Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Galaxies Spring Showcase: How to watch and what to expect

IGNE — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 16:00:00 +0000

The Galaxies Spring Showcase 2026 is set to take place later this month and will feature announcements and updates for over 50 games, including seven world premieres from some of the biggest publishers, studios, and developers in the games industry.

There is a lot to look forward to, and we’re here to let you know how and when to watch the show, what to expect, and much more.

District 9 director's studio Gunzilla accused by former staff of not paying employees "for many months"

Mark Warren — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:12:50 +0000

Gunzilla Games, the studio co-founded by District 9 director Neill Blomkamp and developers of NFT-infected battle royale game Off The Grid, have been accused by a number of former employees of failing to pay staff for months on end. One former animator at the studio has also accused them of attempting to "silence" workers attempting to get the money they claim to be owed.

Baldur's Gate 3's second act should get a playable new region this year, assuming this custom campaign mod doesn't hit any more roadblocks

Mark Warren — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 11:34:48 +0000

The world certainly isn't short of ambitious Baldur's Gate 3 custom campaign mods to keep track of, and one looking to substantially expand the base game's second act has shared another progress update. Having been delayed from 2025 into 2026, its creator's still aiming to release a playable version by the end of this year, but has now admitted that's unlikely to happen in the first half of the calendar, as they'd originally hoped. Despite that, they've released a fresh trailer and said development's "progressing very nicely".

Road to Vostok's hot start on Steam has "secured the entire production budget" the Finnish survival shooter needs for "years to come", dev says

Mark Warren — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 10:14:23 +0000

As noted in this week's Maw, the burgeoning genre of survival shooters which involve a lot of crouch-walking in fields got a new addition on Tuesday. Road to Vostok, a single player Tarkov-ish field-croucher solo developed by an ex-Finnish army officer arrived in early access following some popular demos. According to that former armyman, the early returns on its release have already helped set up the cash reserves its development will need for "years to come".

Samson devs announce big patch to start fixing its "unacceptable" launch bugs, and boy am I glad to see it'll add in multiple saves

Mark Warren — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 08:55:44 +0000

As you may be aware if you read myself and Julian's Samson verdict the other day, the launch version of the gritty minor crim simulator included plenty of bugs - ranging from the harmlessly jany to the debilitatingly playthrough-breaking. The good news is that developers Liquid Swords are on the case, with studio creative director and long-time Just Cause lead Christofer Sundberg having announced that a big patch is due before the week is out.

From the C: to the /Mnt/s, Linux is better than ever for PC gaming – and easier to switch to from Windows

Joe Chivers — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:17:15 +0000

A few months ago, I did something radical. For radical, picture me skateboarding ungainly while installing Linux - or, to be more precise CachyOS - on my PC.

Windows 11 had just been bugging me too much. On top of Microsoft's forced AI implementation growing ever more obscene, I was starting to get unexplained slowdown; something that would usually just prompt a Windows reinstall, as I've done countless times all the way back to Windows Vista. However, prompted by my good friend (and writer at cheery RPS fanzine PC Gamer) Joshua Wolens deciding to boldly try out Linux, this time, I would not-so-boldly join him. What I've found is a genuinely fantastic OS: a real, viable alternative to Windows, and one that's far more accessible than it was just a few years ago.

PUBG: Battlegrounds' new PvE mode is all about fighting off an alien invasion, and/or hiding in a big man-made dirt hole

Mark Warren — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:56:32 +0000

PUBG: Battlegrounds, Krafton's shooter that wise people have previously pointed out should really go all in and call itself Playerunknown's Battlegrounds: Battlegrounds, has a new mode. It's all about teaming up to battle an army of invading alien robots whose talents seemingly don't lie in inventive naming - their mothership's called the Mothership and the architect of their invasion of Miramar is called the Architect.

RPS Verdict: In its best moments, Samson is like a goon-battering GTA 4 roleplay mod, but in its worst it's horribly broken

RPS — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 13:30:00 +0000

While Rockstar continue to delay GTA 6, there's at least one developer out there with the guts to release their open-world crime 'em up. In Samson you slip into the well-worn getaway driver shoes of the eponymous hero as he takes illicit jobs to earn off a debt to the crime family holding his sister hostage. Made by a team led by Just Cause and Mad Max lead Christofer Sundberg, does Samson capture the explosive magic of Avalanche's games? Julian and Mark have been tearing up the streets of Tyndalston to find out.

Pokemon battles with space cows, dinosaurs and gaseous blobs are the premise of No Man's Sky's latest update, dubbed Xeno Arena

Mark Warren — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Ooh, it hasn't got a Pokemon-style mode that lets you collect a bunch of alien critters and force them to fight to the death in a fashion that might be deemed barbaric if it wasn't so bloodless and cutesy. That would've likely been my answer if you'd asked me what ever-growing No Man's Sky doesn't have at this point before I read about its latest update. That latest update, Xeno Arena, adds in Pokemon-style alien critter collecting and battling mechanics.

Forza Horizon 6's full map has finally been revealed, and while Tokyo doesn't engulf half of it, I'm still seeing plenty of appealing asphalt spaghetti

Mark Warren — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:32:22 +0000

Forza Horizon 6's full map has broken cover, giving folks a chance to stare, gawp, and declare 'damn, those be some roads'. Naturally, many have run to compare Playground Games' rendition of Japan to the maps of previous Horizons and having quickly done so myself, I'm still optimisting that I'll dig this vast expanse of hairpins and turns more than I did Horizon 5's very green and yellow blob.

"Framerate Estimator" evidence in Steam's new update points to more detailed performance tests than Valve's Verified programmes

James Archer — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:15:43 +0000

Steam is, most likely, going to get a lot more prophetic about how its thousands of games might run on your PC. ResetEra user dex3108 spotted, deep within the Valve app’s newest client update, a number of unused text strings relating to a "Framerate Estimator" tool. Putting aside my sadness that no-one’s ever thought to call me The Framerate Estimator, in the appropriate title case, it sounds like this would take a rough punt on how many frames per second the user’s hardware can churn out in a given game.

While such an addition hasn’t been confirmed by Gabe & Co. themselves, it was only a couple of months ago that Steam began (optionally) collecting anonymised framerate data; I still think this began with Verified programmes for the Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and Steam Frame in mind, though that data could absolutely feed a more bespoke tool like this. And serving up specific framerate ranges – even estimates – for any PC player, regardless of hardware, would take Valve’s performance previews into both much wider and much more detailed territory.

Just Cause studio's canned dragon-riding fantasy romp AionGuard "would have been Crimson Desert", reckons former Avalanche creative head

Mark Warren — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 09:32:30 +0000

Back in the late 2000s, Just Cause developers Avalanche ended up in a publishing pickle with a fantasy open-worlder they were working on. It was dubbed AionGuard, and ex-Avalanche chief creative officer Christofer Sundberg reckons that had it not ended up chucked on the cancellation bonfire, the game would've done a lot of the same things which've helped make Crimson Desert a hit all these years later.

