Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I didn’t think Forza Horizon 6’s custom garages would lead me to miss mucking about with my motor on Mexican driveways, but they have

Mark Warren — Sun, 17 May 2026 13:00:00 +0000

There’s something about prying open the door of your majestic Ferrari 250 California or Reliant Supervan as waves gently lap against the shore off to your right and a blazing sun beats down on you from above that you don’t truly appreciate until it’s gone. Or, at least, that’s what I’ve found playing Forza Horizon 6.

The Sunday Papers

Julian Benson — Sun, 17 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Sundays are for rooting out clothes moths. The wool-devouring bastards have started cropping up all over my flat. I've put traps down but that's only dealing with the ones which have already hatched and taken flight. I need to work out where they're coming from.

Palestinian pseudo-stealth game Dreams on a Pillow paints a difficult, poetic picture in its first look at gameplay

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 16 May 2026 21:54:14 +0000

Back in late 2024, Palestinian developer Rasheed Abueideh announced Dreams on a Pillow, a "pseudo-stealth adventure game." It's set during the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing that saw Israel violently displacing Palestinians and dispossessing their land and homes, serving as Abueideh's emotional response to the attacks on Gaza that began in 2023. And now, as a second round of funding continues, a first look at gameplay has been offered up.

Mixtape will be safe from a music licensing related delisting, ensured by its developer paying extra for the privilege

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 16 May 2026 20:34:44 +0000

The first thought that probably arose for most people upon seeing Mixtape for the first time was probably something along the lines of, "that's a lot of licensed music, wonder how long it takes before it's delisted." Music licensing is notoriously a pain in the ass, and considering how embedded into the story every song that's in the game is, it certainly seemed like Mixtape was doomed. But according to its devs, there's nothing to worry about.

Sleepover is a cosmic horror visual novel about the last person on earth and the stranger who shows up at their front door

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 16 May 2026 18:11:37 +0000

A concept that quite genuinely keeps me up at night is the idea of waking up one day and every other person on Earth disappearing. Couldn't possibly tell you where this fear of mine stems from, all I can say is that I would imagine such a reality to be a cosmically nightmarish one. Enter Sleepover, a post-apocalyptic cosmic-horror visual novel that sees in that exact fear of mine, the key difference being that its protagonist isn't alone after all.

Fence off a free-spirited horse that can't stop eating grass in the daily puzzle game enclose.horse

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 16 May 2026 17:06:18 +0000

There is a horse in the middle of the field. It wants to escape, run free, to graze upon the grass where it thinks it is greener. The horse knows not of the dangers of the outside world, for it is simply a horse. So what must we do? We must put up enclosures to form a pasture for the horse, yet we only have so many walls to use, so we must be choosy. This, more or less, is enclose.horse, a daily puzzle game where you must stop a horse from running away to eat grass.

For its 24th anniversary, Final Fantasy 11 is getting a free trial upgrade that lets you play it for as long as you like

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 16 May 2026 16:15:15 +0000

Final Fantasy 11 is the MMO that just keeps on ticking. It's the game's 24th anniversary today, which still isn't old enough to make it the longest running MMO, but does make it old enough for those of you that played it when it came out to have grandkids. The game isn't just still running either, but getting new updates too, with a livestream held on the Japanese Square Enix YouTube channel yesterday marking the anniversary with details of what's still to come. Quite notably is the fact that the free trial is getting massively expanded.

Subnautica 2's no-killing ethos "will be a continued point of resistance" among players, say Unknown Worlds, but they have no plans to change it

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Sat, 16 May 2026 13:00:00 +0000

With the early access release of otherworldly diving sim Subnautica 2, developers Unknown Worlds are dealing with some familiar criticisms about the new survival game's absence of weaponry or outright combat elements. Speaking to RPS among other journalists in a roundtable interview, design lead Anthony Gallegos acknowledged that Subnautica 2's emphasis on living with, rather than confronting larger, dangerous organisms will be "a continued point of resistance" for some players, while reiterating that it's the heart of the game.

What are we all playing this weekend?

Julian Benson — Sat, 16 May 2026 09:30:39 +0000

What are we all playing this weekend?

There is currently a white cloud swimming across my right eye. It's not, as I thought first, a smudge on my glasses. It's my old friend, a retinal migraine. I'm hoping by the time this article goes live it will have dispersed entirely and I can get back to a walk in the park. If now, this weekend will be spent in a dark room staying exceedingly hydrated.

That's enough about my wild plans. Here's what the rest of the team are up to.

EVE Online's Cradle of War expansion wants to make the space MMO more welcoming to new players, before killing them in galaxy-wide omniconflict

James Archer — Fri, 15 May 2026 21:17:32 +0000

The effective onboarding of curious yet noncommitted first-time EVE Online players is a conundrum that developers Fenris Creations, formerly CCP Games, have been trying to solve for decades. Many are enticed by the MMORPG’s purely player-spun tales of espionage and military adventure, only to bounce off its dense hull of complex economic spacemaths and a sandbox occupied by oft-unpunished pirates and con artists. Perhaps the game’s next big expansion, Cradle of War, will have more luck when it launches on June 9th.

Forza Horizon 6 will unleash the Wankel-powered Furai to kick off its Festival Playlist car additions

Mark Warren — Fri, 15 May 2026 16:02:05 +0000

Forza Horizon 6 is out in full next week, so naturally Playground Games have already started to spool up the motors of its live-service events and car rewards. The Festival Playlist gets going on May 21st, and fittingly its first series will offer a chance grab one of the funkiest concept cars Japan have ever produced.

Lego 2K Drive is being delisted in a matter of days despite only being a few years old - grab it before it's bricked over

Mark Warren — Fri, 15 May 2026 14:20:00 +0000

Lego 2K Drive is set to be delisted from storefronts next week, an update to its various pages by publishers 2K has revealed. The brick-heavy racer's listings are biting the dust three years on from its release in 2023, with its online servers set to follow around this time next year.

Come dribble with me over this pitch for Total War: Redwall, in which Shrimp 'n' Hotroot soup is a vital strategic resource

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 15 May 2026 13:57:43 +0000

Total War: Redwall is not an actual Total War game, unfortunately, nor even a mod like Mossflower TW. It's an evolving pitch from Reddit user BuildingAirships, one among many thousands circulating on yonder internet, like logboats riding the rapids of Noonvale. The latest update is about a potential cooking and feasting system, with all of the comestibles sourced from the groaning banqueting tables of the Brian Jacques books.

"This is gonna break your mods": Stellaris is getting nomad empires, aka "moving planets", despite Paradox previously deeming this "impossible"

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 15 May 2026 11:35:22 +0000

Sci-fi 4X strategy game Stellaris is getting a Nomads expansion on June 15th that lets you jettison traditional ideas about territory and play as a wholly mobile civilisation - travelling around the galaxy in Arkships that serve as colonies, shipyards, and military or science vessels. You know the old Terran saying: home is wherever you park your trillion tonne hermetically sealed artificial habitat. Here's another, related Terran saying: a trillion tonne hermetically sealed artificial habitat parks wherever the hell it pleases.

The expansion will launch alongside free Stellaris update 4.4, named Pegasus. Developers Paradox have put together a choice of nomadic lifestyles, with inspirations that appear to range from the Mongolian Empire through Eldar Craftworlds to the work of Douglas Adams.

