like this HyperX Cloud Alpha S headset which is now discounted at Amazon.
I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word odyssey, I’m expecting something grand, something mythic, something literally homeric. Samsung’s line of monitors certainly contains models that fit the bill, including the cyclopean Odyssey G9. Sadly, such excess isn’t always practical. Your desk just isn’t big enough or, for some reason, you don’t have a grand just sitting around to spend on a monitor. Despite that, you still want to have a little odyssey, as a treat. An odyssette, maybe? Which I’ve just discovered is a real word and not something I made up for a bad gag. Well, don’t worry, chums, I’m here with a deal on the much more manageable Samsung Odyssey G5, for when you’re feeling just a little bit epic.
If you've been on the fence about whether to get an RPS subscription on the cheap this Black Friday / Cyber Monday period, our latest free game announcement might just be the thing you need to tip you over the edge. Hot off the heels of our Darkest Dungeon giveaway, the next free game we're offering to existing RPS premium subscribers is the all-new open world strategy RPG, Wartales.
Back in August, which is obviously an unfathomable length of time ago, the adverts for a mobile game called Merge Mansion went semi-viral on Twitter. The post was not unwarranted. The twists, the turns, the drama: it all makes Merge Mansion seem like it must be bananas.
In that original advert, a bride gets out of a taxi to find her house (and presumably husband) is on fire. Her grandmother takes care of her and unlocks the gate to a huge mansion, which the woman begins rennovating. Then out of nowhere the cops come and arrest grandma, and she presses her hand to the inside of the police car window where, Lost-style, she's written a message on the palm of her hand reading "He is alive". I was reminded of it this weekend because I saw a similar ad where a policeman comes to the house to arrest grandma and she escapes on a motorbike, pulling a sick wheelie.
A very merry Cyber Monday to you, reader dear, from all of us here at RPS! I hope you and your loved ones are together as you celebrate 90s cyberspace, cyberculture, cyberpunk, hackers, kewl d00dz, and netizens. Perhaps you've visited your subnet neighbours to sing Front Line Assembly carols and share mulled Jolt Cola. Maybe you're gathered round an overclocked Pentium 3 to warm your datagloves and roast Doritos. Whatever you're doing, please put on your mirrorshades to enjoy some of our cyberwords from across the years.
While Company Of Heroes 3 isn't due out until next year, this week we'll all be invited to try a slice of the WW2 real-time strategy game's multiplayer. Relic Entertainment today announced a "multiplayer pre-alpha" will start on Tuesday, with several modes and maps to give a taste of battling across Italy for a few days. It'll be free, everyone is invited, and you can start pre-loading the client today.
Gamesplanet is the next in a long line of vendors to post up its seasonal offerings - now into its second week of Xmas deals. In other words, this isn't a Cyber Monday sale per se, though if you were already in a shopping mood from all the other Cyber Monday deals floating around you can still avail yourself of some big savings.
Last year's festive Gamesplanet sale had some major discounts, and this year is no different. There has been a lot of releases to chew through this year, and with the end of lockdown sapping all of our collective motivation away, it meant that some things could slip through the net. But that's where the sales come in, so we can pick up those games we were eyeing up for cheap.
Earlier this month, Platinum Games held a closed beta for their upcoming action RPG, Babylon's Fall. For the most part, feedback from the test looked pretty good, though some players noticed something a familiar - the game reused armour and emotes from Final Fantasy XIV. Producer Yosuke Saito says that's because Square Enix let Platinum borrow them, letting the devs add lots more gear than they had originally planned.
It’s not something my parents tell their friends, but I am a man who has played every Call Of Duty campaign. I’ve been in more helicopter crashes than you could believe. I’ve seen capital ships on fire off the shoulder of Mars, watched sniper scopes glitter in the smog near Brandenburg Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Unless I can record them in a big list, of course, clawing back some of that sunk cost in the process. While the COD campaign no longer holds the high ground at the water cooler, where it once dominated pop culture discussion, it’s still a place you can reliably find solo thrills in a world of service shooters. You might be surprised to learn that, despite diminishing returns, some of the best examples are hidden among the duds of the last decade. I’ve made it my duty to point them out to you - the spotter to your artillery.
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Storage. Its something most of us don't think about until its too late. "Oh, I'll just download this other game for later", followed by your computer yelling at you that there's no space left. Cue me legging it to Argos for another overpriced drive. Not to fear - for those of us more prepared than I am, there is a whole host of options available, not least of which are these stylish Samsung T7 SSDs.
Rejoice, Oculus Quest 2 bargain hunters. The 128GB version of Oculus' standalone headset is now down to £249 for Cyber Monday, knocking £50 off the price of the headset. We've only spotted the deal at Amazon at the moment, but the good news is that they're still running the £50 / $50 credit voucher promo in additon to the headset saving, which means you save a total of £100 if you buy one today.