The widening of Steam continues with another UI beta, this time for the mod hotspot Workshop

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 21:58:34 +0000

The era of wide Steam is well and truly upon us. Last year Valve made store pages on Steam wider, only making me slightly uncomfortable. Last week the Steam homepage entered into its own wide beta. And now, as part of another beta, Valve are testing this same widening in the Steam Workshop to "make the browsing experience quicker and easier to use."

I want to live in Nippets' charming, silly hidden objects world

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 20:51:10 +0000

Hidden object games always amuse me conceptually, as there's this sort of unspoken implication that we act as some sort of god-like figure from on high, discovering secrets that maybe weren't meant to be found. They're games about getting yourself involved in the lives of others unbeknownst to them, and it's through whatever power you may have that you shape said lives. In Nippets, out today, that power is your hand, with which you poke, prod, and swipe the world and all its inhabitants.

How does Papers, Please creator Lucas Pope deal with sharing his work in this era of AI? A severe lack of posting

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 18:11:15 +0000

This current era of the internet is very easily the worst one, even within its comparatively short existence. A myriad of reasons contributes to this, the most annoying and newest one being the advent of AI preying upon every last post you release unto the world. Artists are essentially in a constant state of looking over their shoulder in a dark alleyway in fear of their works being stolen. So what is Lucas Pope, creator of Papers, Place and Return of the Obra Dinn doing to combat this? Simply not sharing his work.

The Myst lifts over Call of the Elder Gods, granting it a May release date

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:05:37 +0000

Adventure puzzle games inevitably always come back to Myst, and 2020's Call of the Sea was no different. But the genre's siren song is being sung once again with a follow-up to the pretty mysterious island game in the form of Call of the Elder Gods. Which, as it just so happens, now has a release date that is fast approaching.

007: First Light's Bond isn't cool enough to look away from explosions, but he will be trying to find his place in a "risk-averse and data-driven" world

Mark Warren — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:29:43 +0000

IO Interactive spilled a while ago that 007: First Light will put us in the shoes of a young Bond when it arrives in May. However, they've now shared some more in-depth details about what this tale of youthful Bondage in the face of Lenny Kravitz will touch on thematically.

Frostpunk 2's next bit of DLC literally turns up the heat with yet another environmental disaster to deal with: volcanoes

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:11:38 +0000

Frostpunk 2 is, by its very name, a cold game. That's its whole shtick, that the world is covered by an apocalyptic blizzard, and it's on you to figure out how to keep your city running amongst the harsh conditions. This includes keeping everyone warm, so it does tickle me that the game's next bit of DLC, revealed to be titled Breach of Trust, essentially says "no, not that warm."

Beyond Words is Scrabble meets Balatro, and it's left me feeling like I've gone ten rounds with a dictionary

Julian Benson — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:17:46 +0000

Aiming to do for Scrabble what Balatro did for poker, Beyond Words gives you the same framework of a rack of tiles and a board upon which to make words, and also a set of ridiculous power cards that see your scores explode with each passing turn. As someone who has survived more than three decades of family holidays dominated by word games, I thought I would be more than ready to take on Beyond Words.

I was sorely mistaken.

Pillars of Eternity's turn-based mode is finally out in full, and Obsidian have also kindly turned off the invisible treadmills

Mark Warren — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 13:54:32 +0000

Pillars of Eternity has finally gotten its tenth anniversary gift. Obsidian have been busy beta testing a turn-based mode for the RPG since November last year, and this week's seen them properly whip the cover off it before shouting 'ta-dahhhhhhh'.

This week in PC games: gritty GTA 4-coded brawler Samson, Ancient Greek bull defender Minos, and a wobbly violinist battles some stairs

Mark Warren — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 11:36:12 +0000

Didn't expect to see me here, did you? Well, as always there's a new - if slightly abbreviated - week of PC games to dissect. Edwin's away travelling the world and hopefully encountering some tolerable bed and breakfasts, so I've popped in to see what sorts of stuff we can stick in the Maw in order to keep it happy for the next few days. Wish me luck!

"We're not doing zombie animals", says State of Decay 3 studio head, but you can turn a tea kettle into an undead-attracting bomb

Julian Benson — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 10:04:30 +0000

If you have been keeping a candle lit for State Of Decay 3 since its 2020 reveal trailer purely for the prospect of fighting a zombie deer then, I'm afraid, it's time to blow that candle out. Apparently, the CGI reveal trailer was made when the open-world zombie survival game was barely a concept.

Six years on from the reveal, Undead Labs have a working build of the game and it doesn't feature the reanimated corpse of Bambi.

Though it does let you turn a kettle into an IED.

The Witcher 3 multiplayer mod's latest major update adds the only mount you'll ever need - your fellow players

Mark Warren — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:09:39 +0000

All right, giddy up. My bum isn't digging into your shoulders too much, is it? No, sorry other Geralt, I was talking to Yen. How's she doing at the bottom of this flesh tower we've decided to form in The Witcher 3's multiplayer mod? Ah, I see. Well, I can't print that sort of language, so I'm just going to write that she's really enjoying the latest major update to Witcher Online.

"Keeping teams together doesn't seem to matter to people, but for us it did": Star Wars Zero Company's director on what the industry can learn from XCOM 2

Julian Benson — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

It seems that every week we're reporting on news of another wave of layoffs at a big game studio. In March alone, we saw 1000 staff let go at Epic Games, 124 at Eidos Montreal, and over 100 at Ubisoft's Red Storm Entertainment. And those are just the ones I can name without needing to rack my brain.

In some cases, these "reorganisations" are to keep investors happy, in others they're painted as necessary for a studio to keep the lights on until its next paycheck. But every time a team loses members, they lose something that can't be replaced if the money ever begins to flow again. The shorthand and trust that develops between staff who work together for a long time, the institutional knowledge of what's been tried in the past and worked (or didn't), these only come from teams that remain intact.

Many have sung the praises of institutional knowledge and holding a team together before, but in the wake of layoffs like we're seeing at the moment, it seems worth providing an example of why letting a team mature together makes for better games.

The best videogame characters who came back from the dead

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Greetings, loyal Treehouse tenders and Horace huggers! Today is a bank holiday in the UK, which means we are probably asleep, but we've scraped together a little themed conversation piece article to comfort you in our absence. Specifically, it is Easter Monday, which isn't a bad time to talk about resurrection - for 'twas on Easter that the worshippers rolled back the chocolate egg from the Cave of Character Creation and discovered that the Easter Bunny had started New Game Plus.

