Rock, Paper, Shotgun

MonCraft 199X is a creature collecting survival game where the Y2K apocalypse actually happened

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 21:59:46 +0000

Many of you young'uns might hear the term Y2K and think of a vague, all encompassing descriptor of 2000s aesthetics, but us older folk think of it as this apocalyptic event that never came to be at the turn of the new millennium. Because the world didn't end, many thought that it was just a load of hogwash. In reality, there was a genuine computer bug that could have ruined important infrastructure worldwide if it hadn't been fixed leading up to the year 2000. All this to say, here's MonCraft 199X, a Pokemon-esque survival game where Y2K really did happen.

As EA appear to renew the trademark for Ultima, its creator lies in wait to reclaim the game's copyright next year

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 20:41:57 +0000

It's been a while since there's been a new Ultima! Just about eight years, in fact, and it wasn't even called Ultima (it was Underworld Ascendant, which we didn't review back in the day). Such is the case with many series' that are over 40 years old, they just don't have quite the same steam as they used to. But then earlier this week, it appeared that EA (who have long owned the rights to the series) filed a couple of new trademarks for Ultima this week. And following this, it appears series' creator Richard "Lord British" Garriot is trying to get the copyright back.

CD Projekt Red's CEO still thinks they need to finish their post-Cyberpunk redemption arc, and he's hoping The Witcher 4 will help

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 18:00:44 +0000

I think despite the mess that was the launch of Cyberpunk 2077, it wouldn't be right to say that CD Projekt Red's reputation was completely tarnished. It is still a game with a lot of cultural relevancy, and nobody can shut up about The Witcher 3 to such a degree that it's even getting a brand new expansion more than 10 years after the last one came out. Even still, it doesn't sound like joint CEO Michał Nowakowski is entirely convinced that the studio has managed to complete its redemption arc.

Sony say goodbye to PC and hello to AI in their annual business report, which must be a good thing, right?

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 17:10:31 +0000

Back in March, a report emerged claiming that Sony no longer had plans to release the likes of Ghost of Yōtei and other such singleplayer-only games on PC. Sony are yet to explicitly confirm that this is the case, but it certainly seems like that is the case based on their annual business environment and strategy report for PlayStation. Oh, but it does mention how they plan to use AI, so. Yay.

To make Pragmata's Diana feel naturally childlike, a small group of women dubbed the "Diana Police" was set up to keep things in check

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 16:10:55 +0000

Despite being a dad game, a pseudo-genre that has its fair share of problems in the way it depicts father-child relationships, Pragmata generally seemed to approach all of this fairly well. The consensus seems to be that space man Hugh was genuinely kind of a nice guy, and that his relationship with Diana was actually quite sweet. But as it turns out, the game's lead devs had to get a bit of a helping hand in writing Diana specifically, resulting in a group of women coming in to help as part of the "Diana Police."

What are we all playing this weekend?

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Saturdays are for realising that there are ASMR playlists for Frictional's Amnesia games. ASMR playlists, for games that make use of subliminal crackling noises to suggest mounting delirium, and Shepard tones to create the impression that a life-saving generator is always just about to run out of fuel.

What on earth is wrong with you people? And why can't I stop listening to the Rebirth one? What is it about the sound of a thousand ghoul talons raking a blackboard that goes so well with a bowl of Shreddies? It is too late for me, I fear. Here's what the rest of the team are up to.

"An elevated lifestyle no matter what happens outside”: we need more horror games set in billionaire apocalypse bunkers

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Billionaires rarely make for very interesting fabulists - they have people for that sort of thing - but in their obsession with securing a legacy, they do necessarily spend a lot of time in the realm of make-believe. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the shape of luxury apocalypse bunkers, all of them perfect settings for horror games.

The Outer Worlds 2 studio Obsidian accused of "violating state wage and hour laws" for profit in California lawsuit

Mark Warren — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 16:02:34 +0000

Obsidian Entertainment, developers of The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed, have been sued in California for allegedly engaging "in a systematic pattern of wage and hour violations". The case was initially filed in the Superior Court of Orange County by plaintiff Victoria Turner in the latter half of 2025, with Turner accusing Obsidian of - among other things - failure to pay minimum and overtime wage or provide lunch and rest breaks. Obsidian filed a response in March denying "each and every allegation" in Turner's compaint and asking to have the case thrown out.

Slay the Spire 2 gets a patch for broken RNG after player turns in gruelling eight hour video exposé

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 15:45:00 +0000

Slay the Spire 2 has received a major update that adds Steam Workshop support for mods alongside a proper monster bestiary for the Compendium. It also introduces a new boss, Aeonglass, in place of the much-berated Doormaker. These are pretty juicy changes, and yet, the most intriguing part of the patch is a deceptively dry question of disobedient mathematics.

PUBG now has genAI team mates capable of "intelligent decision-making", and I must remind you that Krafton are working on bots for the military

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 15:15:00 +0000

PUBG: Battlegrounds – aka Plunkbat – is getting generative AI team mates in the shape of PUBG Ally Duo, which is available now in beta. The new functionality uses Nvidia tech to simulate "autonomous game characters that use AI to perceive, plan, and take action within their environment". They also have speech models so that they can do bantz.

Out of nowhere, excellent tactics game Battle Brothers gets a pile of dreadful swords - its first proper patch in a year

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 14:09:41 +0000

As you lean back in your chair with a sigh and count the hours left in the working day, a hideously hairy stranger appears in the door. His eyes are yellow and bulging, his beard rank with ale and bogwater, his helm battered and hung with viscera. He opens his stinking yap and bellows at you like an elephant seal with its whiskers trapped in a lawnmower. Then he drops a huge pile of crude, rusty weapons at your feet. That's right, it's finally time for a proper update for Battle Brothers, the mercenary tactics management sim beloved of the Nics we used to know.

I might have hit that hospital with a high explosive shell, but Iron Nest: Heavy Turret Simulator hit me right in the feels

Julian Benson — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 11:24:55 +0000

When you first start Iron Nest: Heavy Turret Simulator, you're standing in a small office annex of the walking artillery unit you call home. A board in front of you lays out the process of firing the turret's cannon. First you measure the distance and bearing to the target, calculate the necessary turret elevation, load the gun, angle and rotate the cannon, and then fire the shell. It all looks simple enough.

However, seeing as the inside of the Iron Nest is the size of a small warehouse, this artillery unit surely dwarfs the 'Gustav', the train-mounted cannon Germany built to blast the French forts of the Maginot Line. And, seeing as this machine looks to be of a similar vintage, getting that gun to fire is going to be a muscularly manual process.

On the office desk is a vinyl. I drop it onto the record player, crank up the volume, and head to the map table, pencil and compass in hand, military marching loudly blaring out of the Iron Nest's tannoy.

Baldur's Gate 3 Path to Menzoberranzan custom campaign modders offer glimpse of their long-awaited demo level's "dark, ruined dungeon" as environments near completion

Mark Warren — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 10:21:33 +0000

Late last year, the modders behind an ambitious Baldur's Gate 3 custom campaign mod called Path to Menzoberranzan pencilled in plans to release a Nautiold-sized demo level during the first half of 2026. That timeline was settled on following a re-think of the project's scope last summer, and with this summer now in full swing, the group have put out a teaser of the level alongside announcing its environments are nearly finished.