California bill pushing to keep games playable after server shutdowns passes key hurdle, paving way for full assembly vote

Mark Warren — Fri, 15 May 2026 10:18:48 +0000

A Californian bill aimed at game preservation and backed by the Stop Killing Games campaign has been voted through by a state committee focused on the fiscal cost of proposed legislation - thereby taking a key step closer to becoming a proper law. The bill, as we've previously reported would require that studios either take action to keep games running after server shutterings, or provide full refunds if it passes in its current form, and faces opposition from the Entertainment Software Association.

Subnautica 2's first update will add a sprint button, because players are building their bases too big: "they might want to go a little bit faster"

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 15 May 2026 09:16:24 +0000

Subnautica 2 splashed into Steam early access yesterday, sending tidal waves of money into the bank accounts of developers Unknown Worlds and publishers Krafton. You planning on paying that $250 million performance bonus, then, Krafton? Now that the game has been on sale for a whopping 17 hours – roundabouts how long it takes to clean out the current early access build - it's time to start squawking like seagulls for patches, updates and expansions.

Fortunately, creative media producer Scott MacDonald told RPS and other journalists a little about Subnautica 2's first patches in a roundtable interview last week. The short version is that the initial update will mostly add stuff to the progression and base-building systems, alongside tweaks to the voice logs, some extra lore, and an on-foot sprint mechanic. After that, there's a co-op-focussed update with proximity voice chat, emotes, and player revives. And after that, we enter the realm of proper expansions with new vehicles, biomes, leviathans, tools, resources, and the continuation of the story.

Forza Horizon 6 makes a viable Steam Deck game, assuming you can find room to park it

James Archer — Fri, 15 May 2026 08:24:11 +0000

Forza Horizon 6 is already Steam Deck Verified, which I’m forced to concede makes much of this article surplus to requirements. Yes alright, big green checkmark, you can convey the meaning of "it works" without publishing an entire performance and settings guide, or indeed needing to spell out the words "it" or "works". But then we’ve known that since March anyway, so I guess we’re both stating the obvious.

Or are we? FH6 may follow Forza Horizon 5 down the smoothly tarmacked road of full Deck compatibility, but it still requires some extensive quality-lowering to escape sluggishness – its brisk pace on desktop PCs being much harder to match on handheld hardware. At the same time, sticking the Very Low preset on and being done with it robs the game of most of its Forza-standard lustre, at least traces of which can be kept without sending framerates off a cliff like a confused satnav.

Forza Horizon 6 is lightweight enough to perform on just about any PC - though its new ray tracing modes slam on the brakes

James Archer — Fri, 15 May 2026 07:41:40 +0000

Forza Horizon 6’s bootful of PC-specific tech features was apparently stuffed enough to warrant a big, colourful blog post about them. Ultrawide support? Yes. DLSS 4 and FSR 4? Both. Ray tracing? A resounding hai, those souped-up lighting and reflection effects escaping FH6’s car-ogling mode and adorning its open world for the first time in the series.

Actually playing the thing, however – and/or spending enough time in its benchmarking tool – reveals that its PC performance highlights mainly concern the absolute basics. On standard settings this is most definitely a smooth-running game, one that’s capable of scooting along on budget builds and handheld PCs while zooming through frames on powerful graphics cards. But, that’s not necessarily with the help of bleeding-edge tech. Upscalers like DLSS disappoint more than they impress, and the performance tax levied by those RT effects will drag you down from supercar luxury to framerate poverty.

Exodus' former studio head James Ohlen touches on why he left Archetype Entertainment: "I was running on fumes"

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 14 May 2026 21:54:29 +0000

Back in December of last year, despite being the head of the studio, James Ohlen left Archetype Entertainment, also leaving his role as producer on Exodus behind. It was a bit of a surprise, given that he co-founded the studio after having retired from BioWare in 2018. Now, in a recent interview, Ohlen explains why he made the call, coming down to potentially the most unifying experience in game dev: burnout.

Moss: The Forgotten Relic is a shinier, VR-less fusion of the two beloved puzzle platformers that's out this summer

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 14 May 2026 20:30:12 +0000

There's always a twinge of sadness when a game designed for VR later gets ported to be played on a regular screen, primarily because it's just not technically the realm the game was made for. That's sad to me! On the other hand, I do not own a VR headset, so I do win in those instances as well. Like today, for instance, as the Moss series is getting a VR-less version, with both games combined into one neat package.

For Control: Resonant's creative director, the series has always been "the Remedy version of an RPG experience"

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 14 May 2026 18:57:36 +0000

I wouldn't label Remedy's Control as being much else outside of a shooter. It flirts with horror, it dabbles in sci-fi, but if we're talking mechanical genres, shooter fits it best. Then the sequel, Control: Resonant, got announced and turned out to be an action RPG. The bones of the original game are still evidently there in some ways, though in a recent interview, creative director Mikael Kasurinen shared that right from the series' early days, he's long thought of it as an RPG.

More gorgeous laser puzzles await you in The Talos Principle 3, the "final chapter" in the series

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 14 May 2026 17:02:01 +0000

"What differentiates a story from the real world, or a simulation?" ask developer Croteam in a very Baudrillardy way in their announcement post for The Talos Principle 3. "The real world goes on and on, but a story must have a clear beginning, middle, and end. And so the Talos Principle, a story we have worked on for more than a decade, must also come to an end." Sad! But they're right, all things must end.

"We will probably get some flack": Subnautica 2 may feel polished for an early access game, but it was important for the team it launched unfinished

Julian Benson — Thu, 14 May 2026 16:40:00 +0000

It's been more than a decade since the original Subnautica dove into early access. The deep sea survival game spent four years there as developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment added new features, biomes, and polished the whole thing up with the game's players. It may be difficult to remember just how incomplete it was in 2014.

As Subnautica 2 releases into early access today, its developers are very aware that players may be expecting a game much closer to completion than they'll get their diver's gloves on.

Bungie set a date for Marathon season 2 and ramp up the challenge for the end of the current one

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 14 May 2026 16:08:14 +0000

In the blink of an eye, Marathon season 2 is almost upon us. Bungie have shared more concrete words of what to expect in the upcoming season, titled Nightfall, mostly related to how the big reset will work, but also how this season will be wrapping up too.

Canned Lord of the Rings MMO now formally cast aside, Amazon claim they've still got a game "that does justice to Tolkien's world" in the works

Mark Warren — Thu, 14 May 2026 15:59:44 +0000

Amazon's Lord Of The Rings MMO, previously thought dead amid mass layoffs, is now very much conclusively deceased. Though, the coporation say they're still exploring "a compelling new game experience that does justice to Tolkien's world".

After seven hours in early access, Subnautica 2 feels more like a remake than a sea-quel, but it has plenty of room to grow

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Thu, 14 May 2026 15:14:18 +0000

Like the original Subnautica, released into early access an unnecessarily long time ago in 2014, Subnautica 2 pumps fresh life into the often-grindy survival genre by depriving it of air. Out in early access today, it's a familiar but engrossing meditation on ocean exploration, with a backstory that inclines towards the abyssal dread of SOMA. You begin the game as a crash-landed space colonist, downloaded into a 3D-printed body by "Noa", a softly overbearing corporate AI. Your goal as Noa's "Qualified Investigator" is to work out why your ship crashed, and what happened to all the other colonists Noa revived before you.

I've cruised from St Louis to Chicago in American Truck Simulator's Illinois DLC, out today, and visiting the Windy City doesn't disappoint

Mark Warren — Thu, 14 May 2026 14:18:12 +0000

Alright, first of all, a disclaimer. I can't confirm whether American Truck Simulator's version of Chicago - famously nicknamed the Windy City - is authentically blustery. For one, you can't get out of your lorry in ATS. Sure, the flags you can see from inside the cab are fluttering, but that could be some form of arcane developer trickery. For two, I've never been to real world Chicago, so have no idea just how windy it is as a point of comparison.

