Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It’s no surprise that Kojima Productions are working on a new project, seeing as Death Stranding came out almost a year ago and Hideo Kojima has muttered about new things for a while, but it is now official. Today they declared “a new project is in development” and put out a hiring call for new staff. No hint of what the new game is, mind. I dream of: a Death Stranding sequel where an adult BB carries a now-elderly Sam back across America, strapped to his chest. Come on Hideo, you know you love echoing stories and characters.

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Roguelikes! Getcha roguelikes here! It’s a good time to be a fan of permadeath and trial and error. Yesterday, the excellent ScourgeBringer left early access, last week we got Noita, and today the colourful and chaotic platformer Gonner2 launched. I only played snippets of the first game, and it’s as weird and wonderful as it looks. The original Gonner had players travelling through procedurally generated worlds looking for a head armed with nowt but a gun and a backpack. The sequel seems to have pretty similar vibes, and it looks great.

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Have you ever found a lost phone? If you’re not a complete wrong ‘un your first instinct was likely to find some way to reunite it with it’s owner. But there’s another urge, bubbling away just under the surface of your otherwise squeaky clean sense of morality. It’s okay, you can admit it: You sort of wanted to take a peek. It’s only natural.

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As it was leaked, so it shall come to pass. Red Dead Online has been updated with a Halloween-themed Outlaw Pass. The new Outlaw Pass has 20 ranks to climb with unlockable rewards and will run through November 16th. A new zombie game mode has been added as well and—wait, hold on. No, it isn’t a follow up to Undead Nightmare, the well-liked zombie expansion for the original Red Dead Redemption.

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Ubisoft’s PC game launcher Uplay is getting a makeover and a name change to extremely straightforward Ubisoft Connect for PC. It may not have a terribly cute nickname, but Ubisoft Connect is bringing cross-progression between PC and consoles, meaning your game’s save data, for new Ubisoft games when it launches on October 29th.

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Call of Duty: Warzone’s Zombie Royale is absolute mayhem. I love it. Dropping into Verdansk armed with nothing and ending up with a horde of zombies bearing down on you like ravenous dogs is a terrifying thrill. I’d actually say the feeling of terror I’m always in whilst playing Zombie Royale is an ideal horror experience. Aside from the unfortunate supply box jumpscares, the feeling of constant insecurity thanks to the fact that literally anything can happen and the chaos can always claim you gives me a truly immersive, creeping horror experience. I’m scared to move, I’m terrified of going outside, I’m constantly twitching, checking my six just to make sure a zombie isn’t getting the jump on me. It’s bloody brilliant, and I’ve been on it almost constantly since launch. With that in mind, here are some Zombie Royale tips and tricks to help you not die.

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Don’t stress, Darkest Dungeon 2 is on its way. Red Hook Studios announced today that the sequel to their strategic dungeon crawling game will launch in early access in 2021. A new trailer for the grim strategy series confirms that yup, things sure will continue to be bleak for your long-suffering party of adventurers.

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Not-so-serious publishers Devolver Digital have announced today in a not-so-serious post that they’ve acquired Serious Sam developers Croteam. Seriously. Well, the tone of the announcement isn’t serious but it has seriously happened. It’s a business love story for the books.

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Iä! Iä! The great wurm turns again, the cosmos lurch uncomfortably, and we awake anew with new faces and only fleeting memories of who we once were. Why, here comes news of Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace, a video game inspired by a popular Lovecraftian board game, Arkham Horror. Yes, yes, it was based on a different Lovecraftian board game when it was initially announced in 2018, Mansions Of Madness, but what does that mean now? The past is swallowed and we can never recover ourselves.

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Gather ’round and take a seat, Steam have now kicked off their first Digital Tabletop Fest, an event of panels, announcements, and demos for games that “run across the lines between digital and physical games”. From now until next Monday you can catch panels from the likes of developers adapting tabletop RPGs, building digital deck-builders, and other such table to screen fare.

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When I first joined RPS two(!) years(!!) ago, one of the very first things I wrote about was RB: Axolotl, a visual novel about a bunch of axolotls living in different corners of a tank and having very intense, obsessive relationships with each other. At the time it was just a demo, but now it’s a full game. I’m still playing my way through it, but indications after several hours so far are that the completed RB: Axolotl is weirder and darker than I could ever have imagined from the demo. This isn’t a bad thing, to be clear.