Valve roll out a more detailed timeline for Steam Controller orders, giving you a clearer picture of when you'll hear about your reservation

Mark Warren — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 08:46:01 +0000

If you've put in an order for a Steam Controller and are still awaiting its arrival, a new system Valve have rolled out can offer you an estimate of when you should hear from them about your order. While you'll only be given one of three very rough windows, it's at least something to go on if you're wondering where you're at in the queue.

Epic's plans for their big store revamp over the next year sound like they'll at long last meet the bare minimum

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 21:53:29 +0000

The Epic Games Store is not very good. This is not a controversial thing to say, I'm fairly certain, as the lack of features available within it feels a bit odd also eight years into the thing existing. Sure, there's some free games every now and then (like Citizen Sleeper, right now), but there's a lot of basic things missing. But it seems much of that, including simple things like patch notes, will be coming within the next 12 months.

God judged me for killing someone in Meaningless Random Numbers but I owe the devil some money so what else could I do?

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 20:28:48 +0000

In front of me is a single die. It costs me a bit of money to roll it, but I get a four, so I get four dollars, so I'm making a profit all the same. It costs me a bit more to roll this time. I do it anyway, and I get a bit more money, and more importantly experience points. After a while, I'm able to add in another die. You know what that means: more money. And I need the money, because I owe the devil a good few hundo. This is Meaningless Random Numbers, an incremental horror game where god is watching you.

"Hell or high water": the System Shock remake's co-director on the sneaky step taken to get the game made

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 19:20:31 +0000

That there System Shock remake sure seems to have had one of the weirdest developments on any game around. There's the fact it took so long (almost eight whole years) having been delayed numerous times, but also the fact that at one point the FBI was called in on developer Nightdive. And now, it turns out that a group of devs within the studio banded together to form a sort of secret group to actually get it made.

Latest official SteamOS update paves the way for Steam Machine with a bunch of new display features and faster patches

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 17:07:43 +0000

Following the customary beta tests, Valve have released a new SteamOS update that adds "initial" support for the forthcoming Steam Machine, that unconscionable hybrid of desktop computer and videogame console, feared by man and god alike. It's one, small step along the road to the new hardware's (delayed) release this summer, at which point we will probably discover that it costs eleventy thousand pounds per unit.

The interstellar dice-driven RPG Citizen Sleeper is free for the next week, so now you've got no excuse to not play it

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 17:05:52 +0000

Hurrah! Today is a very fine Thursday, as one of the most tightly written sci-fi RPGs around is available to pick up for free for around a week. That'll be Citizen Sleeper, by the way, a dice-driven RPG that I'm sure all of you must already know and love, but for the selection of you that don't technically exist, I'm sure you'll be happy to be able to pick it up for the cost of a couple of clicks.

After Epic outline a genAI focused Unreal Engine 6, Vampire Survivors studio Poncle say they're "reviewing" their Fortnite collab

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:06:46 +0000

If you heard the sound of a wet fart reverberating throughout the world yesterday, it'll likely be thanks to the most recent State of Unreal, where Epic offered some more concrete details regarding its plans for Unreal Engine 6. Namely, that it wants to infuse it with generative AI, and there's also some bollocks about using your Fortnite skins in other games and vice versa. But speaking of Fortnite, the same showcase announced a Vampire Survivors collab was on the cards, only for developer poncle to learn about the generative AI stuff the same time as the rest of us and express some concern over it.

Reach the roof before your toe fungus reaches your brain in Moldrise, my favourite horror demo in ages

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 15:57:30 +0000

As I write these words, Julian has just published a feature about Signet City, the new "fungalpunk" RPG from Citizen Sleeper and In Other Waters developer Gareth Damian Martin, in which you are a soulful parasite moving between the minds and bodies of an entire urban population. Doubtless, it is a splendid account of what is very likely a masterpiece of post-anthropocentric poetics, assuming I'm clocking Gareth's current theoretical preoccupations correctly. Unfortunately, I don't have time to read the article because there is a horrible mushroom in my foot that's trying to eat my brain.

The infestation literally squelches beneath me, as I haul myself between the floors of an apartment block decked with mouldy pizza and rusty chains. The more it spreads, the more… textured the squelching, and the louder the groans of my avatar as I shamble from door to door on a desperate quest for lotion.

Signet City is an RPG where you play a brain fungus feeding off the emotions of your host, like a mushroom-themed Monsters, Inc

Julian Benson — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 15:03:29 +0000

The broil of ideas that make up Signet City have been growing in Gareth Damian Martin's head for years and they're about fit to burst. The creator of In Other Waters and Citizen Sleeper describes their new game as a first-person fungalpunk RPG, a game that draws inspiration from the history and culture of the northern England, the whalepunk tech of Dishonored's world, and lifts systems from cyberpunk tabletop game The Veil. But it's as much a manifestation of projects they're reacting against, as those they're reverently lifting from.

We'll get into all that, but put the highbrow, high concept references to the side for a moment. It's maybe easier to think of Signet City as a bit like Monsters, Inc, but with more mushrooms.

Warren Spector-helmed Thick as Thieves developers OtherSide lay off 17 staff as they cancel multiplayer immersive sim Argos: Riders on the Storm

Mark Warren — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 14:24:31 +0000

Thick As Thieves developers OtherSide Entertainment have laid off 17 employees following the cancellation of a multiplayer immersive sim dubbed Argos: Riders on the Storm. The studio's helmed by Looking Glass Studios veterans Warren Spector and Paul Neurath - key figures in shaping the likes of Deus Ex and System Shock 2 - said via a spokesperson that they believe Argos "could have been a huge success in normal times".

Fortnite boss hopes to take on Roblox's massive everythingverse with a "very different" massive everythingverse, as Epic unveil genAI-infused Unreal Engine 6

Mark Warren — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:11:56 +0000

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, overseer of a company which fired over 1000 staff just a few months ago, has laid out his vision for the games industry's future during a "time of both crisis and opportunity". As Epic revealed an Unreal Engine 6 packed with generative AI model support designed to "reduce the tedious work" that goes into making games, Sweeney painted a picture of a future in which the threat of Roblox eating the world is combatted by a bunch of game makers working with Epic to create a massive integrated everythingverse that's somehow totally different to Roblox's massive integrated everythingverse.

Dark Souls 2 seamless co-op mod is "close" to being playtest-ready, having morphed into one of its creator's "most complicated and ambitious projects to date"

Mark Warren — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 08:55:14 +0000

Prolific FromSoft game multiplayer modder Yui is "close" to being ready to open up alpha testing of their latest seamless co-op mod, this time for Dark Souls 2. Despite it following the the footsteps of their seamless co-op mods for the likes of Elden Ring, Nightreign, and the original Dark Souls, Yui said this DS2 mod's turned out to be a very different kettle of fish and one of their "most complicated and ambitious projects to date".

Fired Rockstar developers can bring blacklisting claims against the GTA 6 developer, UK tribunal rules as final trial looms

Mark Warren — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:01:50 +0000

An employment tribunal in the UK has ruled against striking blacklisting claims levied against Rockstar Games by staff the GTA 6 studio abruptly fired last year from ongoing legal proceedings between the two sides. 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. The IWGB Game Workers Union, representing the ousted workers, have accused Rockstar of union busting over the firings.