What I can confirm, having hauled some pickups from St Louis to Chicago in ATS' Illinois DLC - out today, May 14th - is that driving into the latter for the first time is as memorable an experience as the best of the truck sim's other motoring metropolises.

Forza Horizon 6 review - the king is dead, long live the drift king

Mark Warren — Thu, 14 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

I blast out of Tokyo, off into the countryside. At first, the roads run alongside waterlogged rice paddies, through flat and open country. Soon, though, I hit the coastal highway which winds its way over deep blue sea and past fishing villages. Carving north, I navigate snaking passes straight out of Initial D and slide upwards through their narrow switchbacks. Then, as I climb, everything opens up again.

Wide alpine roads sweep past green hills offering a spectacular view of Tokyo far to the south, the snow-capped peaks to the north, and Mount Fuji sitting stoically to the west. For a moment, it reminds me of the fabled alpine spaghetti you can find if you tour central Europe’s most breathtaking regions. Continuing my ascent, I soon hit snowy ski trails, steep stretches encased in permafrost and banked by looming snowdrifts.

"It's a UGC platform, there is always going to be dog s***" Garry's Mod creator says as S&box's latest update aims to punish AI-generated thumbnails

Mark Warren — Thu, 14 May 2026 11:15:31 +0000

S&box, Facepunch Studios' open source game development platform/spiritual successor to Garry's Mod continues to fight a battle against AI-generated games early doors. After Facepunch founder Garry Newman was quick to confirm the studio would be "taking action to promote human creativity and push obviously AI-created slop off the main page" following S&box's launch to mixed reviews, the game's latest update has taken aim at punishing creations with AI-generated thumbnails.

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II releases next week, strategically spicing up Warhammer Skulls' barrage of battletool bignumber news

Mark Warren — Thu, 14 May 2026 10:16:26 +0000

In good news for fans of little painted fellas who stand about menacingly, Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II finally has a proper release date. It's out on May 21st, arriving alongside the annual Warhammer Skulls showcase that typically offers a range of updates on games you have to decide whether to write out the number 40,000 in full when covering.

Arc Raiders will get major updates every six months going forwards, with the next one set to roll out the shooter's largest map yet

Mark Warren — Thu, 14 May 2026 09:06:30 +0000

Arc Raiders is switching up its update cadence, with developers Embark having decided that dropping a major set of additions every six months is better for the shooter's long-term health than sticking to a monthly update grind. The first update set to be released under this new modus operandi's also been revealed: it's called Frozen Trail and will include the game's biggest map to date.

Alabaster Dawn is the kind of 2.5D action-RPG spectacle that makes you question the need for "true" 3D

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 13 May 2026 17:23:25 +0000

One of the grievous burdens the Heroic Videogames Journalist must shoulder is seeing a couple dozen Cool New Games each week, and only having the time to write about two or three. Sometimes, however, the Heroic Videogames Journalist takes a Valiant Stand against Inconstant Fashion, and decides to write about a videogame that came out in the Dark Ages of Last Week. On which note: have you played action-RPG Alabaster Dawn? It launched in early access on 7th May and still has a demo. Based on 30 minutes or so, it's very good.

Lenovo’s most powerful RTX 5090 gaming PC just dropped to a record-low price

Reece Bithrey — Wed, 13 May 2026 17:13:00 +0000

Lenovo's highest-spec variant of its Legion Tower 7i Gen 10, gaming PC packs in some real top-tier components to the point it reads more like a veritable wishlist for most folks - an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processsor and an RTX 5090, plus 64GB of DDR5 RAM and a 2TB SSD, which probably make up more of the cost of this machine than you might expect in the current climate.

Usually, this powerful PC carries a hefty $6899.99 retail price, although with coupon code GAMEON10, it knocks over $2000 off the list price, making it $4657.49 from Lenovo directly. It is still a hefty cost in any case, but if you want to configure a PC yourself using similar components, than you're looking at nearly $6000 - the 5090 and the RAM make up around two-thirds of the price of the configured spec here, and cost nearly as much as the entire pre-built PC. In the UK, this PC is still nearly £5000, and not on any form of discount, unfortunately.

The important thing to note also is that you shouldn't click the 5% off clickable coupon on the product page, as it removes the auto-applied coupon we want, meaning you'd end up paying more for the same prebuilt.

"I dunno if I'm cooking or becoming cooked": Iron Lung and Dusk dev David Szymanski is making a giant ant shooter set inside mountains of trash

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 13 May 2026 16:30:00 +0000

Earlier today I discovered an ant in my bathroom. The thing about discovering an ant is that there is always another ant. And another ant. Ant another ant. Antnother ant. Antnothant. I believe I've found the hive's point of ingress, a pin-sized hole in a skirting board. I've taped it up. We will see what happens next. Incidentally, if you are my landlord, please do not leap to any wild conclusions about how often I'm cleaning the floor.

Anyway! Dusk and Iron Lung developer David Szymanski is making a new isometric shooter called B.U.G.B.I.T.E. He hasn't formally announced the game yet, but he's been quietly blogging about the thing for several months, and the new game appears to involve ants. Giant ants who live in spoiling industrial labyrinths the colour of finely aged urine. How very unlike my bathroom floor, a realm of blinding purity with the occasional rogue inverterbate, just for charm.

Baldur's Gate 3 modders remaking the original Baldur's Gate show off a revamped Candlekeep as a taste of how their work's evolving

Mark Warren — Wed, 13 May 2026 15:55:00 +0000

A group of Baldur's Gate 3 modders taking on the task of remaking the original Baldur's Gate as a custom campaign have shown off one of the first major milestones since their ambitious quest kicked off in earnest. They've gone back and revamped Candlekeep, the library-fortress that served as the location of an inital demo published last year.

Subnautica 2 is Steam Deck Verified, as is Forza Horizon 6, Mina the Hollower, and Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

James Archer — Wed, 13 May 2026 15:26:38 +0000

An unusually busy May for game releases is turning into an unusually bounteous month for the Steam Deck, with Valve granting their seal of handheld PC approval – Steam Deck Verified status – to a wave of new and upcoming games. Among these are the early access version of Subnautica 2 , which finally launches this week after what feels like eons of legal sniping, as well as open-world racer Forza Horizon 6 and caped minifig crusade Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight.

"If David Lynch made shooters" is Black Ops veteran David Vondehaar's catchphrase for his new game that isn't a "Call of Duty killer"

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 13 May 2026 13:17:07 +0000

Former Call of Duty: Black Ops designer David Vondehaar is making some kind of shooter for GreaterThan Group - the holding company recently founded by a former NetEase executive, who are also funding development of Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic. What manner of shootybooty might this be? Well, Vondehaar is making allusions to the work of David Lynch - the beautiful crackpot behind such films and shows as Eraserhead, Twin Peaks and Lost Highway, whose impact on videogames extends from Silent Hill to Kentucky Route Zero, but who never, I think, developed a game himself.

"Unofficial builds of Subnautica 2 are currently circulating online," Unknown Worlds confirm, just days before the ocean survival game's early access release

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 13 May 2026 11:57:57 +0000

With just a day or two to go till Subnautica 2's early access launch, "unofficial builds" of the ocean survival game have leaked onto the internet. Picture a punctured Cyclops submarine slowly filling with illicit video files and screenshots, while Unknown Worlds staff wade around with their repair tools, shrieking "Nothing to see here".