I came to RB: Axolotl because I love and fear axolotls in equal measure. They are extremely cute and interesting but also unholy horrors of evolution that should not be. I stayed because the game had a similar thematic tension: initially it is a cutesy VN about a pink axolotl named Axy, who is trying to show off for the girl axolotl he likes. But then you meet the other axolotls in the tank. You encounter a mysterious external entity, RB (which stands for Rock Bottom). RB: Axolotl is, essentially, a perfect example of what I find so fascinating and worthwhile about visual novels.

32GB of RAM is more than what most gaming PCs really need these days, but if you’re determined to future-proof your PC or have your eye on playing hardcore simulation games such as Microsoft Flight Simulator on max settings (and fancy some added RGB lighting to spice things up a bit), then you can currently get a 32GB kit of Corsair’s Vengeance RGB Pro RAM for £120 over at Aria PC. That’s £5 cheaper than what you’ll find over on Amazon UK at the moment, too.

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Bethesda and ZeniMax intentionally sabotaged Rune 2 by secretly snapping up its developers days before launch, the game’s publishers have claimed in a lawsuit. The Viking fantasy action-RPG launched in November 2019 then, the very next day, developers Human Head announced they were shutting down but their employees had been hired for a new Bethesda studio. This was quite a surprise, even to the publishers who had been relying on Human Head to support the game after launch. They sued to regain control of the game’s code and continue updating it, and now are going after Bethesda and Zenimax too.

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Amplitude Studios’ strategy game Humankind is offering a playable peek at their vision for the next era of civilisation ’em ups. The strategy romp has a new trailer out along with a free demo that you can play in your browser so you can decide for yourself if it’ll take the strategy crown. Sega announced today that they’re planning Humankind’s launch for sometime in April 2021.

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So, as you might already know, there is another big Minecraft update on the way – version 1.17, a.k.a “Caves & Cliffs”. As the name suggests, it’s going to be focusing on the underground (with a lesser focus on mountains and such), and that’s welcome news for long-time players. Especially since the Nether, Minecraft’s weirdo hell dimension, got a makeover in version 1.16, it’s become painfully obvious how little the regular underground has changed for very many years.

And as ever, the new feature brush is not being applied lightly – there are going to be 4 new mobs added piecemeal in the months leading up to the presumed full release of the update in mid-2021, as well as somewhere in the region of 30-odd new blocks and their derivatives. And that’s all grand. There’s even an axolotl being added – one of my favourite beasts, and the first amphibian in the game. But thinking about it has made me realise that these big updates are a bit of a double-edged sword, at least for me.

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The last month or so has been a delightful time for roguelite fans (hello). We recently had the excellent Noita and Hades leave early access, and now the fast-paced action platformer ScourgeBringer has joined them.

Today saw the dashing and blasting and slashing roguelite reach its 1.0 release. As with most games escaping their early access shackles, ScourgeBringer got a big update today, too, adding in a new realm with new bosses and enemies to take on.

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When I first saw Asus’ ROG Zephyrus G14 laptop back in January this year, I was struck by just how ‘normal’ it looked. Sure, it had a mad LED matrix display on the back of its lid, but at a glance, I’d have pegged it as a regular everyday laptop that was only fit to play the smallest of 2D indie games. Instead, it had an RTX 2060 graphics chip and one of AMD’s new Ryzen 7 4800HS processors inside it, giving it some serious gaming chops underneath its (relatively) plain-looking chassis.

Genshin Impact ain’t a small game. It’s actually pretty darn chunky, and your device might struggle with it if it’s an older one. We’ve put together a quick rundown of the recommended and required specs for the game. Can your PC or Mobile run Genshin Impact?

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Back when Fortnite first came out in 2018, it had the very polite install size of around 20GB. Having not played it for ages, I had no idea that it’d managed to beef all the way up to 90GB. Thankfully, that’s not the case any longer, though, because today’s update chopped it all down by 60GB. On top of that, it added a load of snazzy new Halloween stuff, too.