Abe Lincoln dodged the bullet in goblinAmerica, a brain-mottling shooter set in a putrefying alternative USA

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 15:52:09 +0000

Towards the end of goblinAmerica's tutorial level, you mercilessly gun down a huge cherry tree. Like much else in the game's world, the tree is an abomination – beige and rubbery as a stunted hatchling, with hard, tacky fruit hanging from it like dumbbells torturously sewn into the skin. Its death throes are pathetic, and somehow erotic. It sags and sprawls, breasting across the arena boobily with an undefinable cry. I am happy that this creature is slain, and hope never to encounter its like again. I know in my heart that I will.

From its electric melee fights to its surprise Firewatch nods, Control Resonant's radical sequelcraft looks like it might just pay off

James Archer — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:52:36 +0000

It seems appropriate that Control Resonant drags the Remedyverse back away from Alan Wake II’s screeching horror, as it’s spent the past few weeks – and as of yesterday, about three hours of playable preview build – assuaging my fears. Control the First, in my defence, took its kinetically supernatural shooting, put it in the hands of a likeable hero, and wrapped everything in a delightfully weird megastructure of brutalist concrete. Could Resonant get away with changing all three?

"The world is built": Skyblivion devs call for extra quest-making hands to help overcome the massive mod's "final roadblocks" to release

Mark Warren — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:21:50 +0000

A couple of months on from pushing to make some vital veteran additions to their team in order to get their massive Oblivion remake mod over the line, Skyblivion's developers are once again appealing for volunteers to aid in overcoming some "final roadblocks" standing the way of its release. Meanwhile, it sounds like the chances of another statistical breakdown from the modders running down exactly what's left to be done are low, with Skyblivion's implementation lead asserting that the mod's so close to the finish line such data's no longer "a super relevant way of displaying our remaining work".

Many live service games are just an MMO subscription "hidden inside of a neat 'optional' package", argue Guild Wars 3 devs in a post about the new game's monetisation

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:10:39 +0000

Guild Wars 3 developers ArenaNet have published a Hot Take of sorts about the MMORPG genre, while explaining in broad strokes how their forthcoming "modern evolution" will differ from Guild Wars 1, released in 2005, and Guild Wars 2, released in 2012.

As they note, MMOs and gaming at large have changed enormously over the course of the series. Entire business models, storage formats, and subsets of bikini armour have come and gone. In particular, the developers offer some thoughts about how the MMO genre at large has bled into the concept of live service, making the case that a lot of notionally "optional" live service game monetisation consists of talking around the fact that you're effectively demanding a subscription.

Crusader Kings 3 devs Paradox will make the roaming mercenary lifestyle of playing as a landless adventurer free for everyone later this year

Mark Warren — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 11:15:45 +0000

While Crusader Kings 3 typically deals in the fantasy of sitting on a big chair in one place and shouting at underlings, roaming its world as a the unlanded leader of a band of travelling adventurers is just as fun and arguably the best way to kick off a custom dynasty. Up to now, the freedom to pursue the life of a ruthless mercenary, valiant knight, or stuffy bureaucrat surviving off of favours for rulers while searching for the ideal title or throne to claim as their own once they're ready has been locked behind 2024's Roads to Power expansion. Thankfully, Paradox plan to whisk it out from behind that curtain and make it a free part of the base game later this year.

The Guild: Europa 1410 is a medieval strategy reboot that plays like a fussy Kingdom Come boardgame

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:41:04 +0000

The Guild: Europa 1410 is a reboot of 4HEAD's strategy game Europa 1400: The Guild from 2002, created by the studio behind the well-regarded World War sim Last Train Home. My first hurdle in the Steam demo is working out who and where the hell I am. The demo treats you to a slice of Kuttenberg, a Czech city made famous to a lot of non-Czech people by Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2: at a glance, it could be the Warhorse RPG with a top-down mod.

It gives you wheel-churned roads among houses of wattle and daub; vegetable patches and windmills and furnaces roamed by dozens of 'living, breathing' folk in authentically muted period attire. All of it basking beneath a day-night cycle and a spread of weather conditions. All of it pleasantly hard to decipher from bird's eye view, though there's a highlighting function to boil away the set dressing.

Microsoft reportedly only announced Ninja Theory's new game at Summer Game Fest to try and attract a buyer for the studio

Mark Warren — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:52:38 +0000

Hellblade developers Ninja Theory are one of the numerous Microsoft-owned studios currently facing a very uncertain future, as the company look to either spin off or shutter a bunch of the developers under the Xbox banner. In Ninja Theory's case, the news that their existence hangs in the balance was made even more jarring by the fact they'd revealed a new game, Senua, earlier this month at Xbox's summer showcase. According to a fresh report, however, Microsoft had already decided they were going to kill or part with the studio prior to Senua's reveal, with that showing aimed - at least in the eyes of Xbox execs - at trying to boost the chances of Ninja Theory attracting some new investors.

Naoki Hamaguchi explains why Final Fantasy 7 Revelation has that subtitle even if the game's central theme is "Resolve"

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:53:55 +0000

When Final Fantasy 7 Remake part two was officially revealed to be titled Rebirth, an immediate question arose for pretty much everyone: what will part three be called? That question has persisted since Rebirth came out, with way too many people suggesting Reunion despite the fact they did that one for Crisis Core (seriously, what's with that). The answer was finally revealed this month to be Revelation at Summer Geoff Fest, and as it turns out, we all found out at the same time as pretty much everyone that's working on the threequel.

Less than a month after launch, the entire Luna Abyss team has been laid off

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 20:28:23 +0000

Last month, publisher Kwalee released their first game made in house as part of their studio Kwalee Labs, Luna Abyss, a first-person bullet-hell platforming adventure game about a prisoner exploring a derelict megastructure. Now, it appears that the entire team that made the game has been laid off.

The European Commission will not legislate Stop Killing Games, but the campaign isn't dead yet, say its organisers

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 17:58:24 +0000

Last month the European Commission promised that they would provide a response to the Stop Killing Games campaign that seeks to gain more protections around online game server shutdowns into law. That reply has now come in and, essentially, it's not the result Stop Killing Games were after.

Saber open the Hellraiser: Revival release date box and show it's coming in October

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 17:04:18 +0000

About a year ago, Saber Interactive offered up the fairly surprising reveal of a Hellraiser game in the form of Hellraiser: Revival. It's a singleplayer joint, one that sort of reminds me of Outlast in vibe, and now a year on from that reveal Saber have locked in a seasonally appropriate (roughly) release date.

Copa City is a sweet and sweaty mix of city-building and tycoon game in which you manage armies of football fans

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:43:48 +0000

Copa City is a football game in which you do everything but play football. The playing of football is the empty centre of this strategy gaming doughnut - the calm in the eye of a storm of city-building and tycoon management mechanics. You've been hired by some famous real-world clubs to organise their matches, a job that extends from outfitting the stadium itself to plonking down fanzones, drink stalls and mascots in the streets beyond.

Over the course of 14 days, you price tickets for the stands, and divide them up between the three main spectator groups – ultras, core supporters, and families. You plot routes through the city to the stadium, place camera crews, hire security, and oversee your volunteers. Then match day comes, and you sit back and sob with pride as hundreds of boisterous, cherubic soccer enthusiasts process towards the pitch, in a spectral onslaught of party smoke and streamers.

