Rock, Paper, Shotgun

A new week, a new chance to conquer some planets. That’s right readers, 4X space strategy game Galactic Civilizations III is free to keep on the Epic Games Store for the next week. Definitely one to consider if the idea of colonising an entire galaxy for precisely zero pounds appeals to you.

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Video Game Land was pretty quiet until LucasFilm Games popped up and decided to announce they were working with Bethesda on an Indiana Jones game, and then, only a day later, they said they’d partnered with Ubisoft for an open-world Star Wars game. Licensed video games are back, baby.

Loads of people are missing their cinema fix at the minute, so we decided to celebrate film in this week’s Mystery Steam Reviews. It’s Mystery Steam Reviews: The Movie: The Game: The Quiz.

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The first mission in Hitman 3 – Dubai – has three ‘Mission Stories’ available to you. Some bits and pieces are less self-explanatory than we might like though, so we’ve put together a nice, easy, step-by-step guide on how to complete them. Just follow these steps and you’ll be able to complete all mission stories in Hitman 3’s Dubai level.

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One of the things I was most disappointed with when I first started Cyberpunk 2077 was the lack of cool cybernetic implants and body modifications to choose from in the character creator. I’m not knocking the few shiny wires and lines we could choose to embed in V’s face, I think those are very good actually, there just aren’t enough of them. Thankfully, modders exist, and they’ve made a bunch of good’uns that let you properly cyberify your V – including a full-body chrome mod.

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Dogs. We all love to pet them. And in the game. And thanks to the Twitter account Can You Pet The Dog?, we know where to find them. Pettable dogs where they weren’t before can make gaming news.

But of course, “can you pet the dog?” is only one question. “Why can you pet the dog?” is quite another. I spoke to some indie developers about their experiences creating the pettable dogs in question, alongside Tristan Cooper, the curator of the Can You Pet The Dog? account, which is now at nearly half million followers.

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It was a real surprise to me when Planet Zoo started to truly click. It doesn’t happen often, with games this high on the complexity ladder. There’s such an incredible amount of stuff to learn about Planet Zoo, not just about the running of the zoo itself and the needs and desires of every animal, but also the remarkably powerful building tools available to the player. I genuinely didn’t think the moment would come when I could get through a session without having to look up a dozen different things about the game.

But after many hours, that point did arrive, and it probably wouldn’t have happened if the game weren’t so enjoyable even when you have no idea what you’re doing.

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The Resident Evil Showcase aired today with new footage of Resident Evil Village, a release date announcement, and a brief glimpse of a new multiplayer game called RE: Verse that will be bundled with Village. You can watch the trailers and full livestream below, as well as read about a few extra details.

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On Tuesday, I reported on game development tool Game Maker being acquired by Opera, makers of the Opera internet browser. Opera have now officially announced the acquisition, saying that Game Maker would be paired with Opera GX, their dedicated gaming browser, in forming the basis of a new division of the company called Opera Gaming.

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Puzzle Quest is returning after a ten year absence. Puzzle Quest 3 will again combine match-3 and RPG mechanics together with the original designer Steve Fawkner at the helm, but this time it’ll be – possible uh-oh – free-to-play.

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Maybe you miss Hollow Knight, or you’re dead tired of Dead Cells. Then Skul: The Hero Slayer might appeal. It’s a side-on stabrawler roguelite that’s just left early access in which you can swap skulls to swap skills, and also lob your noggin at enemies. It’s nice, from my brief play of it, and there’s an announcement trailer below.

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2016’s point ‘n’ click adventure game Kathy Rain is returning this year with a new, rebuilt, expanded Director’s Cut. Along with more puzzles and chat, it’ll have touched-up looks and bonuses like controller support. I quite liked it, as far as I can remember, and have forgotten enough that I’m game for another go when the revamp arrives later this year.

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When you want to marry an NPC in Skyrim, you propose using an Amulet of Mara. In real life, you can now buy an official 10-karat gold ring based on the amulet’s design. For $1000, you can make your proposal hella Skyrim. I have previously heard of at least one person proposing with a custom ring based on the amulet, and one who proposed with an actual replica amulet.

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Nvidia’s new RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti GPUs may still be impossible to get hold of right now, but if you’ve been thinking about upgrading your graphics card recently and aren’t sure which one to go for when they eventually come back in stock, then you’re in the right place. To help you decide which graphics card is the right one for you, I’ve put together some handy benchmark graphs to show you exactly how they stack up in all of today’s biggest and best PC games at 1080p, 1440p and 4K.

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Welcome once again, gentle listener, to the Electronic Wireless Show podcast. This week’s episode demands that you tread carefully and quietly, in case you disturb Nate, or awaken the Ken Loach he has trapped in a shipping container in his garden, for we are discussing the best sneakings in games. Our favourite stealthy-me-dos.

We also bring you a long tangent about zoos, a brief discussion on the wonderful lack of complexity in the baddies in Indiana Jones, and a lot of anger at Matthew because he likes banging on the glass at aquariums because he is a monster. Nate threatens to bury him in the desert. Also, there’s all the aforementioned Ken Loach stuff, which goes on a long time. Plus, I bring you a Cavern of Lies that becomes, alas, a Cavern of Sadness.

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Two weeks ago, Twitch announced they were suspending former US president Donald Trump from their platform, after he incited a violent attack on the US capitol. At the time, Twitch said they would “reassess” his account after his presidency ended. Well, now he’s been booted from the White House, Twitch have banned him for good too. They’re also updating their policies to crack down on those who encourage violence on the streaming platform.

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Hades

is packed with far more content than you might expect, even for a roguelite. There’s romance, there’s decorating, and – perhaps most exciting of all – there’s a fishing minigame where you can catch all sorts of underwater underworld inhabitants and sell them for valuable items and resources.

Our Hades fishing guide will walk you through how to get the Rod of Fishing and use it to catch all sorts of different fish. Below you’ll also find a full table of every fish in the game, where to find it, and your reward for catching each one.

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Devouring an entire solar system with industry is, at once, both frightening and highly appealing. Well, sci-fi management sim Dyson Sphere Program is now out in early access, if you’re curious as to how it feels transforming stars and planets into cogs for your mechanised empire.

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Do you ever play Valorant and just do a little sigh when you see what map has been picked from the pool for your next match? For me, that’s Split (and also Icebox actually, but this post isn’t about that freezy fiend). Split’s always been a tough one for attackers, with its annoyingly tight choke points you’d need to funnel down, and far too many 50/50 angles for defenders to hide in. But last night, Riot Games released a patch with tons of little changes that should make Split a whole lot less frustrating to play.

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Officially, Hitman 3 launched yesterday. In reality, uh, some players still aren’t really getting to play. The servers which imported progression from the previous two games have been overloaded, an issue Io Interactive scrambled to fix yesterday. Server woes are also causing some players to have the game interrupted by error messages prompting them to reconnect or play offline. Io’s most recent statement said they were working on servers.

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