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In Genshin Impact, you’re asked to input your birth date. Does this mean you get presents from Paimon? Maybe she leaves you alone for one damn second on your birthday? Well, we’ve found out what happens on your birthday in Genshin Impact so you know whether or not to lie about it.

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The PC Gaming Weekspot

is a good way to spend around two hours on a Monday evening. We go through all the big news in PC games, we chat about the new games we’ve been playing over the last seven days… and we also get furious with one another during the quiz segment.

Fun times!

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How can someone steer a ship in Sea Of Thieves when they’re unable to see? Quite well, as it turns out. “Sightless Kombat” is an accessibility consultant and streamer who, as you might guess by the name, is without sight. Last night, he joined the Rare crew on their weekly stream to shoot some skeletons, chat about accessibility and show how he plays the game using cues from his crewmates – including following the sounds of their hurdy gurdy tunes to find his way around.

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Genshin Impact offers the opportunity to gain a whole load of fancy pants characters through using the gacha system by paying for Wishes. Is your cool new anime boy as good as he looks in battle though? It’s hard to say – the rarities for each character don’t necessarily correspond to their quality and stats. With that in mind, here’s our Genshin Impact character tier list – I hope your pulls are up the top!

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Less than a month after a load of Blizzard veterans announced several new studios, another group have announced a new studio of their own with plans to focus on real-time strategy. Frost Giant Studios are mostly former StarCraft II developers, and say they are “on a mission to bring real-time strategy games to a broad audience.” They haven’t specifically announced a game yet, but I’m certainly curious now Blizzard are stopping making new SC2 content.

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It feels weird to write something like, ‘Celebrate the Fallout bombs dropping this week!’ Because it’s a bit dark and gloomy, and ‘celebrate’ certainly feels like the wrong word. But hey, that’s exactly what Bethesda are doing.

October 23rd is the day in Fallout lore where the world went bang and those lucky (or unlucky) enough to have a place in a vault disappeared underground. To commemorate the special day, you can play Fallout 76 for free between now and October 26th, and take part in some in-game events, too.

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GOG are giving away Europa Universalis II for free right now as part of their Paradox Interactive 20th Anniversary sale. Both the sale and the giveaway are running until 2pm BST on October 24th, so make sure you add the classic strategy game to your GOG account before then if you fancy picking it up. There are also some great deals to be had on Paradox’s wider catalogue, too, including up to 75% off big hitters such as Stellaris and Battletch, so read on for our sale highlights.

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I promise, the fact that Doug Cockle (voice of Geralt of Rivia) voices the eponymous Victor Vran is not the only reason I am recommending this game to you. Though, admittedly it is a large part of the recommendation.

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Are you lost, readers? I’ve only wandered briefly through Manifold Garden‘s recursive puzzle labyrinths, but I’m afraid to say I am too. Oh, well, at least it’s a gorgeous place to find yourself stuck in. If you’re better at thinking your way out of a tight spot, you might even find yourself breezing through William Chyr’s beautiful void, with Manifold Garden finding a new home on Steam and Itch today.

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They’re doing it! By god, they’re doing it! Apex Legends is gearing up for its big Halloween monster mash – and this time, the demons are crawling all over the goddamn walls. This year’s Fight or Fright event is bringing wallrunning back from Titanfall 2, but only for those Legends unfortunate enough to succumb to undeath.

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Hades

is a bloody gorgeous game. There’s no arguing that. But did you know that the enigmatic Nyx started life as one of the Fury sisters? Crafting a god is a strange process for mortal hands – but such is the job of the artists at Supergiant games, one of whom has this week gone in-depth on how the studio models, rigs, textures and animates a Cthonic diety.

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In my expert opinion, the best thing a horror game about amnesia and half-glimpsed horrors can do upon launching is disappear. Was it ever there? Am I crazy in the coconut? So it’s thematically splendid (if practically inconvenient) that today’s Amnesia: Rebirth launch went spooky on Steam. At first some owners found it didn’t have an executable so they couldn’t play, which is a solid jumpscare after paying £24, then the game promptly vanished from the store. An excellent series of chills. But it’s okay now! Come relax with the launch trailer.

