Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I'm enjoying the boreal cyborg world of spooky FPS Industria 2, which launches on PC today and also has an excellent diegetic crafting screen

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:45:00 +0000

If your idea of great FPS level aesthetics is a hot mess of Black Mesa, Penumbra and Get Even – or you're just driven wild by the sight of porcelain tiles peeling flirtatiously away from mortar – you might get on with Industria 2, which launches today. I've not played the first one, but I admired its parallel dimension Cold War-era Berlin. The second game introduces a new parallel dimension, summarised by developers Bleakmill as a tug-of-war between "industrial decay", "boreal nature" and "otherworldly sprawling machine structures". Phwoar!

"Those of us who joined in the early 2000s, we had it very good": Monument Valley boss says it's getting harder to give workers full-time stability

Mark Warren — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:10:44 +0000

After Monument Valley 3 was unceremoniously pulled from Netflix last year, series developers Ustwo Games are now focusing on PC first and foremost. The first two entries in the series did also hit our game box shores, but only after their initial mobile releases.

This shift's clearly forced Ustwo CEO and chair of the UK games industry trade body Ukie Maria Sayans to look long and hard at some numbers. Cue her concluding that the studio might have been "a little bit too romantic" about taking on full-time staff, rather than relying more heavily on contractors.

Why aren’t there more PC-first gamepads? Valve don’t know, but they "did see an opportunity" for the new Steam Controller

James Archer — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:00:00 +0000

When the new Steam Controller goes on sale on May 4th, it will go up against much more established gamepads in the Xbox Wireless Controller and PS5 DualSense vein – though none that share its singular focus on being a PC gaming controller, specifically. Why are there so few PC pads?

It’s a question I put to Valve designer Lawrence Yang and engineer Steve Cardinali, who’ve also worked on the Steam Deck, Steam Deck OLED, and the upcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame VR hardware. And while theories were offered, the true reasoning for the peripheral industry’s console monogamy was, alas, left a mystery.

“We’re a number on a ledger": ex-Elder Scrolls Online studio head says Microsoft cancelling Project Blackbird was a "missed opportunity"

Mark Warren — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:31:17 +0000

Last year, Microsoft cancelled an MMO that was in the works at ZeniMax Online Studios, developers of The Elder Scrolls Online, as part of wider layoffs. It was codenamed project Blackbird, and following its canning, ZeniMax Online founder Matt Firor resigned from the company he'd worked at since 2007. Firor's now shed some more light on his feelings about the cancellation of the game he "had waited [his] entire career to create", as well as how Microsoft currently operate.

Warren Spector's newly solo-friendly stealth game Thick as Thieves will launch as a four-hour "introductory campaign" that only costs a fiver

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Otherside Entertainment have revealed launch pricing details for Thick as Thieves, the alternate 1900s stealth game that has now moved away from PvPvE and become a more traditional, single player and co-op-driven affair. It'll be a slender experience at release on 20th May, compared to the Thief games that inspired it, with 16 missions and six unlockable gear pieces on two maps that offer "at least" four hours of sneaking.

It'll also be pretty cheap at $4.99/€4.99/£4.99, however, and Otherside – founded by former Looking Glass bods Paul Neurath and Warren Spector – promise that this is only "an introductory campaign, with the intention of expanding the setting and its stories across future content". Here's a new trailer to crouch-walk you through the fundamentals. Big fan of my hideout having a gramophone.

MindsEye's mission about Build a Rocket Boy's alleged "saboteurs" is a rather meh Hitman impression that saw me waste 30 minutes swearing in a warehouse

Mark Warren — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:50:18 +0000

Yep, I've played it. The new MindsEye mission called Blacklisted. The one which Mark Gerhard, CEO of Build a Rocket Boy, said would "share some of the evidence of the sabotage" he claims was instigated by a malevolent third party around the game's buggy initial launch.

While you wait for Subnautica 2, here's a moody Bioshock-esque strategy game in which you can put Big Daddies on crabs

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:12:17 +0000

As Subnautica 2's early access launch approaches, my mind inevitably drifts to videogames that explore the pleasures and horrors of the deep blue. Tides of Tethys is one for the Jules Verne fans amongst you, with perhaps a pinch of Warhammer 40,000. It's an underwater strategy roguelite with city-building elements in which you guide troupes of bathynauts around procedurally generated ocean floors.