Life is Strange creator Don't Nod look to be in hot water as a financial report says they'll be out of cash by November

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:06:44 +0000

It's not a good week to be in the games industry (again). As Xbox reportedly prepare to either shutter or spin off Double Fine, Ninja Theory and Compulsion, Don't Nod, original developer of the Life is Strange series, look to be in hot water of their own. As it currently stands, it appears that Don't Nod will run out of cash come November this year.

Please help us find the players hiding in these screenshots of million-selling painterly stealth game Meccha Chameleon

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 14:30:22 +0000

Last week saw the release of Meccha Chameleon, a Japanese indie game in which groups of players hide from other players armed with shotguns. The twist over similar prop hunt games (that I've played, anyway) is that you can pose and freely paint your character's body, disguising them within each map's colourful scenery. I had a feeling the idea might catch on – it's the kind of novelty item that makes for good Youtubage. I wasn't expecting it to sell two million copies.

One of the game's loveliest qualities is that, strictly speaking, you don't need to play it to play it. You can just skim through the screenshots of exceptionally skilled or foolish feats of camouflage on Reddit and the Steam forums. Here's a few that made me chuckle.

What are we all playing this Steam Next Fest?

Julian Benson — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 13:04:00 +0000

We're over the hump of this week's Steam Next Fest now. The vent wraps up on Monday, so really we only have the weekend to muscle through and then we're free from the demo life. We can go back to consuming games only in their entirety, leaving these pintxos of play behind.

As ever, thank you for your recommendations in the comments. While we won't get through all 5 billion demos before the 22nd, I feel like we've already unearthed some winners.

EA, the big brains behind The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff, announce they're "transforming how brands connect with audiences" – with in-game billboards

Julian Benson — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:02:00 +0000

In the time-old tradition of marketing, EA have announced something ancient as though it's just been thought up by the boffins in the advertising lab. Their big new moneymaking wheeze to squeeze every last penny out of their games: billboards.

In a press release that stretches into essay-length territory, EA sing the praises of their new ad platform, which is "transforming how brands connect with audiences". Companies looking to hock their wares can now pay EA to plaster themselves over any and all in-game advertising slots.

Assassin's Creed Shadows' final update adds one last story mission and a wearable Black Flag Resynced advert

James Archer — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 10:56:39 +0000

Mostly decent open-world ninja sim Assassin’s Creed Shadows is getting its last big update today, as Ubisoft begin the process of shooing players away from the year-old RPG and towards the gleaming, nipple-adding newness of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced. The Shadows patch even includes an unlockable outfit based on Edward Kenway’s pirate garb, displaced only 150 or so years out of its appropriate time period for your synergistic brand awareness pleasure.

Another Xbocalypse begins: Microsoft are reportedly closing or spinning off Double Fine, Ninja Theory and Compulsion

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 09:54:08 +0000

Xbox are reportedly closing or spinning off Psychonauts developers Double Fine, Hellblade studio Ninja Theory, and South of Midnight creators Compulsion Games, as Microsoft commence efforts to yet again "reset" their billion dollar gaming business after already laying off thousands of staff, cancelling games, and closing several studios over the past couple of years.

Control a huge drilling vessel rife with bloody religious symbolism in Mole, a horror sim from former GTFO developers

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:43:27 +0000

"There is a hole in the world," writes Ursula K Le Guin in The Farthest Shore, "and the light is running out of it." Alas, The Farthest Shore contains no terrible mechanical instruments of hole-digging. For that, we must turn to MOLE, "a psychological horror experience with tactile simulation elements about madness, faith, and the depths we choose to dig".

Out now on Steam, it makes me think of Mike Klubnika's clicky torture instruments, of Iron Lung's unseen exteriors, and of Mouthwashing's workaday cabin fever. In brief, it seems like an effective delivery system for some extraordinarily bad vibes.

Xbox Games Studios loses two top execs, days after Microsoft gaming CEO calls for company "reset"

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 15:51:47 +0000

Xbox Games Studios boss Craig Duncan and chief of staff Louise O'Connor have left Microsoft, according to reports, with all the studios under Duncan's watch now operating under Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty until a replacement is found.

The UK's dramatic under-16 social media ban will also apply to "gaming services", but at least they're not coming for multiplayer

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 15:06:19 +0000

The UK government have announced a ban on social media platforms for British people under the age of 16, encompassing Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X.com (known hereabouts as MechaHitler.com or Xitter, among other lousy putdowns). The ban is expected to come into force in spring 2027, and will have far-reaching impacts on ye olde videogame discourse, because people do so love to share and talk about games on social media.

The under-16s ban will also directly apply to certain gaming "services", though prime minister Keir Starmer and his minions have yet to specify which. It won't, apparently, "affect the ability for children to participate in multiplayer games online".

Nvidia G-Sync Pulsar monitors can successfully beat biology to hone motion clarity in games - though they're not yet worth the price

James Archer — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 13:50:55 +0000

Back when I first tried a G-Sync Pulsar monitor at an Nvidia shindig in February, I clung to the hope that maybe, finally, gaming display tech had made its first real breakthrough in years. Dozens, if not hundreds of samey screens would be revealed as incompetent fools in the searing light of Pulsar’s innovative genius; Nvidia’s own frame generation systems would weep in shame that they once tried to mock up the fluidity and motion clarity that Pulsar could deliver for real.

Now, I have one such Pulsar monitor – an identical 1440p, 360Hz Asus ROG Strix XG27AQNGV to the one from that demo – to test at length, and can at last say with certainty: yeah, s'alright. Pretty decent. Doesn’t make much of a difference in some games but it can look quite nice. Probably too expensive, mind. Why can’t I hear any weeping?

This week in PC games: a trio of surreal shooters, a big Stellaris expansion, and a new RPG from Octopath Traveller devs

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 11:15:10 +0000

"The mid-summer dry spell"? My friend, your naivete is exceeded only by your boorishness. You should be ashamed of yourself! This week is anything but dry. It's the week of another Steam Next Fest – a period of carefully abbreviated, wishlist-baiting bounty, in which we cram the Maw's many jaws with demos and playtests.

The Witcher 3 online mod adds multiplayer Gwent battles in its latest update, a bit like CD Projekt's Gwent game but with more losers being ridden around by winners

Mark Warren — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 10:43:30 +0000

The Witcher 3's multiplayer mod, the world's premier tool for forming big towers of multiple Geralts precariously perched atop each others' shoulders, has added another string to its bow. You can now meet up with some mates at a tavern to play games of Gwent against them, a concept so appealing CD Projekt made a whole game out of it.

Pumping out new Fallout and Elder Scrolls games faster is reportedly the plan at Xbox, as the spectre of potential corporate rejigging looms

Mark Warren — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 09:43:07 +0000

As reports suggesting major changes are brewing at Xbox, likely involving mass layoffs, continue to swirl, the console maker's current boss' plans for the future apparently involve pushing out new Fallout and Elder Scrolls games in speedier fashion. Asha Sharma's desire to whip out new entries in flagship series reportedly comes as Microsoft are considering spinning out or restructuring Xbox as a subsidiary.

How Croakwood captures the challenge of a townbuilder like Anno but avoids the stress and pressure

Julian Benson — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

If, like me, you walk through this world forever thinking about Chicken Run, you too may expect at any moment to discover the animal kingdom is actually made up of industrious town-building critters. Though, hopefully they're not looking to attack and tie us up if ever they're rumbled. Especially when the towns they're making look as delightful as those in frog townbuilder Croakwood. I could watch their hustle and bustle all day.