I hope the faithful among you will tolerate this attempt at humour and proceed immediately to discussing your favourite reborn, resurrected, or revived videogame character. No, you are not allowed to object that technically, every videogame character who isn't subject to permadeath counts as resurrected, providing the player fails at least once. Pac-Man is not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy!

The Sunday Papers

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Assuming I haven't gotten torn apart by wild boars, Sundays are for navigating the wooded valleys around Cadair Idris. I'm on a hiking holiday in Eryri till Tuesday 14th April, tramping up slopes and wading through lakes of heather without a care for the depressing world of 'high' technology. I am Going Primitive, living as my Celtic ancestors did, with naught but a smartphone and a Crunchyroll subscription to ward me against Nature's ravages. Still, I have a few moments to scurry under yon dripping crag, eat a squashed flapjack, and tell you about some things I've read this week.

Crimson Desert's latest update makes sure you can always look at Kliff's generic mug and makes running much less annoying

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:55:54 +0000

Crimson Desert appears to be changing quicker than a musical theatre actor that has 90 seconds to put on a new outfit before their next number is up. A new update arrived in the action RPG earlier today, bringing with it nothing particularly revolutionary, but several tweaks that'll probably make you say something to the effect of "oh nice, that'll be handy."

Have a gander at this cut Elden Ring scene showing a smidge of DLC boss Miquella's past

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 20:27:02 +0000

FromSoftware has an obvious penchant for secrets, their games are just littered with them. This is probably best exemplified in Elden Ring for the simple fact that the game is unapproachably massive, you're more than likely to find at least one secret somewhere along the line even just by accident. And four years on, the secrets continue to manifest, albeit on this occasion thanks to known FromSoft dataminer Lance McDonald, who's managed to uncover a cutscene involving Miquella. You know, that guy that Malenia mentions almost every time she kills you, and also features prominently in Shadow of the Erdtree.

Comedy games are alive and well in Horse Magnifier, a game where you do just that

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 18:07:18 +0000

I am not going to drudge up the half decomposed discourse around whether games are art or not. They most certainly offer up a huge range of experiences that other mediums do not. Experiences that wrench the heart, that cause tears of joy, that get you to rethink your very existence, that cover that period in time where developers started having kids and birthed the dad game. And then there is Horse Magnifier. A game where you magnify horses. A game that I like quite a lot!

Grand Theft Auto 6 publisher Take-Two have seemingly laid off their head of AI and several of the department's staffers

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:14:13 +0000

Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two have seemingly held some layoffs this week. As spotted by Game Developer, the company's head of AI Luke Dicken shared a post on his personal LinkedIn page where he shared that both he and an unknown number of his team have been let go.

As House Flipper Remastered Collection's playtest gets going, the original is free to pick up for the weekend

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:02:31 +0000

It isn't particularly difficult to find a simulation game of some kind that allows you to carry out the most mundane of tasks these days. Now you'll have no trouble finding domestic chore life sims like Lawn Mowing Simulator or Leaf Blower Co. But once upon a time, games like House Flipper were all in there lonesome, a niche of a niche. And if you fancy seeing what the game that made games like these catch on is like in action, good news! House Flipper is free for you to keep over the rest of this weekend.

"I was chomping at the bit to crack the code": How procedural maps became XCOM 2's biggest ambition, after Firaxis couldn't manage it in Enemy Unknown

Julian Benson — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Garth DeAngelis remembers being in the room when Firaxis chose to ditch XCOM: Enemy Unknown's procedurally generated maps. Despite being a feature of the original 1994 game, when Firaxis tried to build the tech for their reboot of the turn-based tactical classic 15 years later, it was causing major headaches.

Marathon isn't deathmatch gone wide, it's multiplayer Alien: Isolation and every other player is a xenomorph

Jeremy Peel — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

The human colony on Tau Ceti IV has been abandoned for half a century, as far as anyone can tell. The only exports leaving the planet are those nabbed by Runners in mechanical bodies, like fruit pickers at the end of the universe. But there are imports, too, of a sort: elements pulled in from other extraction shooters, which reveal the kind of experience Bungie wanted to make.

Namely, a stealth game.

What are we all playing this weekend?

Mark Warren — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Surprise, Friday WAP attack! No, I've (hopefully) not mucked up the time the WAPs are posted, as I did last time this particular RPSponsibility was trusted to me. It's a long weekend here in the UK thanks to the bank holidays around Easter. More time for playing games, in theory. Assuming you don't get trapped in a giant chocolate egg or something equally terrifying.

Warren Spector's Thick as Thieves gets a bit less interesting as it ditches PvPvE for solo and co-op play

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 21:56:35 +0000

In the summer of last year, during Day of the Devs, immersive sim legend Warren Spector said that at his studio OtherSide Entertainment, "we don't play it safe. We take chances." He was talking about his upcoming game Thick as Thieves, a multiplayer immersive sim that's basically Thief, except other people are trying to pull off the same heist as you on the same map, with all of you racing to get the loot first. Except it's not going to be that game anymore.

Skyblivion isn't "dead in the water", the Oblivion remake mod's lead says, a recent call for extra hands is about maintaining "good momentum"

Mark Warren — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 20:47:48 +0000

Earlier this week the team behind Oblivion remake mod Skyblivion put out a call for some "final" and "vital" veteran help to get their work over the line in 2026. Given the mod's delay late last year and the fairly lengthy list of roles the post on Nexus Mods cited the Skyblivion crew as looking to fill, you'd be forgiven for wondering what this recruiting push might mean in terms of how work on the mod's going.

However, Skyblivion's project lead Kyle 'Rebelzize' Rebel says it's not a sign that the project's "dead in the water", but instead a team who have been "stretched thin" for a long time trying to take advantage of "good momentum" they currently have as they work to tie up remaining loose ends.

Xenonauts 2 hits 1.0 after almost three years of early access and paves the way for mods galore

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 20:32:37 +0000

"The year is 2009," opens the 1.0 launch trailer for Xenonauts 2, a sentence that tickles me greatly considering the game's alternate future vibes. It presents a vision of the world that differed greatly from my actual experience of worrying about swine flu and whether or not Yu-Gi-Oh! was cool any more. And yet that is the reality of the turn-based tactics game, which exits out of early access almost three years after its initial release.

Mega Crit are working on three new Slay the Spire 2 modes, just don't place any bets on them all making it in

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 18:02:28 +0000

I've not had a punt at Slay the Spire 2 myself yet, I've been too busy coming up with an excuse for not having played the first one, but the general read I've got on it is "it's more Slay the Spire!" This can be interpreted much the same as a vote for Bart being a vote for anarchy, as far as I can tell too. There is multiplayer now too, of course, changing things up in a notable way through this mode, but so far, so generally familiar. In a new interview with Mega Crit co-founder Casey Yano over at PC Gamer, however, it sounds like a trio of new modes are in the works at least.