You'll need to expand your modular outposts, ensuring your Knights have oxygen and power and food, while dealing with increasingly unfriendly aquatic beasties. I thought the giant crustacean I slew in the just-updated demo was an unfriendly beastie, but then I got a Steam Achievement for killing a harmless creature. I do hope this won't have ramifications. I hope that giant crustacean doesn't have a mother. Hang on, it looks like I can turn crustaceans into valiant steeds! Don't eat me, crab mum - I promise I will be nicer to invertebrates in future.

Even GTA 6's price needs to feel "reasonable", says Take-Two boss: hiking past $70 to match inflation "doesn’t make a whole lot of sense"

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:30:00 +0000

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick is once again dancing around the subject of GTA 6's price tag, declining to pin down a figure while pushing back on rumours that the new Grand Theft Auto will cost more than $70 in the USA.

"A next-gen Steam Deck would do the same": Valve are already eyeing Steam Controller hardware upgrades to reuse in future handhelds

James Archer — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000

The Steam Deck’s influence on the new Steam Controller could scarcely be more obvious, the gamepad looking as if the Deck’s two grip sections were cleaved off and stitched together by Valve’s maddest hardware vivisectionists. That said, no small amount of the Steam Controller’s appeal lies in the hidden refinements it makes to those seemingly borrowed inputs: refinements like the more stable D-pad and the more precise, drift-resistant TMR (Tunneling Magnetoresistance) thumbsticks.

Now, there’s a good chance that these improvements could head back the other way. As Valve engineer Steve Cardinali and designer Lawrence Yang told me in an interview, which also touched on the ongoing Steam Machine delays, there’s plenty about the Steam Controller that they’d like to put into a potential next-gen Steam Deck.

Cyberpunk 2077 gets a whole new ending thanks to a mod aimed at folks keen on riding off into the sunset with potential partner Judy Alvarez

Mark Warren — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 09:14:55 +0000

I'd class few of Cyberpunk 2077's endings as unflinchingly happy, most are at least a bit bittersweet - as you might expect, given the grave situation the game's protagonist finds themselves in. If you've ever wished the one added with the Phantom Liberty DLC was a tad more upbeat or wanted a conclusion that sees V run off with braindance-programming love interest Judy Alvarez, you're in luck, as a veteran Cyberpunk modder's now brought that to life.

Solve a murder mystery by flying people around on your giant crane in the Disco Elysium and Chinese folktale inspired The Crane Rider's Tale

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:54:22 +0000

Nothing will put me on to a game quicker than having a concept so laser-focused on the thing it's trying to do, and, seemingly, doing it well. This is the case for The Crane Rider's Tale, the next game from the developer of Butterfly Soup, a visual novel/adventure game hybrid that takes cues from Disco Elysium and Zero Escape where a serial killer is on the loose who has killed your friend, so you ferry around your local townsfolk around on your giant crane to figure out who did it, all wrapped up in a medieval Chinese painting and woodblock print aesthetic. It is so much, and so much my exact vibe.

Windrose devs ask for some grace as they prepare to set sail towards a six month wait for the next big update

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:31:45 +0000

Windrose has been out for a couple of weeks now and seems to be doing more than alright for itself. I guess the people like pirates? Good news for those You Be Soft guys, I suppose. But as much success as Windrose has found itself in, it is also an early access game, which means the aforementioned people crave a nebulous sense of More. Developer Kraken Express do plan on offering More, but it sounds like the people will have to wait for it a little while.

Greedfall and Steelrising developer Spiders look set to close their doors, according to a recent report

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 18:07:05 +0000

It is, unfortunately, another one of those days. According to a report from French outlet Origami, weeks after launching Greedfall: The Dying World, developer Spiders are looking pretty set to close their doors (as a note, I've had to use machine translation for this one). This follows on from layoffs last year that affected a large number of staffers, and publisher Nacon failing to find a buyer for Spiders after they began filing for insolvency.

The Blood of Dawnwalker gets a late summer release date, system requirements, and another, very Witchery, gameplay look-in

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:52:48 +0000

It's been a good four years since The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz helped to form Rebel Wolves, and here we are with the studio's debut title The Blood of Dawnwalker on the horizon. And oh, what's this ship sailing in right about now? The S.S. Release Date? Ahoy!

What do Marathon and The Lord of the Rings have to do with each other? PvPvE gameplay, apparently

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:04:45 +0000

Marathon and The Lord of the Rings are diametrically opposed narratively, aesthetically, and functionally, yet they have been paired together to underscore a point about the former's relationship to PvPvE gameplay. No, it's not a leap I would have made either, but game director Joe Ziegler did, so let's have a listen to what he had to say about it all.

