Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Look at any image of heavy metal horror game The Axis Unseen and you’ll recognise an archetype: the stealth archer. For a certain sort of Elder Scrolls player, it’s the only way to travel through a fantasy open world - perma-crouched, bow stretched lazily across the lower third of the screen. And it’s an appeal that creator Nate Purkeypile understands perfectly, having spent the larger portion of his career working on Bethesda’s RPGs, from Fallout 3 and Skyrim all the way through to Fallout 76.

“It’s probably not the best idea for most people to do a solo open world,” he says. “But at the same time, this is like my sixth one. I’m pretty sure what goes into these.”

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A decent name is one thing, but one like To Hell With The Ugly plain demands to be looked up. That's when you see the striking art style, and yeah okay, I'm already on on board.

Based on a French novel by Boris Vian, this tells a strange and surprisingly dark story about a famously handsome young himbo who gets caught up in a sinister plot in 1950s Los Angeles and has to adventure, talk, fight, and - horrors - reason his way to the truth. It's an adventure game with quick-time event bits, and a 50s America setting, all of which could put me off it entirely, but I can't bring myself to say anything bad about it at all.

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Excellent real-time strategy game Company Of Heroes 3 came out on PC earlier this year, and now its console edition has arrived on yer Xboxes and PlayStations. Listen, I know such console talk is considered heresy around these parts, but our corporate friends/siblings at sister site VG247 are running a competition right now to win a custom Company Of Heroes 3 Xbox controller. Sure, you might not want to play Company Of Heroes 3 specifically with said controller, but controllers in general are useful things that we at RPS use a lot for playing other types of games, and hey, we thought you might want to know about it, just in case. You can enter here if you fancy your chances.

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When Geoff Keighley announced in 2020 that he would be filling the space left by the recently cancelled E3 with his own gaming festival, none of us suspected that from that point on we would be doomed to an endless stream of livestreams from now until the heat death of the universe. Did 2020's summer of gaming ever end? It did not. It is a constant. Like the stars in the sky or the ocean blue. Geoff is here. He has a game to show you. It's probably a horror game set in space. Doesn't that look great? Now let's take a look at the first game by a new studio comprised of ex-Bioware devs.

Yep, that's right. Not-E3 2023 is over (I think?) and once again I've commanded team RPS to dig their microphones out of storage before forcing them to tell me about their favourite game from the cavalcade of directs, showcases and presentations that have replaced my once beloved E3 weekend.

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Ahead of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, Ghost Ship Games continue to update the original co-op, space dwarf FPS game. Deep Rock Galactic went live with its season 4 content yesterday. Titled Critical Corruption, the update has added a new event with plenty of new enemies, and fulfilled some community requests.

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You know me, folks: I love management sims, and I love people in physical distress. Wasn't I only delighted, then, to play a bit of Galacticare, an upcoming hospital management sim in the same sticky vein as the hospitals Theme or Two Point. The twist? These hopsitals are in space! Like those managment games, your task is to build a hospital that runs as smooth as some kind of alien baby's bottom (the alien probably has tentacles), where you want to treat people and prevent them from dying as much as possible, but largely because death is bad for your profit margin more than any altruistic impulse. I mean you can be altruistic if you want, I suppose, but if you run out of money it's harder to build more weird bone-fixing machines.

The tone - though Galacticare has strange diseases like being eaten from the inside out by a singularity, and wacky treatments including a sort of laser disco machine - is actually much closer to kind of satire-ish hijinks of spacestation management game Startopia than I had expected, thanks in part to the extremely dry AI helper offering input, and the many alien species who'll come to you for treatment.

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Just one week after Diablo 4's first level 100 Hardcore character was killed by a lost connection, the game has brutally (and unfairly) claimed another Hardcore character. Unlike Carn's Barbarian, Quin69's Druid wasn't level 100 yet, but he was pretty darn close at level 91. His Druid had 172 hours and 50 minutes of play time. That's more than a week's worth of playing and the game's only been out for 10 days (or 15, if we're including early access).