Raise up the decapitated head of the goddess of love in a flower pot in the charmingly silly Tomak: Save the Earth Regeneration

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 17:07:27 +0000

I've never really been able to wrap myself around raising sim games such as the Princess Maker series. The framing of them feels like it could quite easily teeter over the edge into something uncomfortable, and in more modern entries such as Umamusume outright parasocial (and often exploitative). But lo and behold, a game enters my consciousness that fits within this very genre that looks absurdist enough to quell some of those concerns: Tomak: Save the Earth Regeneration, a rerelease of the 25-year-old game that sees you caring for the goddess of love who's lost her body and is living out of a plant pot.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor's upcoming DLC is bringing back the original's seasonally appropriate Egg Hunt mode

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:09:36 +0000

I think it's entirely possible that I have not known true happiness since going through the childhood experience of going to your local Easter egg hunt, and finding a facsimile of an egg you can later trade in for the chocolate variety hidden in the plainest of views (but you're five, so you proudly show it to your half-interested parents none the wiser). I miss the thrill of the egg hunt. So lucky me, all I have to do is play Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor later this month, as the Vampire Survivors-esque spin-off is getting such a mission type as part of its upcoming Heavy Duty expansion later this month.

Linux has gotten a 3% usage bump in a month, latest Steam hardware survey suggests - though, it's still miles off Windows

Mark Warren — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:07:48 +0000

The latest Steam hardware survey cites Linux as accounting for over 5% of the install base. That's not a lot, and comes with the caveat of Valve's info gathering not being bulletproof, but it ia a good chunk higher than the OS's mark for the first two months of 2026.

Pride precipitates a dizzying fall in Ascenders, a climbing game spin on Darkest Dungeon

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:46:09 +0000

Ascenders: Beyond The Peak is a new turn-based roguelite in which a bunch of alpine occultists try to recover cursed artefacts from Lovecraftian mountains, before the world ends. Lotta genre references and parallels there, so let me boil it down for you: this appears to be Darkest Dungeon plus gravity.

Crimson Desert is now a survival game, thanks to this mod based on an alleged secret "food consequences" system

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 14:35:33 +0000

Are you having fun being Kliff MacDuff? How would you like to be Kliff MacDuff with an acute case of gastritis? It appears that open world RPG Crimson Desert has a secret "food consequence" system, cut during development. It offers 50 different "food skills" split across 15 categories, on top of the existing Crimson Desert cooking recipes. Stir it all together and you have something like a survival sim, as if this game wasn't enough genres already.

Steam store "refresh" is out in beta now, enwidening images and adding infinite scrollage to the homepage

Mark Warren — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 11:33:06 +0000

Valve have taken the wrenches to the homepage of the Steam store, with a design refresh now out in beta form. It's certainly an improvement if you're a fan of wider screenshots, infinitely scrolling pages, and/or having more details fired at your face when you hover over a game.

Legends of the Round Table is an obsessively chivalric turn-based RPG with the atmosphere of an actual jousting tournament

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 11:04:11 +0000

Legends of the Round Table isn't just a turn-based RPG, it's an extravagant 13th century puppetshow with live medieval lute music and a boisterous, singing narrator you can all but visualise prancing around the stage, splashing mead over the less important courtiers. It's also a jousting experience in which you can juice up your charge with Love, one of the principle chivalric virtues, in order to clang a dude right off his horse.

Marathon's upcoming balance patches take aim at godlike knives, strong snipers and ubiquitous shields, while adding some SECRET items

Mark Warren — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:13:16 +0000

Following the murder of a speedy movement exploit, Marathon developers Bungie have a bunch of other weapons in the arsenal of the uber-powerful runner in their sights. Snipers, knives, and bubble shields are all on the tone down list for the extraction shooter's upcoming patches.

Original Resident Evil trilogy with GOG's fresh coat of paint is finally on Steam, but you will have to put up with Enigma DRM

Mark Warren — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 09:16:10 +0000

Wake up, the Residents are Evil again. Well, what I mean to say is that the oldest Evil Residents, the most classic of Resident Evils, have now hit Steam in the nicely revamped form they took on when GOG brought them back to PC a couple of years ago. Yep, the versions of Resis 1, 2, and 3 that've just hit Valve's storefront include GOG's handy tweaks to help them run in all singing and all dancing fashion on modern hardware.

The sequel to Garry's Mod releases this month, and Valve will let you publish your creations as standalone Steam games, like dafty Finn sim My Summer Cottage

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:46:46 +0000

S&box is an upcoming open source game development platform, built using a modified Source 2 engine. Out on 28th April, it's the work of the very same Garry Newman behind the legendary Garry's Mod, who's been working on a spiritual successor at his company Facepunch Studios (also the developers of Rust, and originally known as Team Garry) since 2015.

Inasmuch as I am qualified to judge, S&box sounds like a robust tool – it's got features and systems for visual scripting, open world terrain, and creating shaders. The developers are also supporting VR, but hey, nobody's perfect. The latest, bestest news is that Facepunch have just struck a deal with Valve to let people export their S&box creations as standalone Steam games, without paying Facepunch a fee.

Nintendo's legal fight with Palworld suffers a reversal as the USPTO reject their patent on character-summoning battle mechanics

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 18:00:22 +0000

Nintendo's efforts to patent the idea of summoning a videogame character and letting it fight another character have suffered a significant reversal in the USA, even as the Mario makers continue a copyright infringement lawsuit against Palworld developers Pocketpair in Japan. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has now revoked the character-summoning patent in question, though their decision is "non-final". Nintendo have two months to respond and argue their case.

Starcrafty strategy game Stormgate is about to lose its multiplayer modes, due to an AI company buying up Frost Giant's server provider

Mark Warren — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:35:43 +0000

Update:1047 Games CEO Ian Proulx has confirmed to RPS that the Hathora situation "won't have any impact on players" as far as Splitgate is concerned. "Our backend has support for multiple providers, so we just had to migrate to alternatives," he added.

Original story follows:

Stormgate is set to go offline-only at the end of April, with developers Frost Giant Studios having announced that the server provider for the strategy game's multiplayer modes have decided they no longer want to be a server provider for online games. That's a byproduct of said provider, Hathora, having been taken over by an AI company who plan on using their latest purchase "to work on compute orchestration for AI inference at scale".

The first new Heroes of Might and Magic strategy game in over 10 years will launch this month

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era will release in PC early access on April 30th, Hooded Horse and Ubisoft have announced. The new strategy RPG from developers Unfrozen is the first freshly baked HOMM game in over a decade, and will launch with a mixture of familiar and new modes, spanning singleplayer and multiplayer.

If you're new to the series – there is the faint but horrifying possibility that you were not yet born, when the last one came out - it's a turn-based, empire-building affair, where you alternate between tending to your towns and sending heroes, fantasy beasties and armies on quests.

Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami partners with Stellar Blade devs Shift Up to make "smaller, experimental titles alongside a large-scale flagship"

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:39:24 +0000

Resident Evil director, Devil May Cry producer and former Tango Gameworks boss Shinji Mikami is now making games for Shift Up, developers of Stellar Blade. You know, the one with the shiny bums and quite good hack-and-slash mechanics. Shift Up have acquired Mikami's new company Unbound, which he founded in 2022 after leaving Tango.

Is a blizzardy Skyrim return persuading me to retry Elder Scrolls Online? Not really, but naval combat and underwater exploration might

Mark Warren — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:04:29 +0000

I'll be honest right off the bat. As a single player Elder Scroller, the Elder Scrolls Online's never managed to hook me for more than a few hours. I've given it a couple of goes, usually during periods when it's gone free to play, but have always bounced off its vast MMOiness. Might the slew of fresh additions coming across the next couple of years be able to change that and finally convince me to spend significant time with ESO in the same way I have Fallout 76 in the past few years? The answer could be yes, if the naval combat and underwater exploration Zenimax have just revealed are as fun as they sound on paper.

Arc Raiders patch protects your precious custom loadouts by lowering the odds of spawning late in a server full of freeloaders

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Ho, wasteland packmules and sticky-fingered ornithologists! Embark have released a sizeable Arc Raiders update. Titled Flashpoint, it introduces a new shotgun, SMG and deployable together with a Close Scrutiny map condition, a fresh breed of Arc enemy, some cosmetic bundles, and a feeding boost for Scrappy the loot chicken, which will cause him to dig up a wider variety of more valuable items. As warned, they've also permitted all those awful Shredder things from Stella Montis to infest the other maps.

MindsEye's new mission will feature "evidence of the sabotage" the studio have faced, CEO claims - I double-checked and the quotes came before April Fools

Mark Warren — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 09:32:32 +0000

Well, that's certainly a bold strategy. Mark Gerhard, CEO of MindsEye developers Build a Rocket Boy, has said that the studio are indeed planning to add a new mission to the game which will "share some of the evidence of the sabotage". That'd be the sabotage from a malevolent third party which the exec's been alleging MindsEye faced around launch for a while now, with Gerhard also claiming that an investigation into it is currently in the hands of "authorities" in the UK and US.

Bungie have killed off a speedy movement exploit in Marathon's latest update, and they'll do it again if they have to

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 21:53:29 +0000

There is always a risk with a live service game, or any game with only competitive elements, that it enters the Cool For Some Zone. This is a space that exists within a given game and also around it, a place where you can pull off Sick Tricks as a result of movement tech not purposefully included in the game, but born as an incidental result of mashing buttons in just the right way. And until today, Marathon found itself in said zone, but Bungie have made the call to patch out the offending issue.

Vultures - Scavengers Of Death is a turn-based, extraction take on Resident Evil, and it's out next month

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 20:41:44 +0000

As pretty (and ugly) as the Resident Evil games have become over the years, there is a quality to the original PS1 entries that lingers on in the hearts of many. That'll likely be partially down to the permanently raised heart rates of kids playing them too young everywhere. But I think the thing that endures in the ever popular PS1 aesthetic in the indie horror scene is that nasty griminess that just feels so at home. And Vultures - Scavengers of Death, a turn-based, extractiony take on Resident Evil, looks like it'll stay true to that vibe.

The Long Dark comes to an end today, except it's not "the end" only "an end"

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 18:19:05 +0000

Well, the time has finally come. After releasing almost a decade ago, The Long Dark finally wraps things up today with today's release of Wintermute's fifth and final episode, The Light at the End of All Things. It's been a long time coming (the free episode update was originally slated for the end of 2025), but it marks the end of a tough, cold journey. Sorry, what's that? It's "not the end, but also an end"? Oh, my mistake!

Indirectly build your empire by paying heroes to do the work you don't want to in the RTS city-builder Crown of Greed, out today

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:20:56 +0000

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Or, so the saying goes, but I'm pretty sure the ham sandwich I had at my friend's house when I was seven didn't cost me a penny. Still, in Crown of Greed, a fantasy real-time strategy game inspired by the likes of Majesty, the old adage certainly holds true. And with its release today, it can even be put into the test!

This ergonomic gaming mouse has plunged down to $60 on the final day of the Amazon Spring Sale

Reece Bithrey — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:05:00 +0000

Traditionally, the words 'ergonomic' and 'gaming mouse' haven't really gone together, although Keychron sought to bring them together with its M5 mouse. It's a vertical mouse that brings your hand into a more natural position, while retaining the beefy internals to make this a suitable mouse for gaming workloads. Currently, it's down to just $60 from Amazon USA on the final day of the Spring Sale, marking out a new low price, which is always nice.

The discourse machine whirs to life as Zero Parades: For Dead Spies gets a May release date

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:12:30 +0000

If you're looking to fit in a break from social media discourse in the near future, it's looking like May is going to be a good time for it. That's because ZA/UM's followup to Disco Elysium, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, is launching around then. And what better a game to post about than one which has a studio embroiled in a whole heap of mess.

Ubisoft sued for shutting down The Crew's servers by major French consumer group backed by Stop Killing Games

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:56:23 +0000

A major French consumers group is taking Ubisoft to court over the publisher's ending of online support for The Crew in March 2024, rendering the notionally singleplayer-friendly open world racer unplayable. They're acting with the backing of the Stop Killing Games movement, who want publishers at large to stop yanking servers and taking games offline.

Turn your Steam library into a cosy room of physical games with a special shelf for dodgy sale purchases in Boxroom, which has a demo out

Mark Warren — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:24:55 +0000

If you've ever longed for your Steam library to be a bunch of shelves littered with physical games you can touch, sniff, and agonise about having to shift if you move house, let me introduce you to Boxroom. It takes all of the games you've either bought for pennies in a sale and never got around to playing or paid through the nose for on release and have put 1000 hours into out of sheer sunk-cost fallacy. It sticks their front covers onto boxes you can use to fill a cosy customisable computer room.

The impossible alchemy of Lucid Blocks is a reminder that 99% of videogame crafting is boring

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0000

There is a tiny wild sun trapped inside my crystal tower. I hear its garbled voice and catch the yellow of its fire through the blinding white blocks of the summit. The tower itself is so bright on the outside you can barely identify objects placed on it, but I have smashed the crust and dug a network of passages, and it’s shadier within. A realm of shining fog, slick as tooth enamel, with fissured, fugitive reflections that call to mind the beautiful quartz spacecraft in Noctis.

The relative gloom inside the tower implies that the structure’s external radiance is also a reflection. It appears to be caught in the glare of some celestial body, but if such a body exists, it emits radiation invisible to the naked eye, discernable only from its impact on other bodies. The skies of Lucid Blocks are dark and cloudy even by day, inasmuch as ‘day’ means anything in the game. There is one major astral feature, a hazy torus that neither rises nor sets, luminous enough to orient by when exploring the game's procedurally generated landscapes, but not enough to actually light your steps after dark. The only real sun here is the one below. The one I crafted. It slurs and shouts, nosing the walls of its prison.