The Steam Controller is actually a scream controller, because Valve couldn't resist making it cry out in memey pain when you drop it

Mark Warren — Wed, 13 May 2026 10:44:25 +0000

We've all heard it. This sound. The infamous Wilhelm scream, famous for cropping up whenever a game or film sound designer fancies a bit of inside jokery. Or, in this case, when Valve want to work an easter egg into their new Steam Controller. Yep, if you drop it in the right way, the controller Wilhelm screams in pain.

UK MPs claim GTA 6 studio Rockstar "refused to properly engage with staff" during legal wranglings over dev firings

Mark Warren — Wed, 13 May 2026 09:23:43 +0000

Several UK politicians have called on Rockstar Games to be more transparent and co-operative in their legal dealings with GTA 6 developers fired last year. The staff were let go in autumn last year, with Rockstar subsequently claiming that they were fired due to the leaking of "confidential information" via a public forum, while the IWGB Game Workers Union have accused Rockstar of union busting.

With legal matters between Rockstar and union over the firings currently ongoing, several UK MPs have called on the former to be more transparent and accused the company of having "refused to properly engage with staff, representatives and trade unions throughout this process".

"Everyone would hate you": Stardew Valley creator is "open" to adding adultery and NPC divorces, but he's against it "on a moral level"

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 13 May 2026 07:38:53 +0000

The first thing I read this morning was a lifestyle headline about how humans simply aren't "built" for monogamy. The second thing I read was Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone toying with the idea of introducing adultery and, by extension, divorces to cosy life sim Stardew Valley. If the third thing I read this morning is, for example, a bus advert for Paramount show Caught in the Act, I will interpret this as the universe granting permission to jump into a Portaloo with the next person who waggles their eyebrows at me.

Valve's next Steam UI target is the Community Market, with more details and, yes, a wider layout

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 12 May 2026 21:55:49 +0000

"Bigger," Gabe Newell chants incessantly at Steam's Valve UI and UX team at Valve. "Larger! More! Never stop making it bigger!" He screams. At least this is what I imagine has been happening over the past year, given the number of size related (mostly widening) changes that's been taking place on the storefront. Today, another UI change is on the way, this time for the Steam Community Market.

"I just find AI to be creatively soulless": Casey Hudson on the controversial tech and Star Wars: Fate Of The Old Republic

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 12 May 2026 20:30:22 +0000

It is, obviously, way too early to know anything that's worth anything about Star Wars: Fate Of The Old Republic just yet. The KOTOR spiritual successor was only revealed last December, and it was one of those CG trailers that exist to build hype and to tell prospective hirees that they can apply for a job without having to worry about breaking several thousand NDAs. But one thing we can hopefully say about it? There won't be any AI (the bad kind) found within it.

Head beneath the waves and pull up "corpses from an oil-drenched nightmare" in the ocean-fear inducing KEROGEN

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 12 May 2026 19:15:27 +0000

I do not trust the ocean. It's too big! There's too much going on in that thing and oh how I pray and pray for the day that James Cameron stops messing around down there. Makes for a good horror setting though, as evidenced by the likes of BioShock, SOMA, and Iron Lung, and now KEROGEN is entering the fray for the title of "I'm not sure I can keep my eyes open while I play this" that SOMA currently holds in my heart.

KingFish is a co-op roguelike where one of you gets to play a city builder while the other plays an action game

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 12 May 2026 16:56:37 +0000

We all love a little city builder around here, right? Course we do! But I'm sure not all of our friends do, they'd rather be off hacking and slashing and other such brutish things. KingFish, then, might present a pleasant opportunity to bring you and said friend together, for it is both a city builder and an action game, where one of you gets to do the building, while the other gets to do the fighting.

Hark! Sega's mysterious and vague "Super Game" is dead, though its Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi reboots live on

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 12 May 2026 16:12:32 +0000

Oh now! Say it ain't so! Sega's mysterious and vague "Super Game" is… dead? I'm afraid so, kiddo, so bust out the shovel. This Super Game has been a part of Sega's long-term strategy for a while now, in fact it was even meant to be out by the end of the last fiscal year. That didn't happen! Sega even said their goal was to "create a game so revolutionary that it attracts far more active users than any of the Group’s games to date." Except as of the studio's latest financial results, this is all coming to a head, as the game has been cancelled.

"It's expensive and it doesn't age": Why Ken Levine didn't aim for realistic graphics in BioShock, and won't for Judas either

Julian Benson — Tue, 12 May 2026 15:30:18 +0000

While there has always been a portion of the games industry that's pushed and pushed for the cutting edge of graphics, using only the prettiest polygons and most verdant vertices in their games, Bioshock director Ken Levine hasn't got much time for graphical realism: "It's expensive and it doesn't age".

That's not to say Judas, his narratively-flexible immersive sim follow up to Bioshock, will look like a dog's dinner, rather he's making an argument for style over photorealism.

I've walked the waterlogged streets of The Sinking City 2, and we might finally have a Cthulhu survival horror game to rival Resident Evil and Silent Hill

Jeremy Blum — Tue, 12 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Frogwares' The Sinking City was rough around the edges, but it shone with a genuine appreciation for its Lovecraftian lore, despite a cosmic horror-style litigation fracas which saw the developer fighting their publisher over control of the game. The Sinking City 2, due to release later this year, is free of these legal travails, though as a game developed by a Ukranian team in the midst of Russia's invasion, real-world politics have once again provided a backdrop for eldritch horror.

"Let's finish it": After a 20-year wait, Nightdive would complete the SiN Episodes shooter series if its upcoming remaster is a success

James Nouch — Tue, 12 May 2026 13:59:58 +0000

SiN Episodes: Emergence was supposed to be the first instalment in a series that ran for nine episodes. Instead, it's the opening chapter in a story that has remained unfinished for 20 years. But all that could change.

"I do see a world, yes," Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick told me. The studio known for its remaster work now owns the rights to the SiN series and is currently working on SiN Reloaded, a re-release of the 1998 shooter that started the series. Kick says they could even go further than remaking SiN Episodes: Emergence. "Finishing eight more episodes might be a little ambitious, but it's certainly a possibility. If the reception to SiN Reloaded is overwhelmingly positive and it reignites a good amount of interest - that's all it would take, really."

Microsoft Israel boss leaves after investigation into whether IDF contracts broke Microsoft's code of ethics

Julian Benson — Tue, 12 May 2026 12:15:00 +0000

The general manager of Microsoft Israel, Alon Haimovich, has left his role following an investigation into the regional branch's contracts with the Israeli Defense Forces' intelligence units.

According to a report by Globes, Microsoft's global management launched the investigation because they were concerned that the company's code of ethics had been breached by the branch's work with the IDF. While Microsoft have not revealed the results of the investigation they announced in August, Globes reports that it is behind Haimovich's exit from the company, along with several other senior members of Microsoft Israel's governance department.

Wordle's getting a TV adaptation made in partnership with Jimmy Fallon’s Electric Hot Dog, please pray for our guides writers

Mark Warren — Tue, 12 May 2026 11:42:13 +0000

Wordle. A lot of people play it. In turn, a lot of guides writers at sites across the internet have to play it as part of their jobs, so that they can provide that big bunch of players with answers and helpful hints. It's relentless work that's invaluable in helping keep the likes of us full-time newsers and critics in jobs and one that might now end up leading these talented folks to have to bravely do something you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy - watching a TV show about regular people solving word puzzles that's being made in partnership with Jimmy Fallon’s production company.