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Memory can be a fickle thing. For thirty-something Mimi, everything before her thirteenth birthday is a blank. What happened before that point is never really interrogated during Dordogne's three-hour run time, but we do know her father is a stubborn old goat who cut ties with Mimi's really quite nice grandmother Nora after a summer she spent there as a shy, sheltered twelve-year-old. It's this summer that seems to be the cork in Mimi's memory bottle, and it's also the window in which Dordogne frames its sweet, coming of age tale. As Mimi in the present comes to terms with her grandmother's recent passing, the objects she finds in Nora's now-empty summer house trigger important flashbacks to that golden summer, and maybe also the answer to Mimi's apparent amnesia. Dordogne never demands very much of you during these sequences, but it does know how to luxuriate in life's little details, and find pleasure in a more leisurely lifestyle.

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Yakuza developer RGG Studio held their latest RGG Summit overnight, and the showcase contained more details on upcoming releases Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. We got a small extra look at Gaiden last week during Summer Game Fest, where Kiryu looks like he's meant to be starring in the next John Wick film, but the RGG Summit went into a lot more detail. Here's what you need to know.

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Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar Games and former head writer at the company, has founded a new company called Absurd Ventures. Houser left Rockstar in 2020, after co-writing some of the company's biggest games including GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2. He's now returned with Absurd Ventures, headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

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The Steam Deck and ROG Ally are brilliant little devices - but you do end up paying a lot more for a high-capacity version, with a £220 difference between the cheapest and most expensive Steam Decks. If you opted for one of the smaller capacities to save space, then consider this deal for a Sabrent Rocket Q4 2230 NVMe drive that offers a massive 2TB of storage for £160 - down from a usual price of £205.

To get this deal, you'll need to tick the box on the Amazon product page to get a 7% discount, then use the code SH4KDU9Z to unlock an extra discount.

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Immortals Of Aveum is EA and Ascendant Studio's upcoming first-person shooter where, instead of propelling metal at high speeds, you're slinging magic with your hands. We got another good look at said magic slinging at this year's Summer Game Fest, which has seemingly resulted in several reports of it being like a wizardy Call Of Duty. But having played a 30 minute demo of it this week, I reckon it's nothing like COD at all, really. Instead, it's more like Doom / your other retro shooter of choice, but one that carries itself with a frightening seriousness. Sometimes, that's fine. There have been plenty of these smaller sorts of blockbusters that have successfully struck the right balance of silly to serious, with the best ascending to a place of endearment. But so far, Immortals Of Aveum hasn't filled me with hope that it'll join the likes of Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, or like, The Darkness, as a twinkling beacon of silly fun.

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I’m sure that describing Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor as a mix of Deep Rock Galactic and Vampire Survivors sounds like it’s betraying a terminal lack of imagination. But, come on, look at it. It’s a top-down autoshooter/bullet heaven where defeated beasties drop XP blobs that fuel an escalating series of weapon and stat upgrades, playing out in the whimsical sci-fi/fantasy/corporate nightmare universe inhabited by DRG’s dwarves. "It’s a mix of Deep Rock Galactic and Vampire Survivors" is the most apt and succinct description that currently or will ever exist for it. So there.

And yet, being derivative doesn’t always preclude the opportunity for bloody good fun. I’ve played just over three hours of a very early Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor build, and while it’s both missing some parts and could benefit from the odd tweak, it’s already capable of pumping out dopamine as efficiently as any established VampSurvs-alike.

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Summer Game Fest, Not-E3, Keigh3... whatever you want to call this festival of hype, its annual takeover of the game industry’s collective headspace meant there was only ever going to be one topic for the Electronic Wireless Show podcast this week. Alice even made up for her recording absence by pre-emptively tying Nate to a chair and forcibly making him watch trailers, like that bit in A Clockwork Orange but with "WORLD EXCLUSIVE" flashing up every thirty seconds. Still, we keep it light by focusing on the games we actually like the look of, from The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria to Starfield, Nova Roma to Dungeons of Hinterberg.