Adult games may be an unintended beneficiary as FTC pressure payment providers like Visa and Mastercard not to debank Trump supporters, but I doubt it

Mark Warren — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:38:24 +0000

Letters have been sent by the US Federal Trade Commission to the CEOs of Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe, reminding them that there could be hell to pay if they deny customers access to their services because of said customers' political or religious views. Potential discrimination against those with Trumpy views are the body's main concern, but their push could also impact the buying of NSFW games.

This popular and capacious Anker Zolo power bank is just £25/$33 from Amazon

Reece Bithrey — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:04:55 +0000

A capacious and speedy power bank is a tech essential in my book for keeping all your stuff charged, be it a phone, headphones or a handheld games console such as a Steam Deck. This Anker Zolo option provides up to 30W of power for speedy charging, and has a hefty 20,000mAh capacity in a compact size. At the moment, this power bank is at the lower part of its price cycle on Amazon judging by price tracking graphs, working out to £25 on Amazon UK and $34 on Amazon USA. The latter deal is part of the final day of the US Amazon Spring Sale, too. That's an excellent price on such a powerful unit, giving you a compact and powerful option that's a surefire hit for when you're taking on your travels.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided developers Eidos Montreal lay off 124 staff, as well as "parting ways" with long-time studio head

Mark Warren — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 11:20:51 +0000

Eidos Montreal, developers of the most recent two Deus Ex entries, have laid off 124 staff. At the same time, they've announced that they're "parting ways" with veteran studio head David Anfossi, who'd been in that post for just under 13 years.

Skyblivion devs are "on the hunt" for some "final, vital" veteran hands to get the Oblivion remake mod over the line this year

Mark Warren — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 09:32:31 +0000

With the first few months of its latest target release year drawing to a close, the modders behind Skyblivion are looking to make some "final" and "vital" veteran additions to their team in order to get the ambitious remake of Oblivion in Skyrim's engine over the line. This comes after a delay late last year, which saw Skyblivion's arrival pushed to 2026, following some accusations from a former dev that it was being rushed out of the door.

In the final days of the Amazon Spring Sale, the beefy AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is 37% off

Reece Bithrey — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 19:55:00 +0000

Amazon's Spring Sale rumbles on, and in its final days in the 'States, it's knocked a staggering 37% off one of the beefier processors in AMD's current lineup - the 12 core/24 thread Ryzen 9 9900X. At $315 from Amazon USA, it's dropped to a new low price from the big online retailer down from a previous price of $370 or thereabouts, although Amazon is stating a bigger 37% discount on its $499 list price.

Crimson Desert's Kliff was originally so Scottish he was named after a MacBeth character, and his actor pushed Pearl Abyss to make him less "stoic"

Mark Warren — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:36:16 +0000

I know exactly who Kliff, the protagonist of Crimson Desert, is. During my romp through the vast expanse of Pywel, he was a distant tower enthusiast with a side interest in lonely locomotives. Aside from those things, he's rather bland. Though, the actor who played him has now outlined that throughout the game's regularly shifting development - which included a name change for its main character - he pushed Pearl Abyss to make the character more than just a stoic line-grumbler.

Ancient version of GTA 4 with a cut zombie mode, ferry assets and DJ lines reportedly found at car boot sale

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:01:44 +0000

An ancient, work-in-progress version of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV has reportedly been discovered on an Xbox 360 development kit at a car boot sale, somewhere up Edinburgh way. Dating back to November 2007, about six months before the open world game's launch, it's said to contain a cut model for a Liberty City river ferry that once featured in a trailer.

While we only have the buyer's word that the development hardware - "a phat white Xbox 360 XDK with a Rockstar North label on it" - is legit, former Rockstar technical director Obbe Vermeij has, at least, verified that GTA 4 was once supposed to have a ferry, though he doesn't have much to share about the presence of materials for what appears to be a canned GTA 4 zombie minigame. Cor!

This potent low profile Logitech G515 Lightspeed TKL keyboard is discounted on both sides of the Atlantic

Reece Bithrey — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:58:00 +0000

The Logitech G515 Lightspeed TKL first launched back in mid-2024 as a more affordable alternative to the Swiss brand's all-conquering G915 TKL. It retained enough of the fundamentals - solid chassis, snappy low-profile switches, reliable wireless connectivity and so on - to make it feel like a strong value proposition at the time, although with current sales, has been made an even better one. I'm currently seeing it for its best prices in a while on both sides of the Atlantic - that's £95 on Amazon UK and $70 on the Amazon USA - the latter is part of the final couple of days of the Amazon Spring Sale.

Screamer’s multiplayer chases unleash the racer’s full chaotic potential, trapping you inside a relentlessly boosty, bashy, and boomy washing machine

Mark Warren — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:06:23 +0000

When James and I published our impressions of anime racer Screamer the other week, I mentioned I was keen to give its online races a go once it’d pulled out of the garage. Would the sights and sounds of sliding around its twisty tracks and slamming into real people make for as much fun as I’d had racing the computer in its story mode?

"0.63 is the perfect default delay": Bungie, Respawn and Firaxis game developers talk NPC barks, grenade timing and other questions of craft

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:40:38 +0000

Much of the time, using social media is like fondling a wasp's nest, but sometimes, sometimes, social media is Nice. For example, Firaxis narrative director Cat Manning recently started a Bluesky thread "of small practical pieces of advice developers just starting out or unfamiliar with a genre might not know". The replies and quote-posts include thoughts from people with credits on fairly big games.

Inevitably, they run the gamut of approachability. At one end of the spectrum, you have Apex Legends engineer Jay Stevens jauntily observing that "a navmesh is a very handy thing to have, even in a multiplayer game without NPCs", which I maybe half-understand, and sounds like it could be the opening to a Broadway song of some kind. More digestibly, you have former Marvel's Avengers and current Legacy of Orsinium developer Keano Raubun commenting that the "biggest bang for buck in (open world RPG) game writing will always be NPCs having funny ambient conversations amongst themselves".

This week in PC games: an RTS inspired by Majesty, a flying city RPG from former Mass Effect writers, and one Metal Gear-affiliated octopus

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 11:54:52 +0000

Hello, new week of PC games! Hey, I thought you'd be taller. Ah, I see what's happened: the Maw has eaten Friday again, and swallowed next Monday for good measure. As ever, the normies are calling this a "bank holiday weekend". There are various festivities planned - apparently, some bunny has been running around laying chocolate eggs.