"We've heard a clear frustration": Arc Raiders update adds a beach holiday map while patching the gun balance to ensure "all players are challenged by weapon attrition"

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:35:01 +0000

Extraction shooter Arc Raiders is officially an acceptable substitute for summer holidays thanks to the new Riven Tides update, out today, which adds a new coastal area with a collapsing hotel, some luxurious tennis courts and an actual slide for you to slide on. As ever, the price you will pay for accessing all of these things is getting murdered by robots - or humans who want your Assorted Seeds.

Garry's Mod devs Facepunch will be taking action to "push obviously AI-created slop off" sequel S&box's main page, Garry Newman confirms

Mark Warren — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:18:53 +0000

Update: "Low quality, obvious AI-created slop is going to be a growing problem in every creative outlet," Facepunch founder Garry Newman said in response on RPS' reachout about S&box being plagued by such things out of the gate. "We don't encourage using AI to be creative. We don't encourage using AI to create games for you. But we do acknowledge that it's a good learning tool and it's a good productivity tool. We'll be taking action to promote human creativity and push obviously AI-created slop off the main page."

Original story follows:

S&box, the open source game development platform/game about vaguely minion-looking cartoon blokes messing about with objects that's serving as spiritual successor to Garry's Mod, has released today, April 28th. Sadly, it seems to be heavy on AI-filled user-created games early doors, with developers Facepunch having already admitted they'll "have to deal with people using AI in obvious, low quality ways".

Thankfully, in the meantime the original's still very much kicking, with an update arriving on April 29th set to see fan-made Half-Life remake Black Mesa grafted onto it.

Our Steam Controller second opinion: what works, what doesn't, and what Valve should add for the next one

RPS — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:00:00 +0000

The new Steam Controller verdict is in: James likes it. And now it’s back out again, as Julian has also been poking and prodding at Valve’s made-for-PC controller ahead of its release on May the 4th. Has this second pair of hands dug up some disagreements, or will they join together in peace for all mankind, and/or gamepads? Find out as we give, for the first time since 2022, The Second Opinion.

Helldivers 2 isn't a cosy game, but the tranquil forests and beefed up exosuits of its latest patch might convince you it is

Mark Warren — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:50:57 +0000

Take a deep breath. Listen to some birds chirping. Watch some plants sway in the gentle breeze. Ahhhhhh. Life could be a dream. At least, it could be if the new forest biomes added by Helldivers 2's latest patch were in a totally different game. Instead, they're in a frantic shooter about murderdeathing space monstrosities, now with sturdier mech suits and rebalanced melee weapons at your side.

As the Steam Controller breaks cover, Valve say they're hard at work on the Steam Deck 2 and keeping current Decks in stock

Mark Warren — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:00:00 +0000

In case you missed it, Valve confirmed the Steam Controller's price and release date yesterday. Naturally, as part of that reveal they've faced a bunch of questions about the other hardware they've got in the works, including the Steam Machine and the more distant next Steam Deck. As far as the latter's concerned, they still aren't saying much, but have at least confirmed they've busy working on both it and making sure current Decks don't keep going out of stock amid the ongoing RAM crisis.

The War to End all Wars is a colony sim now, with an Acceptable Losses gauge

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 10:30:00 +0000

If Dig In were called a 'historical wave defence strategy base-builder' or similar I wouldn't have been jarred by it. Odds are I'd have skimmed right past. Instead, Icelandic developers Vitar Games are calling it "a WW1 trench warfare colony sim", and this wigs me out a little. We are colonising the Somme! Nothing is too sacred for artistic depiction, and people have been commodifying memories of the World Wars for decades, but throwing in a fraught concept like "colony" really turns it all up to 11/11.

It's a gift to cultural essayists. Within the combinatory logics of Steam, it's also a harbinger for such genres as the "WW1 life sim" or even "cosy WW1". I am trying to imagine what Wilfred Owen might have written about bladder gauges. Here is a trailer.

"We're just as impacted as everyone else": Valve explain Steam Machine delays and why the Steam Controller is coming out sooner

James Archer — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Ahead of the new Steam Controller release on May 4th, and shortly after I finished reviewing it (it’s good!), I sat down with Valve engineer Steve Cardinali and designer Lawrence Yang to discuss the Controller, the industry-upending RAM shortage it’s launching into, and delays to the Steam Machine that said disruption has caused.