The next game from Parkitect developer Texel Raptor, Croakwood puts you in the role of mayor and town planner for a small community of frogs. Hidden under the canopy of leaves and trees surrounding a small pond, the amphibian settlement would be easy to miss as you stroll through their wood. Especially when you consider the frogs themselves are only a few centimeters tall.

But there's more going on in this townbuilder than meets the eye, as the developers have been exploring ways to capture the challenge of a demanding management game without introducing the stress and pressure that traditionally comes with them.

The Sunday Papers

Julian Benson — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Sundays are for testing the limits of the hunger for street furniture in your community.

Since moving into the new flat, we've been taking things left behind by the previous owner down to the street one-by-one. A lamp here, a side table there, a splash of shelving. So far, everything has been taken by neighbours and passersby. But, after a week of rain where we couldn't take anything out without it getting drenched (and losing any chance of being taken), we've a glut of things to put out. With my sister coming to stay on Monday, it all has to go in one. Will my neighbors be left unable to choose between an office chair, a wobbly step ladder, and yet more shelving? Time will tell.

Still, while I sit beside the living room window, watching to see if anyone carries off the loose kitchen cabinet unit, I'll need something to read…

Vanillaware seemingly want their other games on PC too, but if you want that to happen, talk to their publishers

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 21:54:06 +0000

Vanillaware might not be a household name to some of you, but it's got a library that hangs up there with the best of them. Odin Sphere, Dragon's Crown, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, all games that I have seen their biggest supports plead for you to play them on sites like Dwitter and Bluesky. Only problem for us lot is that none of them are on PC. Well, most of them, as just this week it was announced that one of their earlier titles Muramasa: The Demon Blade will finally be coming to PC. And, as it seemingly turns out, Vanillaware would like more of their games to be made available on PC… it's just not up to them.

Penguin Colony's demo shows life as a flightless bird is lonely, scary, awkward, and cosmically intriguing

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 20:38:54 +0000

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that when you think of penguins and video games, Club Penguin is probably the one that comes to mind for you (or the Surf's Up adaptation if you're nasty). There aren't really a lot of games about these flightless birds, and they're normally on the sillier side when there are because penguins are funny little critters. Penguin Colony, the next game from the devs behind Umurangi Generation, doesn't completely abandon that silliness, but it does throw in some cosmic horror and the hubris of man in for good measure. And its first demo certainly sets the stage for an old experience.

Zlin City: Arch Moderna is a diorama city builder made with actual, physical models and based on a real Czech city

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 17:55:02 +0000

City builders, kind of by definition, tend to be quite large in form. You're constructing an entire city here after all, and all the complications that come with that. So how about a citybuilder that's going for something a bit smaller? Meet Zlin City: Arch Moderna, a city builder designed to look like you're making dioramas, made by scanning actual, physical models, inspired by the real Czech city Ziln.

Whether you believe it or not, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi says the end's been planned from the start

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 17:07:41 +0000

Generally when a game gets remade, you'll assume that it'll mostly be the same at least narratively, given how not normal can be with works that are considered uncomfortably sacred. That's certainly what many may have guessed about the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, only those pesky Whispers to get in the way offering some changes here and there. Rebirth continued that here and there, staying the course in other ways, and Revelation will be out next year with an ending you can't change. And according to director Naoki Hamaguchi, that ending has been planned right from the beginning, more or less.

Nintendo reportedly look set to net so little from their Palworld lawsuit you'll wonder why they bothered

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 16:07:30 +0000

As with most suits of this nature, the one Nintendo filed against Palworld developer Pocketpair has been going on for a while now. Almost two years, in fact, specifically over infringement of patent rights related to specific mechanics, as opposed to anything like copyright. Nintendo suffered a bit of a loss earlier this year, and now it sounds like the whole thing might only net them what is essentially pocket change (for a billion dollar company, anyway).

"There's nothing worse than an AI-generated pitch": Bloober, Jagex, 11 bit and indie devs on the bruising hurdle of funding a videogame prototype

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Among the worries faced by game developers seeking a publisher is the gamble of a prototype – that is, "a playable build that meaningfully shows what’s good about your game – a proof of concept", in the summary of Suspicious Developments boss Tom Francis. Specifically, Francis says a "prototypable project is one where you can build that in an amount of time you can afford to lose".

Few independent devs have bags of time to lose, and there's no guarantee the labour will be rewarded. And yet, many publishers today won't even come to the table unless they can get their hands on a playable slice of a game. At Digital Dragons in Krakow this year, I spoke to people from 11 Bit, Jagex and Bloober Team, together with a couple of independent teams, about the seeming necessity of prototypes and the associated temptation to knock them together using generative AI.

What are we all playing this weekend?

Julian Benson — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +0000

The weather has been an unpredictable mess of downpour and blazing sun this week, but Saturday feels like it could be the turn. Another chance for the sun to yank on the starter cord of summer and get that season's engine thrumming.

I simply refuse to have to turn back from another walk around the park because 10 metres from my front door the lovely sunshine is replaced by pelting rain.

I sure hope Crimson Desert's new pet limit means I can own 100 pigeons at once, even if I'll only have 50 in camp because Pearl Abyss are cowards

Mark Warren — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 16:13:26 +0000

Crimson Desert. It's basically an everything game at this point, so it's not too suprising that the latest update developers Pearl Abyss have put out takes the Red Pudding further down the road of being a Nintendogs competitor. The number of pets you can tame as you wander around Pywel has been growing gradually since launch and you can now have up to 100 of them. That seems dangerously impractical, but hey, video game.

Forza Horizon 6 PC players urged to check their Microsoft Gaming Services version, as Playground tackle disappearing saves

Mark Warren — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 14:50:11 +0000

Following some instances of Forza Horizon 6 players losing saves and ending up having to start over from scratch, developers Playground Games are starting to roll out fixes. For PC folks, they're advising a check that the latest version of Microsoft Gaming Services is running, as the app is the way PC-centric fixes for the issue are being rolled out.

Frontier are making a new Planet strategy management game that features neither Zoos nor Coasters

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 13:30:00 +0000

Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster developers Frontier have a new Planet game in development that involves neither zoos nor rollercoasters, a scandalous turn of events. The project features a "completely new setting", in fact, though it'll still be some kind of strategy management game.

Over the Hill might slap a chill sheen over SnowRunner’s rugged off-roading, but it’ll still drown your jeep in a second if you let it

Mark Warren — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 13:00:00 +0000

I really should learn to take this stretch of trail a bit more carefully. The one that runs precariously alongside the edge of a lake, dipping and getting muddier right at the point when it’s easiest to gently stumble into the water if you’re not paying enough attention. The one which seems the only passable route around a mountain to the final cabin I’ve yet to visit in this autumnal stretch of Canadian backwoods. I really should be more careful, I lament as my Land Rover sits uselessly slumped on its side under the waves, its engine having drowned a good five minutes ago.