Epic's mass layoffs left a programmer with terminal brain cancer without life insurance, but Tim Sweeney says the company will "solve" the problem

Mark Warren — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 10:56:01 +0000

Epic Games' mass layoffs led a programmer with terminal brain cancer to lose his life insurance, leaving him and his family struggling to find new coverage. Following news of the situation breaking, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has said the company have reached out to the programmer - Mike Prinke - and that they "will solve the insurance".

"It is meant to be lived in" - grand strategy game Riftborne offers "months" of galactic scheming and no actual graphics

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 10:02:05 +0000

Some people like to ease into the week, as though dipping toes into a frigid northern sea, and some people Monday Hard by wrapping their arms around an iceberg. Are you the latter kind of bather? Try this on for size, then: Riftborne is a real-time sci-fi grand strategy game that's controlled using an old-fashioned, "terminal-style" interface.

Seize your silly computer mouse and feed it unto the dog. Where you're going, there shall be no drag-selects, cursor animations, right-click menus, and all the rest of that piddly frippery you are accustomed to in these modern SO-CALLED "best strategy games", with their cosseting, 32+ colour visuals that even your dog might be able to understand, assuming you didn't just kill your dog by feeding her a piece of plastic.

Crimson Desert's latest patch adds new mounts, makes slapping NPCs with trees a crime, and reportedly junks the infamous AI paintings

Mark Warren — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 09:23:04 +0000

Pearl Abyss' bashing of their massive open-world into a more palatable shape continues, with Crimson Desert's latest patch packing a bunch more tweaks to controls and adding some new animals to ride around on. It also looks to have begun swapping out those AI paintings the studio previously claimed were accidentally left in it on release, though the patch's wording around this change is fairly vague.

The Sunday Papers

Mark Warren — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Sundays are for deciding to re-watch The Sopranos. Specifically that episode in which Tony gets a bad tummy and then talks to a fish. You wonder what you might fever dream of, if you too were to go and eat at an Indian restaurant, then have enough room for a snack at Artie Bucco's fine Italian eatery? Would you too dream of surreal wandering down a boardwalk? Would you instead dream something different? Would you dream of a platypus sitting in a high-rise apartment, looking up from the newspaper as he reminds a house guest not to trip over a potted cactus when they exit his bathroom?

Would that be the-Oh. Oh no. It's happening again. The person who's emerged from the bathroom, tripping over the plant on the way, is bald and reeks of alternative comedy. Ready the words and prepare to fire.

"I think it’s unfair to kind of geofence the genre": Original Stalker designer talks Eurojank in not-so-Euro games

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 22:53:07 +0000

Video games, or more so the people who play them, I suppose, have this annoying thing where they assign a genre name as an insult. I don't want to reignite the discourse around JRPG as a term, but it certainly was used in quite a derisive and othering manner in its earlier years. The term walking sim was used more as a point of ironic degradation, even though it was perfectly apt in many ways. Then there's Eurojank, a sort of real but not technically real genre that describes ambitious but imperfect games made by European developers. And Andrii Verpakhovskyi, designer on the original Stalker games, doesn't think such jank should be geologically categorised.

Steam's latest update sounds like a step in the right direction for regional pricing woes

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 21:31:05 +0000

The mystery of what you should price your game is one that I am sure will continue to remain mostly unsolved. There's just no right answer, and to make matters worse, there's currencies other than your own to consider. On Steam there have been plenty of occasions where regional pricing differences haven't gone down well, primarily due to games costing too much based on local wages. However, a new Steam update should now make it easier for devs to set better regional prices.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 translator claims Warhorse have laid him off in preference of using AI going forward

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 20:01:46 +0000

It sounds like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 developer Warhorse Studios' future projects won't be translated entirely by human hands. Earlier today, a Reddit post was shared to the game's subreddit from Max Hejtmánek, a Czech to English translator and editor on the developer's most recent game, where he claimed that yesterday, March 27th, he was laid off "in favour of using AI for all translations going forward."

Embark devs playtested Arc Raiders too viciously, so they found a system that let them be Care Bears one day and aggressive the next

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 18:15:07 +0000

The problem with playtesting is that it is impossible to predict every last thing any given person may do once a game is out in the wild. It's an imperfect science where you do the best you can in the moment. I imagine a live service game like Arc Raiders to be extra difficult, given how many playstyles need to be accounted for. And based on a recent interview, it sounds like some of the team at Embark took an approach that involved a randomiser determining their own playstyle from day to day to make sure they weren't just playing one way.

A year on from launching Wanderstop, Ivy Road are closing their doors after struggling to fund their next game

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 16:56:29 +0000

It's been a little over a year since the release of Wanderstop, the debut game of Ivy Road, itself a studio made up of Stanley Parable, Gone Home, and Minecraft talent. Since then, the developer has been trying to find funding for its next game, Engine Angel, but in January announced that this had been unsuccessful, with layoffs taking place as a result. Now, the studio has announced that it is, unfortunately, shutting down.

What are we all playing this weekend?

Julian Benson — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 08:00:00 +0000

There is a significant danger that this article will have aged terribly. You see, I asked everyone what they were playing this weekend on Thursday, rather than the usual post-lunch scramble on a Friday. You see, I took Friday off to travel to Wales to spend a long weekend with my family. Who knows what happened between my polling of the team on Thursday and Friday? Perhaps Valve surprise released Half-Life 3 and everyone is playing that instead. Maybe they all went off videogames in the interim.

I can only hope they thought to go into the CMS and update the article accordingly. Otherwise, I'll look like a right plonker.

Save $450 on this sublime 32-inch 4K 240Hz Samsung QD-OLED monitor in the Amazon Spring Sale

Reece Bithrey — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 19:55:00 +0000

One of the biggest upgrades you can make to a PC setup in my eyes is to switch to an OLED monitor for a much sharper viewing experience. A lot of it is down to the deeper blacks, stronger contrast and excellent colours you can get from modern panels. It is more of a premium upgrade if you've got the cash and the PC needed to drive a high-res and high refresh rate screen, but definitely worth it as someone who made the switch to a 32-inch 4K 240Hz option just like this Samsung Odyssey OLED G8. This screen is down to $849 from Amazon USA in the Spring Sale, marking out a hefty $450 discount on its previous high price - it has been closer to $900 and this exact price in more recent weeks, though.

PUBG: Blindspot is going offline forever after just two months in early access, despite Krafton's record Battlegrounds revenues

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 17:56:50 +0000

Free-to-play tactical shooter PUBG: Blindspot is being shut down by developers Arc Team and publishers Krafton a whole couple of months into its early access career. Launched on February 5th, it will cease service on March 30th.

Crusader Kings 3 update 1.19, out now in beta, delivers the ledger and an accolade rework - it also stops dead people wearing straw cloaks

Mark Warren — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 17:10:00 +0000

Crusader Kings 3's latest "Realm Maintenance" update, all about improving and adding to the base game's established systems, is out now in beta form. It includes a big ledger full of spreadsheets you can use to keep track of the world, a rework of accolades, and makes the lives of older rulers even more miserable.