Forza Horizon 6 leaking early was "not the result of a pre-load issue", developers Playground say, while threatening "franchise-wide and hardware bans"

Mark Warren — Tue, 12 May 2026 10:25:38 +0000

Following news of Forza Horizon 6's PC version leaking online ahead of release, developers Playground Games have said the leak was wasn't the result of a Steam pre-load issue. They've also made clear that anyone playing a pirated copy risks a serious ban.

War is coming to Whiskerwood: the city builder's next patch brings ship construction, naval combat, and island defences

Julian Benson — Tue, 12 May 2026 09:20:00 +0000

Until now, Whiskerwood players have been on the receiving end of a lot of feline stick. The city builder puts you in charge of a small colony on a distant island of the cat empire. From month to month you need to grow your burgeoning town but also meet the resource demands of your colonial overlords.

After six months of living under the yoke of feline oppression in early access, Whiskerwood's developers think it's time we got some tools to push back against our overlords. Whiskerwood's next patch will add full ship construction, naval battles, and ability to construct island defences, such as towers and fortresses to fight back against your masters.

Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes review - an iffy take on the sci-fi series that had me contending with Cylons, sabotage, and STDs

Julian Benson — Mon, 11 May 2026 16:49:33 +0000

The Gunstar Scimitar, one of the few battleships to escape the Cylon attack on Caprica, has a problem. Yes, it is the only military vessel standing between a pursuing robot army intent on wiping out the last of humanity and an unarmed civilian fleet, but the safety of the civvie ships that cluster around the Scimitar like pilot fish to a whale shark isn't the immediate worry. Nor is it the imposter robot hiding among the command crew, planting bombs across the fleet and sewing seeds of discontent at every opportunity. It's STDs. The colonial marines crewing the gunship are riddled with them. Charitably, you could say the soldiers saw it as their duty to restart the human race. Whatever the case, as the commander of the Scimitar, I have to choose whether to spare the marines their blushes and let the infections continue to spread or step in with some prophylactics and a lecture on safe sex.

If you choose to avoid embarrassment, the healthcare level of the entire fleet will drop, as infection spreads unabated through the amorous crew. Step in with condoms and talk of birds and bees and your relationship with the now-chastened military will deteriorate. Not every decision in Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes, the roguelike FTL take on the sci-fi TV series, is to do with the nighttime antics of your crew, but they do all carry consequences.

Oblivion's persuasion wheel has spawned another wacky gamejam, cue sentient cheese struggling to three-point turn gracefully past dancing French rats

Mark Warren — Mon, 11 May 2026 16:00:00 +0000

"Mon dieu...LOOK AT ZE SIZE OF ZAT PARMIGIANO!" shout the rats as they shuffle in graceful yet unquestionably hip fashion. They're right. The giant cheese wheel I'm trying to roll past them to the safety of a fellow named the Mouseman isn't small. That's probably why its sheer girth is being conveyed by a handy circular status indicator which draws its form from The Elder Scrolls 4's infamous persuasion wheel. This is just one way the devs taking part in the latest Wheeljam have managed to shoehorn Oblivion's unique minigame interfaces into their own little projects.

The strange parade of Stardew-style horror farming games continues with Besmirch, in which there is far too much smiling

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 11 May 2026 15:34:04 +0000

Here is what I think happened: at some point circa 2020, a cabal of game developers with very long fingernails and offputtingly white teeth got together in a backroom beneath a hideous effigy of a concerned ape, sacrificed a few 'doves', and declared in voices like slamming coffin lids that henceforth, all the descendants of Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon shall be horror games. It's the only rational explanation for today's strange glut of creepy ploughing simulators.

The latest to catch my eye is Besmirch, out in early access right now, in which you've been hired by some Baron (I see what they did there, etc) to work the tiles of a cursed town. Here is a trailer. For the good of your soul, please only watch it in a silver mirror at the crossroads when the bells strike 13.

California bill pushing to keep games playable after server shutdowns "doesn't reflect how games actually work", ESA assert

Mark Warren — Mon, 11 May 2026 13:55:09 +0000

Earlier this month, Stop Killing Games, the campaign group seeking to prevent online games being rendered unplayable when publishers shut down their servers, threw their support behind a Californian bill aiming to put a requirement that studios either take action to keep games running after server shutterings or provide full refunds into law. As said bill - dubbed AB 1921 - continues to meander through the lawmaking process, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) have come out in opposition of it, arguing the proposal "doesn't reflect how games actually work today".

Former Epic tech director announces The Immense Engine, his AI-heavy "European alternative" to Unreal

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 11 May 2026 12:08:46 +0000

Guerilla Games co-founder and former Epic Games technical director Arjan Brussee is making what he styles a "European alternative" to US-developed videogame engines like Unreal and Unity (the latter originally conceived in Denmark, to be fair).

In a show of true generosity towards internet wisecrackers, he's calling his WIP creation "The Immense Engine". Love to see an entrepreneur just absolutely faceplant any and all Freudian undertones. Brussee is also touting both "full" generative AI integration and possible applications for the defence industry, where game engines have long been used for simulation and training.

This week in PC games: Subnautica 2 early access, a Battlestar Galactica roguelite, and Directive 8020 disproving the old saying about space and screaming

James Archer — Mon, 11 May 2026 11:45:00 +0000

Our infamously workshy news editor Edwin – he only posted barely twice the number of articles last week as I did, the skiver – is off doing something that isn’t the Maw this morning. See? This time he didn’t even have the gumption to hurl his own body into its waiting gullet, where through the pain of cracked bones and ruined ponytail, he’d endure the acidslide down into the Maw’s endlessly cavernous belly before hacking his way out with a crude axe fashioned from the beast’s own ribcage. Honestly, I’m going to have to have a word with him, once I finish this list of imminent PC game releases.

Forza Horizon 6's PC version leaks early, allegedly rumbling out of the garage via a Steam upload mishap

Mark Warren — Mon, 11 May 2026 11:35:19 +0000

Forza Horizon 6's PC version has leaked online ahead of release next week, with an unencrypted Steam build allegedly being to blame.

"His voice and delivery was human": Darkest Dungeon developers will "never, ever" use genAI to replace narrator Wayne June

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 11 May 2026 10:24:58 +0000

Darkest Dungeon developers Red Hook will "never, ever" use generative AI to recreate the voice of recently deceased series narrator Wayne June, co-founder and creative director Chris Bourassa has told players during a discussion of the currently hypothetical Darkest Dungeon 3. That's despite June himself apparently giving the idea his blessing, shortly before he passed away in January last year.

The latest Crimson Desert patch lets you ride a special lion to a claw machine which spits out chairs and special hats

Mark Warren — Mon, 11 May 2026 09:13:33 +0000

Crimson Desert continues to morph into newer and more unknowable forms with each patch developers Pearl Abyss put out. For example, the latest one turns it into a game in which you can ride one of many special animals to a claw machine that stocks some nice decor and accessories, then get a handy partial refund when upgrading your gear. Also, passengers will no longer enable your road rage by getting out and trying to duff up whichever unlucky person you've crashed your wagon into.

"We tried something different": Looking back on SiN Episodes: Emergence, the Valve-backed shooter that tried and failed to kick off an age of episodic gaming

James Nouch — Sun, 10 May 2026 13:00:00 +0000

On May 10, 2006, Ritual Entertainment released SiN Episodes: Emergence, the first of nine episodes set in the sci-fi megalopolis of Freeport City. Backed by Valve and launched on Steam just a month before Valve's own Half-Life 2: Episode 1, the game felt like it was the start of something new. Ritual even had Gabe Newell singing their significance, saying in Emergence's launch day press release that "With the release of SiN Episodes: Emergence Ritual is leading the industry's long overdue migration to producing episodic content."