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Logitech's G Pro X Superlight gaming mouse is perhaps the most popular mouse in esports, offering reliable wireless, a superb lightweight design and high-end components throughout.

It normally retails close to its $159.99 MSRP, but today you can pick one up for $103.99 at Best Buy when you bring in any old peripheral for recycling - a pretty great deal for a brand new mouse of this calibre.

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Earlier this week, self-proclaimed "unconventional ARPG" Everhood 2 was revealed as part of IGN's Summer of Gaming, and yep, it's looking like a suitably weird follow-up to its 2021 predecessor. According to a press release, the sequel is due out in early 2025, so about a year and a half away as it stands, and you'll of course be able to pick it up on Steam when it does. Come and watch its reveal trailer below.

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There are old games that are plain too hard to get into now, even I have to concede. Ancient ruins of a house to be admired and contemplated, but not fit to live in. The ceilings are too low, the stairs too narrow, the pipes an afterthought. Jagged Alliance 2 isn't that far gone, but it’s getting there. It gives lots of options for fine control but using them is largely gated behind esoteric, repetitive keyboard shortcuts, which get doubly cumbersome during its awkward transitional moments between real and turn-based movement.

It's about leading a group of mercenaries to overthrow the tyrannical queen of a fictional island. A guerrilla warfare sim with great strategic freedom and probably the best turn-based tactical combat ever, all buoyed away from self-seriousness by a campy, irreverent tone and intentionally over the top characters.

What I'm saying is: it's still worth it.

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Dambuster Studios have offered up a rough roadmap of what we can expect from the pair of upcoming Dead Island 2 story expansions. The first of the two expansions, titled Haus, asks the question, "How does a billionaire prepare for the zompocalypse?" and answers that with "a techno-death cult with a healthy splash of debauchery and gore!". Sounds about right. This first expansion has quite a vague release window, expected to launch some time between October and December this year.

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I've said it once, and I'll say it several times again. I'm exceedingly pumped for Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown - and so is Prince Of Persia creator, Jordan Mechner. When I visited Ubisoft Montpellier at the end of May, one of things game director Mounir Radi told me about during my visit was how relieved he felt after showing Mechner a very early prototype. And in speaking to Mechner earlier this week about how he feels about The Lost Crown now, he tells me that "what I've seen so far of their modern 2D Metroidvania take on [Prince Of Persia] has got me excited and very eager to play."

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Much as I adored Theme Park, it's a bit of a weird game to have inspired so many descendants. The latest is Park Beyond, and for the most part it's exactly what you'd expect. Build rides to attract crowds, shops to fill their stupid mouths, doctors to treat the vomitous and cleaners when the doctors were too late. Punters pay to use any ride, they pay for entry, for toilets and cash machines, and for every item you price in every shop.

That's as close as it gets to micromanagement, unless you count finely tuning the position of every rock, shrub, and decorative roof panel. It's more Planet Coaster than the cynical money grubbing of Theme Park, so if you're here for rollercoasters that do stunt jumps over canyons, it's mostly good news.

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Last week Tuxedo Labs unveiled their snazzy-looking Creative Mode in Teardown, and it's available for you to play right now. The new mode joins the game as part of its 1.4 update, and looks to be all about what it says on the tin - being creative! Essentially, the big thing it lets you do is build your own unique voxel structures by, essentially, painting them in the air. Think of it as a sort of paired back, voxel-focused approach to a piece of 3D modelling software like Blender.

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It looks like Bulletstorm and Outriders developer People Can Fly are working on a Microsoft IP, but no one knows which one just yet. This comes from People Can Fly themselves via a statement provided to Polish financial site Interia Biznes, where the studio shared that the game currently has the title Project Maverick (via Eurogamer). All of the funding is coming from Microsoft, with a budget ranging from $30-50m.