This capable Logitech G703 Lightspeed is down to £53/$60 in a handy Amazon discount

Reece Bithrey — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 17:10:00 +0000

The Logitech G703 Lightspeed isn't one of the mice I can personally attest to using, but it's got the makings of a solid choice from the spec sheet - a reliable 25,600 DPI Hero senor I've used in some of the brand's other mice and a reliable Lightspeed wireless connection, plus a more ergonomic, contoured shape, and up to 35 hours of battery life.

Currently, this rodent is on the receiving end of a hefty discount in the 'States for Amazon's Spring Sale which makes it $60 from Amazon USA - that's its best price of 2026, and a solid price for such a potent rodent. It's £53 from Amazon UK, for reference, although that's a much more minor discount against its price in previous weeks.

Slay the Spire 2's 'anti-infinite' balance patch has now itself been patched, much to the relief of some Silent and Necrobinder players

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 16:41:15 +0000

Slay the Spire 2 developers Mega Crit have rolled back aspects of last week's big STS2 balancing update, which nerfed a number of cards according to the broad objective of making infinites – that is, cunning combos that let you prolong your turn forever - harder to accomplish.

The patch in question isn't even formally part of the roguelite deckbuilder yet – you have to opt into the Steam beta branch to test it out. But it has sparked a ruckus nonetheless among the Spire Slayers, some of whom attempted to review bomb the game despite Mega Crit's protestations that Slay the Spire 2 is still in early access development.

Pearl Abyss boss admits the studio "could have done a better job" with Crimson Desert's totally underwhelming story

Mark Warren — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 15:25:54 +0000

Though there are things to love in Crimson Desert if you're open to hobbies like tower ogling or ghost train riding, the mammoth action adventure blob's story is arguably its biggest weakness. Well, aside from those AI paintings which were left in it on release. Developers Pearl Abyss, currently in the midst of trying to patch up a lot of the other holes players and critics have pointed out, have now made clear they're aware that their tale of people witrh grey manes fighting evil bears isn't the best.

Play a reclusive witch living on a flying fish in this enchanting, Zelda-ish photography game

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:15:47 +0000

In ZIPIT's splendid story-driven photography sim The Wide Open Sky is Running out of Catfish, you are a young witch living on the back of a huge, aerial catfish – a benevolent flying island of trees, fountains and windchimes that puts me in mind of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.

The catfish is sad that the skies are so empty nowadays, so you must use a magic flute - see, we're definitely in Zelda's orbit - to transform into a similarly gravity-agnostic eel, which eats clouds and poops them out as various creatures. Snapping photos of those creatures grants you seashells, which turn into more clouds when thrown into the fountain.

With Bloodlines 2 behind us, it's time for a new open world Hunter: The Reckoning RPG from the creators of RoboCop: Rogue City

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 11:50:00 +0000

Teyon and Nacon have revealed Hunter: The Reckoning – Deathwish, a new "semi open world" first-person single-player RPG set in the World of Darkness table-top universe. Where stablemate series Vampire: The Masquerade is about a secret society of bloodsuckers, Hunter is about the humans who stalk and kill those bloodsuckers together with werewolves, ghouls and, well, anything remotely monstrous or supernatural.

Resident Evil Requiem's photo mode is now here, as part of a patch ordering Leon and Grace to pull more emotive faces

Mark Warren — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 11:17:49 +0000

Snap. Up until now, that's been the sort of sound you only hear in Resident Evil Requiem when a spooky monster may or may not be sneaking up on you. Thanks to a new patch from Capcom, though, it could now also signify that you've just taken a cute photo of the spooky monster about to ruin Grace or Leon's day.

One of our favourite Steam Deck cases is 15% off in the Amazon Spring Sale

Reece Bithrey — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:57:54 +0000

The JSAUX ModCase is our second favourite Steam Deck case, serving as a more affordable alternative to the Dbrand Project Killswitch. It's an affordable means of protecting your handheld PC while also having the modularity of more expensive cases. The deal we've spotted is on the base option, which is coming in at $25 from Amazon US in the current Spring Sale. You can push to other options with more accessories, although those aren't discounted to the same extent at the moment.

In spreading itself across five cities, Stranger than Heaven might not lean as heavily on one of Like A Dragon's key strengths as I expected

Mark Warren — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:45:00 +0000

As hinted at by previous peeks at it, which were set in 1915 and 1943, Like A Dragon devs RGG Studio are jumping around in time with their upcoming historical brawler Stranger than Heaven. They've confirmed via a fresh trailer that it's set in five different decades and, arguably more surprisingly, five different Japanese cities.

Rebellion return to their AvP roots with Alien Deathstorm, an 80s sci-fi FPS with apocalyptic winds and some slightly naff aliens

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:19:49 +0000

Alien Deathstorm is the new sci-fi FPS from Rebellion, developers of skull-popping shooter series Sniper Elite and the recent, Very English survival game Atomfall. What is Alien Deathstorm about? Why, it's a slice-of-life story about a neurodivergent person growing up in the big city HOHO OF COURSE NOT, it's a game about aliens in which there is a storm that will make you dead, set in another collapsing extra-terrestrial colony full of dependably phat, lived-in 1980s technology. Here's the announcement trailer.

Star Wars Zero Company forces you into permadeath so you can see "what's on the other side of the experience"

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 22:55:32 +0000

I've already spoken once today about my intrigue around permanency today, so why not keep that train running. Star Wars Zero Company, a strategy game with XCOM in its veins and execution, is continuing on its spiritual predecessors lineage by having the most controversial of all video deaths as a main feature: permadeath.

If Pragmata's fake New York looks AI-generated to you, good, it's meant to, but the tech itself hasn't touched the game

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 21:55:50 +0000

The appearance of AI in art is nothing new, hell, Mr. Movies himself Steven Spielberg literally made A.I. Artificial Intelligence near the start of the millenia. But that was the Cool AI, where robots could be people, too, if we let them. Now what we have is the Donkey Bollocks AI that produces garbage facsimiles of things we know and actually like. But that doesn't mean it's not worth considering AI, and I really need you to bear with me here, within our art, as that's exactly what the team behind Pragmata did (without touching the stuff).

Nutmeg is a deckbuilding football management game with a cute spin on the beautiful game

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 19:14:08 +0000

It would be a reasonable assumption to make that there are only so many variations on football games you can make. Ultimately, no matter how many bells, whistles, or rocket powered cars you throw at it, it always comes down to getting a ball in a net and shouting SCOOOOOORE. Except in the case of Nutmeg!, a "nostalgic deckbuilding football manager" which looks like it features more faxing than any sort of kicking, but I mean that in an endearing way, promise.