While no new Steam Machine pricing or release date specifics slipped from any errant lips, both Cardinali and Yang spelled out what previous Steam statements have always inferred: that even a company of Valve’s standing (and wealth) can’t get around the lack of vital components, nor the associated explosion in costs, that hardware manufacturers are facing worldwide. That doesn’t mean they’ve been hoarding RAMless Steam Controllers, though.

"This isn’t just something that affects Wizards of the Coast" - Magic: the Gathering Arena team vote to unionise for protection against layoffs, genAI and forced crunch

Mark Warren — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 09:09:11 +0000

Magic: The Gathering Arena developers at Wizards of the Coast are set to unionise with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The CWA say they've secured a "supermajority" in favour of unionisation among the workers, and have given Wizards of the Coast until the end of the week to voluntarily recognise the union - dubbed United Wizards of the Coast—CWA - and filed an election petition with the US National Labor Relations Board.

Valve have confirmed the Steam Controller price and release date, though the Steam Machine is still in RAM price purgatory

James Archer — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Plans for a simultaneous trio of hardware launches seemingly dashed on the rocks of ongoing RAM shortages, Valve have decided to release the relatively unaffected Steam Controller refresh without Steam Machine or Steam Frame backup. It’s out soon, too: the release date is confirmed for Monday, May 4th, with pricing set at £85 / $99 / €99.

Expensive? Maybe a little. A good gamepad? Yes, so says I in our Steam Controller review, which has also been freed from its own embargo limbo.

Steam Controller review: even without a Steam Machine mate, this is a smartly crafted gamepad that puts PCs first

James Archer — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Well, one out of three ain’t bad. The second-generation Steam Controller is upon us, the sole survivor of Valve’s delays on its RAM-troubled new hardware. "Go on without us," the Steam Machine and Steam Frame VR headset presumably whispered to a reluctant Controller, which could only blink back tears of thumbstick lubricant as both were buried under the pile of money that it now takes to buy two DDR5 sticks.

Still! You don’t need a Steam Machine, or indeed any SteamOS device, to have a good button-bashing time with the Steam Controller. It’s a comfortable and highly functional pad that’s much more accessible than the owl-faced 2015 original, while managing to feel even more like a focused, specialist PC tool for traditional Windows rigs.

Hallow Blade is like a first-person Greatest Hits of From Software, offering a sunken interconnected kingdom of forests, crypts and castles

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:30:00 +0000

The very best game about being thrall to some uppity claymore is surely Nix Umbra, but Hallow Blade has plenty of promise. In this first-person "dark fantasy action adventure", you are a woebegone knight who has ventured into a lost kingdom of luminous fountains and sun-spoked forests.

The droids you're looking for are busy polishing X-Wings in PowerWash Simulator 2's Star Wars DLC, due out this summer

Mark Warren — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 15:44:56 +0000

Right, could you two at least wipe your dusty boots before you come aboard the ship for your big lightsaber fight? Solo, your ship's engines might work if they weren't clogged with asteroid dust! Yes, I'm the guy who follows Jabba the Hutt around with a big mop to suck up the slime. These are all things I imagine the robot PowerWash Simulator 2's upcoming Star Wars DLC turns you into saying on a regular basis.

Alleged would-be Trump assassin once made an "atomic fighting game", which Steam have now yanked from sale

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 14:44:13 +0000

Valve have disabled purchases for a Steam game made by one 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, who allegedly tried to shoot up the White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel on Saturday. The game in question, Bohrdom, was published in December 2018, and is described on its store page as "a skill-based, non-violent asymmetrical fighting game loosely derived from a chemistry model that is itself loosely based on reality", with a multiplayer mode that takes inspiration from quantum physics.

Following about 50 Assassin's Creed Hexe devs reportedly being taken off the game, Ubisoft say team switches are "a standard part of how we operate"

Mark Warren — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:44:53 +0000

Update to the update:Responding to Insider Gaming's report claiming around 50 Assassin's Creed Hexe devs have been moved to an interproject team, Ubisoft have issued the following statement to RPS:

"Mobility across teams is a standard part of how we operate. As project priorities change, team members may transition from one project to another where their expertise is needed, helping us stay flexible and responsive as work evolves."