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Fresh info on Intel Meteor Lake, the blue team’s upcoming 14th Gen CPU family, has arrived from an unlikely yet still very official source. See, Intel haven’t revealed the chips themselves, but have announced a rebranding for future Core processors – one that will start taking effect with Meteor Lake. And, in doing so, they’ve let slip some details on the new range's design and capabilities.

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At every single video game thing I've flown out to, there's been a Sonic game. The speedy hog is forever occupying a booth and starring in some new-fangled thing, which oscillates between a 2D sidescroller laser-targeted at old-school fans, or 3D ones like Frontiers that try their utmost to push the series forwards.

So, I've gone and played another Sonic haven't I? This time I spent around 15-minutes with Sonic Superstars at this year's Summer Game Fest, a new 2.5D sidescroller that seems to successfully combine the feel of Sonic Mania with a modern art style and some new tricks. If you like old Sonic games, there's no doubt in my mind you'll love it. If you don't, there's no doubt in my mind you'll think it's agony.

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The latest update for Steam is here, bringing with it a number of quality of life changes and a slightly updated look. Valve announced the desktop update back in April, where the new version has been in beta for some Steam users to try out. In Valve's post from yesterday announcing the update is available for all, it did note that the "most impactful changes in this update aren’t immediately visible," as a lot of the work put into the update was today with how it "[shares] code across the Steam Desktop Client, Big Picture mode, and Steam Deck." According to Valve, these changes should mean that future features should be more quickly implemented and iterated upon.

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Lies Of P isn't even out yet, but a group of modders have already tried turning the Soulslike into Bloodborne. The mod comes from Garden of Eyes, a YouTube channel and group of modders that typically work on FromSoftware titles (they're the ones that made that long COVID mod for Elden Ring). Yesterday, though, they showed off a mod for Lies of P that lets you turn the game's Timothy Chalamet-looking twink into a hunter from Bloodborne.

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I just finished promoting our previous deals post on a Samsung ultrawide, and now I've spotted another deal using the same 48HR20 discount code on another model - Samsung's immensely impressive Odyssey Neo G7.

This 32-inch curved VA monitor offers a mighty 4K resolution, 165Hz refresh rate and a Mini LED backlight that provides superb, almost OLED-like HDR performance - without the burn-in potential or agressive brightness limiters that often feature on OLED panels. Now this is a premium option, with a normal price point of £999, but today with the 48HR20 code it's a slightly more palatable £799 at the Samsung UK store.

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Want to get an ultra-wide Samsung gaming monitor for less than £240? It sounds a bit too good to be true, but it's possible thanks to the code 48HR20 over at Samsung's UK site, which knocks this 34-inch ultrawide down from £299 to £239. That's an awesome price for a monitor with a 3440x1440 resolution, 100Hz refresh rate and a VA panel with excellent contrast.

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Last time, you decided that by a mere two votes that glowing wings are better than slipstreaming. Two votes! Honestly, I am surprised by the outcome but if that's what our infallible method rules, so be it. This week, I ask you to choose between a thing which helps you create something big, and a thing which gives you consequences after destroying something small. What's better: snap-to construction, or fighting a little beastie then meeting the giant adults?

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Dead Cells is a snappy, 2D metroidvania that was our favourite game of 2017, even while still in early access. It's now getting a 10-episode animated series from the studio already responsible for its several, wonderfully animated trailers. It'll arrive next year and there's an extremely brief trailer below.

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I'm not clever or quick enough for the micromanagement many modern real-time strategy games demand. D.O.R.F. therefore appeals. It's a nostalgic throwback to Command & Conquer and Red Alert not only in its crisp 2D sprite art and rocking soundtrack, but in its apparent focus on building towards absurd, powerful super weapons.

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Saltsea Chronicles is a seafaring adventure set on a flooded world in which you choose which crew members come along on away missions and the story branches heavily throughout. It's also a bit like Star Trek, with art and writing reminiscent of its developer's previous game, Mutazione.