Stranger Than Heaven will explore Tupac's "potential future" if "he was still alive now", according to RGG studio head

Mark Warren — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:25:16 +0000

In case you missed the opening night of this year's Summer Geoffs, Like A Dragon/Yakuza devs RGG Studio's Japanese history-hopping crime brawler Stranger Than Heaven got a release date. That was rather overshadowed, however, by the reveal that it'll feature a digitally resurrected version of rapper Tupac Shakur. While not the first deceased face to be confirmed as featuring in the game, that honour went to Japanese actor Bunta Sugawara, Shakur's inclusion naturally raised a lot of eyebrows. RGG boss Masayoshi Yokoyama's now spoken in more depth about the decision to include Tupac's likeness in a game about the origins of the Tojo Clan.

I will always fear the idle genre but wizard school RPG Abracademia is more enchanting than most, with around 300 spells to learn

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 11:55:01 +0000

I'm not sure I can imagine greater horror than that of the "desktop idle sim". My computer's desktop already fills me with confusion and dismay. It's a mixed media moraine of reaction gifs, rogue ebooks, abandoned drafts, and shortcuts for apps I uninstalled years ago. It is like seeing my life's failure reflected in the compound eye of the fly nibbling on my corpse. And now, you would have me run a small widescreen videogame at the bottom of the view? Madness. A small widescreen videogame about a mage attending mage school? Well, all right then. But give me a few seconds to at least sort by Item Type.

"Pay the gravity tax": In crushing strategy game Asema, your factories will become a vortex if they grow too vast

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:59:25 +0000

I like a factory simulation that fervently embraces the basic evilness of factory sims, these games about wrapping a smoking, clanking straitjacket around a realm of organic colours and unsuspecting resource deposits. Or in the case of Asema, around the wonders of the interstellar abyss, and whatever life it contains. "You are old, one of many," goeth the blurb. "There may be an infinite amount of your kind in the cosmos, older than stellar dust. But for you, the only space that matters is the one you can silence."

Gosh, that's a sentence, isn't it? Up there with "Sins of a Solar Empire" in terms of billowing nihilism. What else have you got to offer, Asema? You say you're replacing our beloved conveyor belts with huge railguns, so as to launch resource packages between factory nodes suspended in a 2D gravitational simulation? Yes, I think the grasping starbarons who read Rock Paper Shotgun would enjoy hearing about this.

Stop Killing Games-backed California bill targeting online game shutdowns "isn't going to be an easy thing" to enforce, says the politician behind it

Mark Warren — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:17:20 +0000

The main politician behind the Californian bill backed by the Stop Killing Games campaign that's currently making its way through the state's legislature has admitted that ensuring it's enforced likely won't be a walk in the park. Still, Assemblymember Chris Ward is hoping that if passed, the bill - which would see publishers shutting down servers for online games forced to provide full refunds or a version of the game players can keep on playing independently of said servers as part of the process - will have an impact which extends beyond California itself.

Ahead of its 1.0 launch, RuneScape: Dragonwilds fits in one more, scorching hot update later this month

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 21:58:53 +0000

It's been a big week for RuneScape: Dragonwilds! The survival game spinoff of the MMO classic had its 1.0 release date confirmed at Geoff's Night of Shiny Ads, and now Jagex have another release date to hand over. This one's for Umbral Sands, the game's next big update that takes it to an incredibly hot looking desert.

Bounce 2 is a sequel to an Atari "PONG killer" that I'm pretty sure never existed

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:48:59 +0000

There's something fishy going on here. Imagine you're me for a moment (sorry, I'm sorry, it'll be over soon). I'm having a browse on Steam, looking for anything a bit different, when you see a vibrant, CRT-interlacing ridden Atari-esque looking game called Bounce 2. I click on, and discover it's a sequel to a 1983 Atari 2600 game called Bounce that was designed to be a PONG killer, only to release during the infamous video game crash. Except I think none of this is true! Well, apart from the bit about Bounce 2 existing.

Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions blasts off into early access today, with a full planet ready for you to explore

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 18:03:32 +0000

A little bit of space travel, anyone? Last time I checked in on Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions, the sort of spin off of regular ole Astroneer, it had only just shown off some gameplay for the first time. Apparently somewhere along the line I blinked and now here we are on its early access release day!

Tapestry is a painterly grand strategy multiplayer war game where you plot your victory at the start of every match

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 17:13:07 +0000

Grand strategy games are often these slow, methodical things that require you to take your time, a genre that feels better suited solo. But how about a game that takes those same processes and throws in some multiplayer? In doing so you get Tapestry, a turn-based strategy game where you pit your faction against three others, all rendered in a painterly visage with deliciously choppy character animations.

X4: Foundations' Empire update, out now, delivers the space sim's biggest bout of battle balancing yet, plus RTS-style ordering and ship showrooms for showoffs

Mark Warren — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 16:05:28 +0000

Spaceshipper X4: Foundations just underwent an empire-sized overhaul dubbed the empire update, which is fitting for a game that famously lets you form your own angry empirical armada of spacefolk. Among the plans on the agenda for the Xtending of X4 have been a rebalancing of ship combat that devs Eogosoft reckon is their most substantial to date as well as some handy additions like the ability to recycle Kha'ak derelicts and issue priority orders which override all other comms chatter to your troops.

From Mr. Potato Head to a cosmic '70s documentary, Spore's creators share how it came to be

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 16:03:57 +0000

I don't tend to think of Spore as a game that really came from any one person, moreso an omnipresent entity that just somehow installs itself on your computer. This is hogwash, of course, as it was made by creator The Sims Will Wright during his tenure at Maxis.

Drums, cash grants, and bubbling capybaras: How Latin America's game dev creatives are outgrowing outsourcing

James Archer — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 12:55:06 +0000

Easily missed among last week’s Summer Game Fest advert marathon was the Latin American Games Showcase: an exhibition that, at over eighty games strong, dwarfed the Keighley-fronted main event, yet has received only a small fraction of the eyeballs. Less than two months earlier, 154,000 visitors poured into Gamescom Latam to see games made across Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Uruguay and more - but while that attendance was up 17.5% on the previous year, it totalled less than half the footfall of 2025’s Gamescom Cologne.

All the same, the audience gap faced by Latin America - to use the umbrella term for this vast and varied collection of nations - does not reflect a scarcity of clever or imaginative games. The diverse works being produced in these countries are as original as dinnertime RPG Family Reunion, as challenging as slavery-era naval battler Black Sailors, and as eye-catching as handpainted action-roguelike Talaka. The wider industry is taking note, too, with huge stacks of dollars pouring into Mexican, Brazilian, Argentinian, and Chilean organisations from the traditional powerhouses of North America and Europe.

However, this investment usually isn’t for the benefit of original games. At least, not directly. As it’s told by the creators themselves, the story of game development in these countries is one of a region that’s being mined for cheap, outsourced talent – yet has also formed a continent-spanning creative force, often by drawing directly from its own extensive range of cultures and histories.

Ubisoft are reportedly laying off up to 380 staff, as the Assassin's Creed publisher closes two studios and restructures another

Mark Warren — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:51:32 +0000

Ubisoft are reportedly continuing the ruthless cuts they've been insitituting in various stages since that start of this year, with the latest round seeing the publisher's Winnipeg and Belgrade studios closed down. At the same time, Ubisoft Barcelona is being restructured to focus solely on Rainbow Six games. As a result of all of that, up to 380 staff are reportedly at risk of losing their jobs.