Valve famously released just two Half-Life episodes before stalling. Ritual only ever managed one.

But, as I learned when talking to some of its creators, SiN Episodes: Emergence is much more than a hiccup in the history of gaming, it was a title torn between the old publishing traditions of the 90s and newly emerging technologies of the 00s. They also told me about the time they "faked the shit out of" all the screenshots for a PC Gamer exclusive.

The Sunday Papers

James Archer — Sun, 10 May 2026 08:49:53 +0000

Sundays are, and apologies in advance for the less-fun-than-average intro, for peeling back the layers of the smelly legal onion that is scattering pet ashes in the UK. The government’s Regulatory Position Statement (or RPS – no relation) suggests this is only easily done on property you already own, which makes things tricky for my flat leasehold – if you’re unfamiliar with this term, it’s a bit like what Steam is to games, in that I don’t technically own jack shit. My willingness to sneakily spread Roxy, who I’m more pleased to report went to sleep while blissfully stoned, across a nearby garden has also been sapped by the knowledge that ashes are highly alkaline, and could thus kill weaker plants and grasses. Shame, really. She loved destroying things.

Rejoice, Doormaker haters, for Mega Crit have removed him from Slay the Spire 2 in favour of a brand new boss

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 09 May 2026 21:54:48 +0000

Another week, another Slay the Spire 2 patch! Or really I should say another couple of weeks. The new beta version of the game, v0.105.0, is ready for those of you on the beta branch to try out, and the first point of order is bi-weekly patching. "As you've probably noticed, we're moving to patch every 2 weeks rather than weekly as outlined in our Early Access Disclaimer," explain developer Mega Crit.

AlteredBlood+ is a movement shooter set at the end of the universe where the key to survival is soaking up your enemies' blood

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 09 May 2026 20:42:37 +0000

The year is 3232 CE, a "self-replicating megastructure" named MOTHER is launched into the centre of space. Fast forward to the year 4,199,245,344,263,242,348,389,893,582,349,373 CE (no I'm not joking), and MOTHER has "consumed 99.99999997% of the Observable Universe." What's left of humanity hangs on in that tiny percentage that hasn't be consumed, which is where you, a Reaper, a creation of MOTHER's, steps in as part of AlteredBlood+, a movement-FPS platformer where the blood of your enemies is your strength. Also you're a furry!

Paranormal Activity: Threshold is as dead as its ghosts, as the game gets canned because Paramount couldn't wait any longer

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 09 May 2026 17:54:02 +0000

Sorry to all the Paranormal Activity heads out there, but the upcoming game adaptation Threshold has crossed over to the other side. Brian Clarke, the solo dev that goes by DarkStone Digital for his gaming exploits and maker of 2022's The Mortuary Assistant, shared the news to his personal Zwitter account earlier this week alongside a statement explaining why the game has been cancelled.

Europa Universalis 5's latest patch notes took up 72 pages on a Google Doc so I think it might be a big one

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 09 May 2026 17:13:04 +0000

The latest patch for Europa Universalis 5 dropped earlier this week. Numbered 1.2 and titled Echinades, it is the game's "biggest update yet," as true a sounding statement as can be given that the patch notes come out to apparently 72 pages in a Google Doc. I don't have time to read all of that! So I won't, but I will tell you about the highlights kindly outlined by Paradox Tinto that feature in this update.

Psychonauts developer Double Fine are the latest Microsoft-owned studio to unionise

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 09 May 2026 16:02:32 +0000

Some good news for the day: indie developer behind the cult classic psychic platformer Psychonauts and more Double Fine are unionising. As spotted by Aftermath, a petition was filed by the Microsoft-owned studio to the National Labor Relations board on May 7th, and are doing so with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), following suit from a number of other developers owned by the tech giant.

What are we all playing this weekend?

Julian Benson — Sat, 09 May 2026 07:00:00 +0000

I really thought I'd be done with the decorating this week, but it continues. I have at least got all of the cabinets back on the walls, the larder unit painted and assembled, and regained ready access to the fridge. No more cheese sandwiches for a while, I pray. I'm in the last stretch. I need to touch up all the paintwork where I've left fingerprints and scratches, screw on all the door knobs, and then clean away all the paint stains on the floor and countertops.

I am so close to having a kitchen I can cook in again. I can almost taste it.

But, enough about my slow decorating, let's talk videogames. What are the team playing this weekend?

"They were totally game to play ball": how Zachtronics almost made a Star Trek engineering sim

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 08 May 2026 18:04:08 +0000

This week the former Zachtronics folk of Coincidence released U.V.S. Nirmana, a new "Zach-like" puzzler that has fairly spaghettified my synapses, despite being billed as "medium-difficulty". It puts you in charge of a monastic spacecraft embarked on a pilgrimage through the galaxy, steeped in references to Dharmic religions. During your voyages, you'll help other civilisations with their philosophical dilemmas using a cosmic reactor that functions like a music sequencer. You'll join up pipes and components to resolve relationships between terms like "form", "amen" and "svaha", doing your best to minimise "flux".

Playing the opening few puzzles, I felt a mixture of excitement and guilt. Excitement, because while I barely understand what's going on, I love the ritual obtuseness of, say, trying to distil "light" and "sound" into "thought" by means of valves and relays. And guilt, because it turns out original Zachtronics founder Zach Barth told me about this game two years ago, and I forgot. Here, very belatedly, is the second half of that interview from 2024, continuing Zachtronic's journey through the strange and arbitrary cosmos of licensed adaptations.

"A handful of bottlenecks" remain for Morrowind remake mod Skywind, but it's still progressing steadily towards release

Mark Warren — Fri, 08 May 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Skywind, the long-running modding project remaking Morrowind in Skyrim's engine, hasn't been without updates over the past couple of years, but you do have to go back to 2024 for the last in-depth breakdown its team put out about their progress towards release. While the project's still release dateless as of right now, the Skywind folks have just put out another showcase of where they're at, with good progress being made and numerous aspects nudging towards being totally finished.

Family Reunion is a dinnertime simulation game that captures the wonder and boredom of being a loosely disciplined 7-year-old

James Archer — Fri, 08 May 2026 16:31:30 +0000

I first played Family Reunion at Gamescom Latam last week, which in hindsight was a bit of trek, considering the demo is right there on Itch and Steam. It’s good fun, though: a unique and chaotic time-attack adventure game, in which you play a disinterested child forced to entertain themselves throughout an interminable family meal, and rendered in the hand-doodled style that we all have before we learn how to properly hold a pen.

Rally Point: What's it like to be in charge of the Xenonauts? Um. Two?

Sin Vega — Fri, 08 May 2026 14:41:14 +0000

Thank you for agreeing to meet me, Commander.

Have you met the head scientist? I hate him.

I... haven't met him yet. Should I?

Don't, he's an arsehole. They call me "Commander" but won't let me fire him. "He's a genius", they keep saying. I don't believe in geniuses. I believe in good teams. He insults the engineers in every report. It's not even funny! I want to lock him in the workshop and tell them he's a strikebreaker.

...Because they're Soviets? Your organisation is unusual. It’s 2009, the seventh decade of the Cold War, yet you're working with both powers to stop the alien menace.

Yeah, Xenonauts 2 is a modern UFO.