If that appeals, there's now a demo available from Steam in which you can visit an island full of cats.

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Might & Magic: Clash Of Heroes is canny mixture of strategy and puzzle gaming in which your attacks and defences are shaped by match-three battlefield manouvers. It's getting a Definitive Edition, announced in April, and it now has a release date: July 20th.

Below you'll find a new trailer that explains how it works and what the Definitive Edition changes. You'll also be able to play the game next week, when a demo is included as part of Steam Next Fest.

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It’s episode 12 of Indiescovery and this week we’re being a bit cheeky as we dive into which indie game characters we’d love to do a pub crawl with. Who are we getting sloshed with? Who’s not making it past pre-drinks? Who are we sharing our end-of-night chippies with? All that and more this week! Summer has well and truly arrived here in the UK, but wherever you are, grab your sunnies, sip a pina colada, kick back, and have a listen.

Listen and subscribe via your podcast provider of choice! Find us on RSS feed, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Deezer, and YouTube.

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When Avowed was announced three years ago, the comparisons to Skyrim were everywhere and inevitable. Skip forward three years to its latest gameplay trailer at this year's Xbox Games Showcase, and Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart has confirmed the game was initially supposed to be the studio's attempt at making their own version of Skyrim.

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As you may have gathered from my big preview of Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown, I'm quite pumped for Ubisoft Montpellier's upcoming action platformer. But I was also keen to find out whether they considered this a reboot for the series, or whether it had any connection to the Sands Of Time trilogy, and game director Mounir Radi was happy to oblige. For him and his team, it's first and foremost "a whole new chapter" in the series, although you could call it a prequel, if you really wanted to. Whatever you do, though, don't call it a reboot. Oops.

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Following its reveal during Xbox Games Showcase, Capcom have given us a few details on their upcoming game Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess. When it was first announced on Sunday, we knew very little about the game other than it looks very pretty, and we've been eager to know more ever since. The game also opened Capcom's own showcase the next day, where the same trailer was shown and we didn't get any new information on it. Very enlightening. But luckily, some more details have dripped through, which we've summarised below.

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LA is an amazing, if tremendously grey place. Everywhere you go, there are grey skyscrapers touching the clouds, so they all look like the concrete's puffing on numerous cigarettes. More often than not, cracked paving gives way to an empty lot or a vacuous car park, often with one guy slumped in a little booth ensuring it stays as grey as possible. So, what better way to commemorate grey than with a look at its president, Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon?

Having seen a 20 minute presentation of the game at this year's Summer Game Fest, I'd say it struck me as an action game through and through, with the most recognisable bits of Souls soldered onto it when it came to, say, tough battles set to erratic rhythms. Honestly, I would say the hands-off demo is exactly what I expected it to be: lots of fast bits of metal slamming into each other in what was, perhaps, the least surprising FromSoftware reveal I've seen. Here's a piecemeal, slightly chaotic breakdown of the whole experience, coming to you from the frazzled mind of a jetlagged man sitting at a wobbly table.

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At launch, The Last of Us Part I almost looked like a lost cause for potential Steam Deck play. Even next to its wonky performance on desktops, it ran truly dreadfully on the Valve handheld, leading to the Steam custodians themselves slapping it with an Unsupported rating. Following yesterday’s v1.1.0 patch, however, it’s in much better technical shape, and has swapped that miserable grey Unsupported badge for a reassuringly green Verified one.

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Chess tournaments are big, fighting game tournaments are big, so you can see why chess-fighting game hybrid Checkmate Showdown is after some of those eyeballs. It’s a daft, yet competitive combo of the two in which you move chess pieces around a board (yer check mate) and then transition to a side-on fighting game where your pieces beat the shit out of each other (yer showdown) to determine who stays on the board. Does it deserve those eyeballs, then? After playing an early version of it myself, I sure think so.

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