This week's standout PC game is an astronaut epic from Life is Strange and Vampyr creators Don't Nod, made in partnership with the European Space Agency

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:12:00 +0000

Happy this week, all! Summer is well and truly afoot in south England, and I've marked the occasion by ceremonially pivoting my desk to face the window. This gives me a restorative view of some grass and trees, while allowing me to behold people walking their kids to school – a sight that fills my heart with hope and tenderness. The drawback is that random pedestrians can also see my expressions of diabolical excitement, poisonous confusion and mortal terror, while I try to make sense of the latest new PC game releases.

Epic Games are honouring refunds for Fortnite's D4vd cosmetics after singer charged with murder

Mark Warren — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:40:31 +0000

Fortnite developers Epic Games have confirmed plans to honour refunds for cosmetics related to D4vd, following the American singer being charged with murdering a 14-year-old girl. Players will have to request these refunds themselves by contacting Fortnite support, with Epic adding that more changes are to come.

This beefy 850W Asus ROG Strix 80+ Platinum PSU is a third off from Amazon

Reece Bithrey — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 10:11:29 +0000

Just like the 'Apple tax' of a certain phone and laptop manufacturer, the 'ROG tax' is an increasingly well-established concept in PC hardware circles; Asus' components do often carry a bit of a premium to them, for various reasons. Nonetheless, Amazon UK currently have a decent deal on the 850W 80+ Platinum ROG Strix PSU, taking it down to £120. That's the lowest price it's ever been, by the looks of price tracking graphs, and a tasty 33% saving on its £180 RRP.

Starfield modders fix Terran Armada progress blocker bug that punishes you for visiting one particular space station

Mark Warren — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 09:40:00 +0000

A quest-breaking bug has been stopping some Starfield players from progressing in the Terran Armada DLC Bethesda released earlier this month, but thankfully there's a now a mod offering a headache-free fix for it. The issue, which sees your Terran Armada quest progression locked around the time of a mission dubbed 'Into the Void', looks to be caused by simply having paid an early visit to a space station from the Free Lanes update that dropped alongside the DLC.

You can save £100 on this Ryzen Z2 Extreme-powered MSI Claw A8 handheld from Cyberpower

Reece Bithrey — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 09:33:30 +0000

MSI's Claw A8 was one of the first handheld PCs to come packing AMD's beefier Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, promising a comfortable chassis, capacious RAM and storage arrangements, and a big 8-inch 1920x1200 IPS touchscreen on top. It launched at £849, which while cheaper than the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, still came in rather expensive. However, a handy price cut down to £749 from Cyberpower has made this model the cheapest of all the Z2 Extreme handhelds by a considerably healthier margin.

Alien Isolation 2 teaser video shows the horror game heading planetside, but those panic-inducing save stations are following it

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 09:15:30 +0000

It's been well over a year since the announcement of Alien: Isolation 2, or whatever Creative Assembly and Sega end up calling the sequel to 2014's xenomorph horror romp. There's been no further word about the game, and the protracted quiet may have given you a false sense of security. "False Sense Of Security", by happy coincidence, is the title of a spooky new video just uploaded to the Alien: Isolation Youtube channel.

True, there are no Aliens in the footage, and they don't explicitly label it "Alien: Isolation 2" or similar. It could be wholly unrelated! In much the same way that a rogue dot on your motion tracker is probably just a cat trapped in a locker. Go on, then. Open your locker.

The Sunday Papers

Mark Warren — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Sundays are for realising that you aren't who you thought you were. You thought you were Jonathan Frakes. You thought you'd starred in both Star Trek: The Next Generation and 1995 video game Multimedia Celebrity Poker. You thought you'd played an unnamed drug dealer in a 1982 Hill Street Blues episode named 'Of Mouse and Man'. You thought you'd directed an episode of Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce called 'Rule No. 155: Go with the Magician'. You thought a man named Trim Jinca had used your face as a profile picture a time or two. You were wrong on all counts.

You are Jonathan Frakes. But not that Jonathan Frakes. You don't ask the questions here. You answer them. And so I ask: who are you?

ShatterRush is obviously an indie take on Titanfall, but considering the lack of threequel, I'm sure you won't mind

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 21:53:20 +0000

There is a Titanfall-shaped hole in this world that could be filled by Respawn, yet won't be, for silly reasons like money. I hate money! It is a scourge we must do away with. Until that point, we could of course moan and lament the absence of a Titanfall 3. That sounds quite dull, so instead I will point you towards ShatterRush, a game that is oh so evidently picking up what Titanfall 2 left behind, and adding into the mix some fresh elements of its own.