Helldivers 2's galactic war will include more "multi-week themed campaigns" and "branching outcomes" starting this summer, Arrowhead reveal

Mark Warren — Fri, 08 May 2026 14:09:11 +0000

Helldivers 2 developers Arrowhead have shared some of their plans to improve the shooter's long-running galactic war starting this summer. Weekly major orders - the overarching goals players are given to help guide them towards certain missions that mesh with where the war's story is currently at, will grow into "longer, multi-week themed campaigns". Better rewards and more "branching outcomes" are also in the studio's sights.

Fallout 1 and The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind now run on Fallout 4's Pip-Boy and computer terminals, thanks to a modder

Mark Warren — Fri, 08 May 2026 12:02:55 +0000

Fallout 4 is a game that contains games. Little holotape games you can collect and give a go if you get bored of running around post-apocalyptic Boston. Well, a modder's now used that framework to get both the original Fallout and Morrowind running on the RPG's Pip-Boy and terminals, just in case you want the extra layer of firing up Fallout 4 next time you want to head for Vault 13 or Vvardenfell.

2K lay off staff at Project Ethos while touting "a renewed direction and vision" for their by-the-numbers hero shooter

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 08 May 2026 11:44:18 +0000

2K Games are laying off staff at developers 31st Union, as they pursue what the studio boss calls "a renewed direction and vision" for free-to-play multiplayer offering Project Ethos – once a "roguelike hero shooter", now a "skill-based PvP roguelike experience" with some wistful coral architecture.

"Your infidelity will no longer be broadcasted to everyone as it happens" declares Crusader Kings 3's latest patch, unless you made a baby at a certain time

Mark Warren — Fri, 08 May 2026 11:01:27 +0000

No one can find out about this, my forbidden love. I am the esteemed holy ruler of these lands, the people look to me for strength and honour. What do you mean 'well, you might have thought about that before we used the bedchamber with the camera in it that livestreams to the castle's big TV'? Ah, I'm ruined. Or, at least I would have been prior to the deployment of Crusader Kings 3's latest patch.

Path of Exile 2's 1.0 release might slip beyond 2026, but at least we're getting a crafting system that summons skeletons to beat you up when you use it

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 08 May 2026 10:27:46 +0000

Action RPG Path of Exile 2 will very likely hit 1.0 by end of 2026, developers Grinding Gear Games have declared, following one last, endgame-focused early access update that introduces "over 50 hours" of new classes, areas and systems. The definition of "1.0" is rather slippery here, mind, and the developers are already prophesying a few things that might oblige a delay.

"Leon must die forever" screams Resident Evil Requiem's new endgame battle rush mode, out now for free

Mark Warren — Fri, 08 May 2026 09:40:00 +0000

KILL THE THINGS, BLOKE WITH NICE HAIR. Ok, Capcom, he'll kill the things in the new game mode your latest update adds to Resident Evil Requiem. YES, LEON MUST DIE FOREVER. Indeed, it's a name that's arguably a bit on the nose, but it certainly does the job.

Give yourself vampirism with a mortar and pestle in Dracula: The Disciple, an alchemist's castle puzzler from Styx devs Cyanide

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 08 May 2026 09:12:19 +0000

Many are those who stray before Vlad the Impaler seeking eternal life as a vampire. Poor, ignorant cattle! Immortality is a goblet of ashes, a bouquet of thorns, an endless stairway among the fading portraits of bygone loves. Besides, you have to solve a bunch of alchemy puzzles first, and if I'm interpreting the announcement materials for Dracula: The Disciple correctly, you might only get halfway there and transform into a normal dude with a gross undead hand.

Still hoping to snag a Steam Controller after it sold out? You'll have to literally join a queue to get one

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 07 May 2026 21:54:57 +0000

Been a bit of a week for the Steam Controller, 'ey? It launched earlier this week sans console, only for Valve and everyone else to find that it pretty much immediately sold out. Tech scarcity? Who could have seen that one coming, even for something as simple as a controller! That then resulted in some naughty people flogging them on eBay for at least double the price, but worry not intrepid purchaser, for Valve have shared details on how they plan to dole out the controller going forward.

The World of Darkness grows bigger with a first look at Hunter: The Reckoning - Deathwish and a Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Rageborn reveal

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 07 May 2026 20:31:41 +0000

Lucky you! You've got a look at two World of Darkness games in one today (that's the Vampire: The Masquerade universe, for those asking). First is one we already knew about, Hunter: The Reckoning - Deathwish (is it also a World of Darkness requirement for the secondary subtitle to always be followed by a hyphen?), which received less of a gameplay deep dive and more of a light splash. The second is the reveal of Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Rageborn (see what I mean?), a metroidvania where, as the name suggests, you're a werewolf!

With Mixtape out today, the tiny number of coming of age games gets just that little bit bigger

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 07 May 2026 18:58:43 +0000

A couple of years ago, The Artful Escape devs Beethoven & Dinosaur announced their next game, Mixtape. It caught my eye at the time in no small part to having an art style that actually looks like Something as opposed to the vast sea of realism simulators out there. In particular, I was fond of its choppy, post-Into-the-Spiderverse animation, and the licensed music soundtrack, despite being very dad-core (maybe even grandad-core for some of you, at this point), did it some favours for me too. Now, it's out! And brings up a pertinent point about genre.

Embark are testing kernel-level anti-cheat in Arc Raiders to help put a stop to its ongoing cheating problem

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:59:09 +0000

If a popular multiplayer game exists, it has a cheating problem. This is almost always a guarantee, it's just about the ways in which a studio chooses to handle this problem. So far, Embark Studios don't seem to have done a perfect job in doing so with Arc Raiders, but they've now at least outlined their plans for how they're going to approach cheating.

Yacht Club Games "make-or-break" moment Mina the Hollower gets a May release date

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:04:30 +0000

It's been four years since Yacht Club Games last put out a game, and 12 years since Shovel Knight first launched. In those years, their entire output has been completely Shovel Knight focused, in the form of either expansions or spin-offs. Back in 2022, they announced something new: Mina the Hollower. And after an indefinite delay, the Zelda-ish action adventure game has a release date.

Amberspire review - a strategy game dedicated to the dicey ecopoetics of urban sprawl

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:00:00 +0000

The key thing to know about Amberspire is that it isn't a city-builder in the SimCity sense, but a turn-based boardgame puzzler in which you don't so much 'build' a city as you do manage a tumult of unpredictable, city-flavoured agencies. Created by Lunar Division, developers of The Banished Vault, it takes place on the surface of a moon-sized mausoleum - a vast Venetian graveworld whose fractured isometric crust reveals level after level of archways and catacombs, sinking beyond sight.

The all-pervading presence of the crypt reminds me of London's old church cemeteries, crushed like dandelions between mishappen skyscrapers, refusing to be written out of the tale. It also immediately undercuts your primary objective of building a city populous and advanced enough to win recognition from other planets. However high your towers rise, your city is just another layer of debris and pollution applied to a strangely fruitful necropolis. This isn't a lesson in humility. It's an invitation to enjoy city-building as the act of dancing with a deathly ecology.

Brigador Killers mixes GTA and Syndicate to make a cyberpunk sandbox where you build your own insurgency

Julian Benson — Thu, 07 May 2026 14:55:51 +0000

In the original Brigador, you played a mercenary mech pilot dropped onto the corporate autocratic colony world of Novo Solo. In the cockpit of a multi-story death machine, you could carve an easy path through the space colony's buildings and defenders. If they were to put up any fight against you, it was by amassing in great numbers.

The tables are turned in Brigador Killers; you're part of the hit team seeking revenge for the massacre on Novo Solo. But, instead of being armed with a two-story mech, I had to make do with a tuk-tuk.