Valor Mortis' acrobatic new demo makes me want to believe it's a soulslike prequel to Ghostrunner

James Archer — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:00:40 +0000

Update: A few hours after I posted this, One More Level announced that Valor Mortis is delayed from September 24th to October 13th. I'm leaving the rest of the article as it was, even though several of its jokes are ruined.

I thought I was pretty up to date on Valor Mortis, the Napoleonic first-person fencing soulslike underway at Ghostrunner devs One More Level, but it turns out I’d missed the four seconds of flesh magic hook-grappling in this prior trailer. As such, the swinging and wallrunning elements of the new, much-expanded demo ambushed me like British archers ambushed the French at Agincourt. Yes, I’m aware I’m about four hundred years off that simile being applicable.

Also, there’s another new trailer, and a release date: September 24th 2026. Hang on, that’s the same day as Control Resonant. And Silent Hill: Townfall. And one only one day before Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Which I’m not as interested in as the other two, but still, man.

"We have found ourselves over extended", new Xbox CEO says amid reports of plans for major job cuts

Julian Benson — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:08:15 +0000

The new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty are reportedly planning major job cuts across the gaming business next month. This marks a new chapter for Sharma, in which she plans to "reset the business". A barely-coded term for 'lay off a lot of people'.

Witcher 3 modders are restoring the RPG's massive cut plague questline, just in case CD Projekt's Songs of the Past expansion isn't enough extra Geralt

Mark Warren — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 09:22:12 +0000

Those modders, eh? Never ones to be outdone. CD Projekt whip out a surprise extra DLC for The Witcher 3 following months of speculation, revealing it's set to arrive in 2027. Naturally, that's now also the point when a group of the RPG's modders are planning to have an expansion-sized resurrection of a beefy questline CD Projekt cut from the initial version of TW3 fully up and running. They've got a demo out already.

Wonky witch fable 1666: Amsterdam is the kind of sexy nonsense I want from Assassin's Creed: Hexe

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 19:22:31 +0000

There have been so many Assassin's Creed games, and so many games inspired by Assassin's Creed, that it's easy to forget that Assassin's Creed used to be Weird. Or Weird for a game of its scale, anyway. I remember when Ubisoft revealed it, with an all-timer of an trailer showing Altaïr pouncing on some upstart Templars. And then, that flicker of code over masonry, that first hint that the medieval Crusades setting is a predatory digital facade.

There's never been an easier time to boycott Microsoft, the most boring video game publisher in the business

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 15:07:59 +0000

When I talk to other journalists and random bus stop strangers about the idea of divesting from Microsoft and Xbox - worth doing for many reasons besides the company's dealings with the Israeli military - there is often an air of learned helplessness, a kind of deer-in-headlights mentality. Microsoft's gaming biz is too huge to ignore. They own so much. They own a lot of the malarkey that gets eyeballs. Which I can confirm, based on day-to-day experience of traffic stats. Still, I would argue that they do not have any momentum with the things they own, and to be frank, a fair whack of their stuff does sod-all traffic for us. Microsoft today are institutionally incapable of being intriguing. As such, an extremely indulgent way of thinking about the BDS boycott is to treat it as positive encouragement to seek intrigue elsewhere.

Every detail of Blood Dungeon looks slapdash, but its mix of platformer and Vampire survivors gets my heart thumping

Julian Benson — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:31:39 +0000

I have sacrificed many an hour to the altar of Vampire Survivors and its kin. Deep Rock Galactic Survivors, Nimrods, Brotato, TerraTech Legion, Soulstone Survivors. I could go on. So I will, Rogue Genesia, 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Halls of Torment, Swarm Grinder. I've even put more time into the Warhammer Survivors demo than I'd care to admit. Many of them follow a similar formula to Poncle's original with only slight tweaks, and yet I'm still drawn into the loop of dodging about an arena, kiting hordes of enemies as my autofiring weapons soar up a generous power curve.

Blood Dungeon, though, is different. By stretching the familiar mechanics of Vampire Survivors over the skeleton of a platformer, Nidhogg's creators Messhof have made something delectably different.

Valve won't let retailers stock physical Steam gift cards anymore because "scammers have adapted" to whatever security measures they've tried

Julian Benson — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:15:00 +0000

Valve have stopped producing physical Steam Gift Cards for retailers, meaning once the current stock runs out you won't see them anywhere out in the wild. Valve say this is because no matter what protections they've added to the cards, "scammers have adapted".

While Valve will continue to sell Steam Digital Gift Cards through their shop, this means the days of trading in old physical games and using the credit to buy a gift card are coming to an end.

We're finally getting a Vanillaware game on PC - Muramasa: Revenant Blades, an expanded 4K edition of the gorgeous Japanese action RPG

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:56:58 +0000

For years, lovers of exquisite sprite designs have clamoured for Vanillaware to bring their action RPGs and strategy games to PC. Games like time-rewinding mecha soap opera 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, or prancing kingdom saver Unicorn Overlord. The rationale for these games not appearing outside console has been nebulous, to date: at one point in 2024, Vanillaware and publishers Atlus appeared to blame each other for Unicorn Overlord's absence from desktops.

"Even dry and lost places can flourish with a little care": Waterful is a gentle, beautiful puzzler about drawing rivers that makes me yearn for something overwhelming

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:06:26 +0000

Waterful is that most appropriate and disquieting of things, a "nature-builder". It's a soft and colourful chillout game in which you cut rivers through procedurally generated landscapes with a cursor, drawing from a limited supply of water that is topped up by connecting springs.

Importantly, and perhaps dispiritingly, you can dig and refill the terrain as you please. Depending on the shape of the river and the depth of its bed, you'll cultivate different vegetation. The vegetation, in turn, attracts a range of creatures, from butterflies to big-eared foxes. For each creature, you get a sticker. There are also machines you can build to, for example, carry the watercourse over hills. Comparisons given by Berlin-based solo developer Lenja Kaufmann include Dorfromantik, Tiny Glade, Islanders, Terra Nil and Townscaper.

In Am I Nima, you must find and fuse words to convince your mother you're really her daughter

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 21:55:25 +0000

Oh dear, here's an existentially uncomfortable (and genuinely potentially triggering around themes of abuse) one for you. Am I Nima, shown off this weekend during the Story Rich Showcase, is a visual novel in which you take on the role of the titular Nima, who is trying to convince her mother that she really is her daughter by combining words in her brain.

Whoops! Sand: Raiders of Sophie's server slam got so slammed it isn't coming out tomorrow anymore

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 20:32:55 +0000

Welp! Just yesterday, Sand: Raiders of Sophie devs Hologryph and TowerHaus shared the release times of the desert-set extraction shooter where you have your own steampunk mobile fortress, which was set for release tomorrow, June 10th. Today, however? That release date has gone out the window.

You'll be able to change some parts of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's story, but no matter what there's only one ending

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:01:31 +0000

Last week, Square Enix graced us with the revelation that the final instalment of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is just that, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. It'll obviously follow on from Rebirth, which ends with [REDACTED], but where it goes from there is still generally a mystery given the various changes made so far. As it turns out, you'll be able to make a few changes yourself, except for one, important thing: the ending.

Big Walk was born during a COVID lockdown out of a distaste for birthday party Zoom calls

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 17:02:51 +0000

You know, I've been thinking about going for a nice big walk sometime soon. Well, not that soon, maybe sometime in the summer? Before I lock anything in, I'll just watch this new thing about House House's Big Walk and… oh, would you look at that! It's got a release date now, and for this summer too!