They Always Run is the closest I’ve come to living out my dream of being a galactic bounty hunter. It’s a 2D platformer with two distinct halves to its gameplay. One portion is a rewarding parkour simulator, and the other’s this heavy, visceral combat system that I never got tired of. You play as a three-armed mutant called Aiden as he hops between planets collecting bounties, which are presented through a series of action-platformer linear levels. It almost never goes as planned. The title’s pretty accurate.
Halo Infinite's multiplayer beta has only been out for a couple of weeks, but the free-to-play FPS doesn't have effective anti-cheat, and it's really beginning to show. Players have been posting clips on social media of supposed cheaters using wallhacks, aimbots and more. Now Xbox Halo players are asking developers 343 Industries for an option to turn crossplay off, so they don't have to deal with pesky PC hackers.
It may be below freezing outside, but that doesn't mean our hard working PCs will keep as cool. Even a modest gaming rig will be filled with components kicking out heat for long periods of time, so it's vital to equip your CPU with a competent cooler like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo V2.
Thankfully, Cyber Monday is here with a deal that knocks a few quid off what was already an affordable chiller, making it even better for first-time builders and anyone looking to upgrade from stock coolers on a limited budget.
Black Friday may be over - technically - but PC hardware sellers are still keeping plenty of prices low for Cyber Monday. Some hefty deals are therefore still ripe for the picking, like this huge saving on the MSI Optix MAG272CQR gaming monitor.
An MMORPG set in the magical world of Marvel's wizards is apparently in development at the studio behind DC Universe Online. That news comes from a new financial presentation from Enad Global 7, the parent company of folks include DCUO devs Dimensional Ink Games and DCUO publishers Daybreak. What actually is the Marvel MMO? A secret, for now. But I wouldn't feel wrong making some assumptions.
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Welcome to Cyber Monday, gang. While today usually marks the last chance to jump on any lingering Black Friday deals, there can and will be some shiny new savings on PC gaming hardware as well – hardware like the Gigabyte B550M DS3H, a microATX motherboard that’s dropped into prime territory for first-time builders on tight budgets.
Amazon has it for just £55, which is chump change for a mobo that’s compatible with both AMD Ryzen 3000 chips and the latest Ryzen 5000 series. That’s down from its £73 price tag on Black Friday itself, and down from a £100 RRP.
Sundays are for telling Alexa how excited you are for Cyber Monday. Before you get their attention, let's read this week's best writing about games.
Well, chums, Black Friday itself has been and gone. I’m still here though, highlighting deals for you, because we’re in deals season now and the ride is going to continue all through to Christmas and the New Year beyond! The whole Black Friday phenomenon is very weird if you’re old enough to predate online shopping and not from the USA. Feels like just yesterday that everyone was terrified of using their credit cards online, Amazon was just a book shop and Thanksgiving was just something you only heard of on American TV shows. Now it’s another huge American export, allowing retailers to extend their discounting shenanigans for a whole extra month. The worst thing about it is that our colonial cousins keep some of the best bargains for themselves, as is the case with this Razer BlackWidow V3 mechanical keyboard.
As those of you who have been hiding behind my sofa, or just read our “What are we all buying this Black Friday?” article, are aware, the top item on my Black Friday shopping list was a new chair. I did manage to procure a solid bottom-rest at a good discount and I’m very happy with my purchase. Unfortunately, it still cost a good chunk of change, leaving me with much less to spend on my recently rediscovered Warhammer habit.
Luckily for anyone still looking for somewhere to park their behind while gaming, you can get your hands (cheeks?) on a Razer Iskur gaming chair worth £500 for free. You do have to buy a laptop first though.
Around this time last year, I put out a call for headset recommendations, looking for something cheapish and not terrible. An Internet Friend offered me an old set and I gratefully accepted, not being in the position to turn down free stuff. A few days later, I opened the package that arrived to find, not the slightly dodgy cast-off I’d expected, but a shiny SteelSeries Arctis 5. I’m not someone who gets good quality peripherals very often and the sheer generosity made me shed more than a few tears. Using it is like having an angel gently hug my head while they whisper game noises in my ears.
Which is all just a long-winded way of saying that the SteelSeries Arctis headsets are very good and you should totally check out the SteelSeris Arctis 7 deals we have featured below the jump.
Sundays are for changing into your second Halloween costume and returning to that house who gave out KitKat Chunkys. Before you go to hell, let's read this week's best writing about games.
Yesterday, Netflix released the trailer for season two of their live action adaptation of The Witcher. And it's fun! You can watch it below.
A lot of people play The Sims 4 by pursuing community-created challenges, whether they're about building particular types of homes, having a particular number of babies, or many more. Next week a free update for The Sims 4 will add these kinds of challenges to the game itself, beginning with two new scenarios.
Paradox are going to take longer than first thought to finish Crusader Kings 3's first DLC. Royal Court didn't previously have an announced release date, but it's currently aiming for 2022 as Paradox say they are "not, at the moment, entirely satisfied with Royal Court's progress."