As well as adding all of Hades 1 into Hades 2, the Zagreus' Journey mod now brings new boons, story beats, and more

Julian Benson — Thu, 07 May 2026 13:30:00 +0000

When Mark wrote about Zagreus' Journey back in December, the mod was already well on its way to completing its main goal: putting all of the original Hades into Hades 2. In the months since, modder Nikkel Mollenhauer has gone way beyond that target. The mod has officially hit 1.0 and it's added new story beats, boons, and a tonne of new cosmetics to pretty up your lair.

In a very official looking new trailer, you can see the scope of what Mollenhauer's achieved.

Will: Follow the Light review - a pretty Arctic adventure, but tedious puzzles leave it lost at sea

James Archer — Thu, 07 May 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Will: Follow the Light is a cracking videogame name. Especially when it fades in after a few trailer shots of first-person striding across frozen wastelands and carving a wave-battered yacht through stormy seas. The mystery and peril of some unknown journey, pierced by a beam of hope and determination, all conveyed in four words and a colon.

Then you play the thing, and it’s mainly about a Norwegian bloke doing DIY in sheds. Will is just his name. Øh nø.

Morrowind in Elden Ring mod is now "mostly playable", despite the fact its creator's "entire existence has been consumed with interpreting gibberish code"

Mark Warren — Thu, 07 May 2026 10:54:14 +0000

Regular RPS readers might remember me writing a couple of times last year about a modder kicking off an attempt at porting Morrowind into Elden Ring. Their early progress looked promising, if living under the cloud of several complex things the group would have to figure out in some form to get it working.

After about half a year of major updateless silence, modder InfernoPlus has emerged from the dungeons of Vvardenfell to reveal that the mod's now "mostly playable", following several months of battling a number of infuriatingly complex issues.

Who owns the Wizardry RPGs? We do, say both Drecom and Atari as an unusual IP acquisition splits custody of the genre-forming series

James Archer — Thu, 07 May 2026 09:56:41 +0000

Foundational RPG series Wizardry has, over forty years since helping to codify the roleplaying videogame, found itself torn between present-day custodians. Atari announced yesterday that they’d acquired the rights to the first five Wizardry games, as well as "their underlying IP," and said they’d be re-releasing those five on modern platforms. This morning, however, Japanese publishers Drecom – who bought Wizardry’s copyright and trademark rights in 2020 – tXeeted that contrary to certain reports on Atari’s acquisition, it was they who’d continue to own and manage the intellectual property in the future.

Civilization 7 devs Firaxis finally slap a release date on the Test of Time update, acting on "over a year's worth of listening" to moans about the Age system

Mark Warren — Thu, 07 May 2026 09:12:46 +0000

Firaxis are finally ready to fire the nuke that is Civ 7's free Test of Time update, the strategy game's "biggest and most fundamentally game-changing" revamp yet. The update, headlined by the ability to bypass the Age system and play as one society through an entire game in classic Civ fashion, will arrive on May 19th.

Like fleshy, diaper-wearing cars, infants in The Sims 4 have been "tuned up", making them faster to feed and change, and it's easier to clean up their poop

Julian Benson — Thu, 07 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000

I've never been into a pediatrician's office to confirm this, but I've always suspected that in the centre of the room there's a concrete trench beneath a metal lift. It just stands to reason that when an infant goes in for a check up, they're plonked down on the metal frame, raised up two or three feet before the doctor goes down into the trench to inspect the baby's fleshy chassis from below. Maxis have only poured petrol on my suspicion thanks to a section in The Sims patch notes titled: 'Infant tuning'.

Stranger than Heaven, out this winter, sees the Yakuza devs blend Snoop Dogg into a musical adventure/Tojo Clan origin story that looks fascinatingly quirky

Mark Warren — Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Right. So. Stranger Than Heaven, the Like A Dragon/Yakuza devs' hop through different decades of 20th century Japanese history? Snoop Dogg's in it. And, also, it's telling the story of how the Tojo Clan - the famous yakuza group Kazuma Kiryu belongs to - came to be founded. Oh, and it'll have you wandering around town sampling the sounds of brooms sweeping and steam trains chugging so that you can turn these into symphonies, as you plunge headlong into a career in band management.

All of that and more has just been shown off in a fresh look at the game, which is out this winter.

Assassin's Creed is being adapted for theatre by a former Cirque du Soleil director, offering two hours of parkour across several eras

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 06 May 2026 16:32:46 +0000

Assassin's Creed has left the scruffy underworld of Gaming behind and crept into the gilt-swigging realm of Theatre. Ubisoft have partnered with a former Cirque du Soleil and Olympics ceremony director to create Heredis: Echoes of the Past - a two hour stage production defined by "acrobatics, urban parkour, choreographed combat, and physical feats within large-scale immersive visual environments". It'll be set in different time periods, and is "inspired by the world and themes" of the videogame series, rather than being a work of AC canon.

Also involved for some reason: Behaviour Interactive, developers of Dead by Daylight. I guess they know a thing or two about adaptations, in the sense of making very different licenses stab each other with hooks.

Make actual songs with singing garden gnomes in Offbeat, a jobbing composer sim that doubles as an audio production tool

Mark Warren — Wed, 06 May 2026 16:08:06 +0000

I've never properly attempted a musical career, despite owning multiple guitars and an amp stack that takes up too much room. Maybe I'll finally get my big break thanks to Offbeat, a song composition sim that also outputs the tunes you make as WAV files, doing the job of basic audio production software. It's from the same publishers behind Boxroom, the game that turns your Steam library into a room full of posters.

EVE Online will be used to help train Google DeepMind's AI tech, as company take a minority stake in the former CCP Games

Mark Warren — Wed, 06 May 2026 15:36:16 +0000

Spreadsheety and space piratey MMO Eve Online will help train Google DeepMind's AI models, after the tech giant took a minority stake in its creator. This partnership's come as developer CCP Games have gone independent after former owners Pearl Abyss sold the studio back to the original management, with the transition also having seen CCP rename themselves Fenris Creations.

Valve release the Steam Controller's CAD files, so you can channel your inner Archie from Balamory and design mods or accessories for it

Mark Warren — Wed, 06 May 2026 13:26:07 +0000

The Steam Controller's now out in the wild, and it's so nice, we've written some impressions of it twice. If just having the thing in your hands (assuming you grabbed one in time) isn't enough for you, you'll probably be glad to know that Valve have shared the CAD files for it, meaning techies who fancy modding or designing accessories for it can get cracking.

Thief, Dishonored and Philip Marlowe combine in Noirmancer, a stealth sim that lets you wipe minds with a snap of your fingers

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 06 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Oh heck, colleagues, we got one: a promising videogame. Noirmancer is a first-person single-player stealth sim, heavily inspired by the original Thief, in which you are a hard-boiled sleuth with supernatural abilities. Think Humphrey Bogart, if Humphrey Bogart were a Dishonored character. Here are some things you can do: swim in midair, transform into vapour, stun alerted guards with pew-pew gestures, and chuck down telekinetic mats to serve as (usefully sound-absorbing) platforms.

It might sound like a jumble, like one of those Marvel comicbook movesets they have to prune severely for the sake of a coherent film adaptation, but the whimsical stage magician hand animations and midnight jazz SFX absolutely sell the package. Instead of swinging a blackjack (noirjack?), you'll put mooks to sleep with a snap of your gloved fingers and a rattle of cymbals. Forget Bogart - this is Penn or Teller, whichever of them has springier knees.