Dragon's Dogma 2 is getting a frosty Dark Arisen expansion, plus two big updates that fix some of the things you moaned about back in 2024

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:22:00 +0000

Dragon's Dogma 2 is getting a Dark Arisen DLC expansion that introduces a chilly new mountainous area, in which there are flaming castles, some awful emaciated dragons, and ice giants who can freeze you solid by yawning. It'll arrive on October 9th after two free "major" updates, the first of which lands tomorrow.

The base game is also getting a permanent discount from June 24th. Surely, all of this is incentive enough to finally stop griping about those niggling launch-day microtransactions, quit caterwauling about the prospect of Pawns coming over all Jack Torrance, and hand uncle Capcom your pounds and pennies. The only reason I can think of for not buying Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is that you hate ice giants. You don't… hate ice giants, do you? ◉╭╮◉

Square Enix whip out the defibrillator to bring back Kingdom Hearts 4 from the brink with a new trailer and promise of a PC release

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:07:01 +0000

That company that makes the games about the plumber man, elf boy, and half-donkey half-gorilla held one of its "Directs" today, and lo and behold was the surprise showcase of a game that's been MIA for a surprisingly long time: Kingdom Hearts 4. The sequel was originally announced for the series' 20th anniversary in 2022, but has been noticeably absent for the past four years.

Before Darkness Falls is an Aliens: Dark Descent-style tactics game from former Frostpunk devs, and I did enjoy dying in its depths

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:37:03 +0000

The other day I posted a comment wondering whether anybody has ever made a colony simulator set in the Aliens universe, with players raising the Weyland-Yutani flag on planets that contain absolutely no parasitic lifeforms whatsoever [YOUR MISGIVINGS HAVE BEEN REPORTED TO CORPORATE. YOUR TERRAFORMING LICENSE HAS BEEN SUSPENDED INDEFINITELY. NO CRIMINAL CHARGES WILL BE FILED AT THIS TIME]. Some hours later, I realised that I'd sort of already played one. Before Darkness Falls is a "tactical survival game" in which you take charge of an industrial compound that is being nibbled away from below by a marauding evil.

The Guild Wars games have always been set in a world abandoned by the gods, in new MMO Guild Wars 3, you'll see why they left

Julian Benson — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:06:04 +0000

If you've played Guild Wars or its sequel, you'll know that the land Tyria is a godless place. It didn't used to be, but more than 1200 years before the events of the original 2005 MMO, the gods upped sticks and abandoned the planet, leaving the different guilds their own devices. As the series' name would suggest, those devices were largely swords and siege weapons.

In looking for a good spot in the series' timeline to set a new game that would be as alien to people who have played the games for the past 20 years as those who have never set foot in the land of Tyria, developer Arenaet have settled on the moment the gods decided to leave.

Playing its mystery-drenched demo suggests I'll like everything about About Fishing, except the fishing

James Archer — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:47:58 +0000

I spent this morning in the new demo of angler-detective mystery About Fishing – an updated and expanded sampler from the one that Oisin tried last year – and as a piece of playable marketing, it’s done the job. I am intrigued by its tale of mermaids and missing persons; I am absorbed in its creepy rural backdrop of dead streets and churches with prison cells in the basement; I am impressed by how it handles its cold, drizzly weirdness without ever going hey-hey wacky. Even when it introduces a thieving goose.

Basically, this place is horrible, and I want to spend more time in it. Despite the fact, and I’m aware that this might be an issue, that I wish I didn’t have to do so much goddamn fishing.

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy devs learned to make melee combat on the job

Julian Benson — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:16:20 +0000

Give me a game where I can hoof an enemy over the side of the cliff like a cut price Leonidas, and I'm happy. (It seems I'm not the only one.) So, yes, while I was sad to see no swarms of rats in Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, I was very happy with the switch from stealth gameplay to scrappy melee. I might have been more worried going in if I knew just how little experience developer Asobo Studio have making combat games.

"Nobody did a combat game before Resonance," lead level designer Valérian Robert told me, and then he explained how they pulled it off.

Yes, you have a gun in Gen Atlas, but Fumito Ueda doesn't want you to think it's a shooter

Julian Benson — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:31:23 +0000

Fumito Ueda, creator of Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and the Last Guardian, showed off his new game at this weekend's Summer Game Fest showcase. Gen Atlas sees you step into the shoes of a scavenger in a desert world littered with the carcasses of vast robots. It falls to you to piece one of these machines back together and… well, what your aim is exactly is unclear. However, as stark as the landscapes of the dead world, was that your character has a machine gun slung across their back and, judging by a couple of sequences in the trailer, they're not afraid to use it.

This might not sound surprising, games have had guns since Spacewar!, but Ueda's games have either steered away from doing violence or, particularly in the case of Shadow of the Colossus, made you feel ruddy awful for killing something.

But, have no fear, reader: Fumito Ueda says he's not become trigger happy in his old age.

Just like Luftrausers before it, Wind Runners is proving I'm too careless a pilot to survive a bullet-hell dogfight

Julian Benson — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000

I've been a fan of dogfighting games since playing Elite with my dad on his old Acorn computer. He'd do the flying and I'd fire the weapons. Maybe that division of labour is to blame for my biggest weakness as a pilot: knowing when to pull out of a strafe. Once I've my gunsights on an enemy I'll continue flying at them with my guns firing until either they explode or I do. In roguelite dogfighter Wind Runners, that cavalier approach is proving my downfall over and over.

The Wind Runners demo popped up on Steam over the weekend and I've been trying to complete a single run of its bullet hell dogfighting since then.

Star Trek: Outposts Unknown's demo introduces an upbeat settlement builder, though my crew of clocking-out ship slackers wouldn't last a day in RimWorld

James Archer — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:46:04 +0000

Offworld settlement builders delight in forcing their pebble-gathering, ore-hoarding colonists into a life of subsistence scrounging by way of disaster: a crashed spaceship or cryogenic malfunction leaving them no choice but to eke out an existence on a hostile rock. Star Trek: Outposts Unknown, announced yesterday and already bearing a demo, is different. Your team of explorers aren’t trapped; in fact, if they’re anything like mine, they’ll be knocking off and back on the mothership by dinnertime.

Gothic remake lockpicking backlash raises the fascinating question of whether anybody really enjoys lockpicking in RPGs

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:11:22 +0000

Alkimia Interactive and THQ's Gothic remake launched over the weekend, and many are the complaints that the RPG's revised lockpicking system is far too hard. I know, right - tricky lockpicking in a game set in a giant prison! Please excuse me while I lift both hands from the keyboard and strenuously knead my face into a shocked expression.

Stealth's been replaced with scrappy swordfighting in Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, but what I really miss are the rat swarms

Julian Benson — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000

I've never mastered the combat of Sekiro and Sifu. They're games that demand you recognise an incoming attack and match it with millisecond perfect parries and dodges. Success sees you turn a foe's assaults against them, ducking under their swinging blade and popping up behind them to deliver a precise punch to their kidney; failure sees you knocked to the ground or cut in two. So it's not great news for me that Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy has dropped its stealth roots in favour of combat inspired by the most exacting third-person melee games.

Thankfully, protagonist Sophia fights dirty.