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Ray tracing is the big buzz word of 2020 in PC gaming, and Nvidia have just announced another fresh batch of ray tracing and DLSS games, including a couple of old ones that will be getting support in future updates. To help you keep track of them all, I’ve created this list of all the confirmed ray tracing games you can play on PC right now, as well which of this year’s [cms-block] will get ray tracing and support in the future. And because ray tracing tends to go hand in hand with Nvidia’s performance-boosting DLSS tech these days, I’ve also listed all the current and upcoming games that support DLSS, too.

In letting us pillage jolly old England, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla has already promised a tempting power fantasy. But Ubisoft’s upcoming historical stab ’em up isn’t stopping with just one country. Revealed in a new trailer outlining Valhalla’s post-launch plans, it looks like Eivor will be setting sail for the Emerald Isle before taking an axe to Ubisoft’s own Parisian front door in two major expansions, Wrath Of The Druids and The Siege Of Paris, set to arrive next year.

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It’s not Halloween until you’re knee-deep in the dead, so here comes Doom Eternal with the start of its two-part story expansion. The Ancient Gods sends the angry fella back into the Maykr’s dimension to resume ripping and tearing, this time with some new enemies in the mix too. Curiously, the expansion is also a standalone game, not requiring you to own Doom Eternal to buy and play.

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We are now but a month out from the release of Cyberpunk 2077. The massive action RPG finally landed on a November 19th launch date after a couple of delays (any further chance of a date push having apparently been, itself, pushed by developers CD Projekt rolling back their “no mandatory crunch” policy).

Not that we’ve been bereft of Cyberpunk content in the meantime. In fact, companies have been falling over themselves to bring us high quality neon products as official tie-ins to the game. Which is, in a way, extremely cyberpunk. But are the products cyberpunk? That’s the question. We have put them to the test by using sophisticated digital techniques to simulate what these merch tie-ins would look like in the game, and if, therefore they are actually cyberpunk (lower case c).

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The year is 1937, and you’ve just woken up in a crashed plane in the middle of a desert. You’re not some sort of Indiana Jones-esque film though, I’m afraid, you’re in a horror game – Amnesia: Rebirth, to be exact. It’s the new survival horror from Frictional Games, the team behind Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Soma, and it’s out today.

How can the horror of a traditionally dark and dingy series hold up under the bright desert sun? I talked with game director Thomas Grip and creative lead Fredrik Olsson to find out. We also discussed monsters and things they’ve learned from their old games, as well as how player choice can make horror that much more horrifying.

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If I remember correctly, one of the bigger complaints against Fallout 4 on release was that it wasn’t Fallout: New Vegas. Obsidian’s spin-off is seen by many as the series’ last stab at proper, old-school RPG’ing before Bethesda turned the post-apocalypse into a playful sandbox. Naturally, a group of modders have been hard at work bringing New Vegas’ guns ‘n’ graphics up to date with a total recreation inside Fallout 4, showing off their spit-shined spurs in a new progress trailer this week.

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As the nights draw ever closer, and the windows of the local Tesco grow ever more pumpkiny, I have been burrowing into blankets, putting a hot water bottle on my feetsies (because we don’t want to turn on the heating yet) and wallowing in some classic scares. But I have found this harder to do with games. Most games are, obviously, a very interactive experience, and when the scares are happening to you, rather than someone you are watching, it is less conducive to comfortable toasty-toe Octobering.

At the same time, I have been pootling around in The Sims 4, restlessly starting and canning new builds in a fit of pique. But then I realised that my two interests can be combined: I can indulge in some classic horror, play a game at the same time, and I don’t even have to do any work because other Sims builders have already done it! That’s my favourite kind of work! And lo and behold, there are loads of recreations of famous scary buildings knocking about on The Sims 4 Gallery. I’ve linked a few of my favourites that I found below. Sure, you could search the gallery for them yourselves, but the gallery UI is the worst thing in the entire world, so this will save you time.

Black Friday

Paper Beast

‘s folded menagerie should be right up my alley. Unfortunately, for the time being, Eric Chahi’s wonderful sandbox has been locked behind pricey, clunky VR headsets. Thankfully, Pixel Reef today released Paper Beast: Folded Edition, flattening the digital wilderness into something you and I can play on our non-head-mounted screens.

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