Crymelight is a Hades-esque roguelike that sends the white rabbit chasing Alice to hell to face her sins and fight for her freedom

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 20:34:33 +0000

I do not know if FuRyu make games that one can easily jump to calling "good" but they are regularly putting out mid-budget (I assume) games that make me go "oh, there's certainly some sauce here." That's certainly how I felt about the Kingdom Heartsian Reynatis (I will defend this prime cut of jank until my dying breath). And now they are back with a game that I instantly have no idea how to pronounce: Crymelight.

Chuba! Star Wars: Galactic Racer's release date has been accidentally revealed early

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 19:06:11 +0000

We all make mistakes sometimes, which is exactly what someone did today on the Steam page for Star Wars: Galactic Racer. Video games' own eye in the sky Wario64 shared word of said mistake, which is that the release date for the game was accidentally shared wholesale, alongside some details of a fancier edition of the racing game.

After losing its creative director, it looks like Assassin's Creed Hexe has lost its game director now too

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 17:03:10 +0000

Welp, the game Assassin's Creed Hexe may have been a few months ago probably won't be the game it will be. Back in February, the still quite mysterious Hexe lost its creative director, Clint Hocking. Now it appears that the game has also lost its game director, Benoit Richer.

Final Fantasy 14's next expansion ushers in an ice age and adds in an Evangelion crossover for good measure

Oisin Kuhnke — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 15:57:34 +0000

It is happening again. By that I mean Final Fantasy 14 is getting a new expansion, once again ensuring my timeline will be flooded with thousands of screenshots of tall bunny women and regular sized cat boys. It's called Evercold this time around, seemingly bringing about a cold snap to Eorzea, if the lengthy teaser trailer is anything to go by. The new overarching storyline started with the previous expansion, Dawntrail, has a name now too: the Godless Realms Saga. Sounds cosy!

I’ve accidentally drilled a hole in my desk with Logitech’s RS H-Shifter, but it’s given me a new appreciation for slamming up the gears

Mark Warren — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

I’m sitting in the pit lane at Donington Park circuit.

My car’s a 1992 Mercedes 190E Evo 2, a blocky German touring car ideal for close-quarters racing. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get it into first gear. You see, while the new Logitech RS H-pattern gear shifter I’ve been testing out has proven easy to set up with 99% of my racing library, introducing it to Raceroom Racing Experience has proven a bit more eventful.

What are we all playing this weekend?

Julian Benson — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 07:00:00 +0000

This weekend, the decorating begins. Yes, I have bitten off more than I can chew, but what is life if not enthusiastically inviting choking hazards? I'll be removing cabinets, sanding and priming carpentry, cleansing walls with sugar soap, and, if I've done everything, covering the kitchen in B&Q's Chorizo matte emulsion paint.

"We will do better": Blizzard are sorry World of Warcraft's prop hunt patch launched with an X-ray vision exploit and plenty of other pesky bugs

Mark Warren — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 16:30:00 +0000

World of Warcraft developers Blizzard released a prop hunt mode dubbed Decor Duel with this week's patch, having initially announced the Midnight expansion-adjacent addition was on the way back in January. Sadly, said patch was littered with bugs, with the studio now having apologised for releasing it in a state that wasn't "up to [their] standards.

Mega Crit are tinkering with Slay the Spire 2's difficulty in a new patch, while weighing further changes to everybody's favourite villain, the Doormaker

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 16:09:49 +0000

Ho, doughty Ascenders and Door defeaters! There's a new beta patch out for roguelite deckbuilder Slay the Spire 2, following last week's thunderous rolling of various beta updates into the game's main release branch. This round of rebalancing takes specific aim at the game's "baseline" difficulty, while trying to ensure that repeat runs on the very highest Ascension settings are something only a "fraction" of players can manage.

Tie yourself up in wriggling loveknots in this graceful and silly merpeople sex game

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 15:12:03 +0000

coalescent || tidal rapture (yes, that's the official Steam page typography) is a game about evolution and heartbreak and glorious, glorious wormsex. It's the story of a society of merpeople who've just discovered the practice of casual relationships, and are enthusiastically embracing what I'd guess you'd class as a very squelchy form of Shibari.

The recently dumped protagonist is on "a journey of self-discovery and self-denial as they experiment with intimacy, experience physical bodily changes, and try to decide whether or not they want to move to the surface". What kind of body physics are we talking, here? Well, let me try to, er, unravel the intricacies.

Microsoft will reportedly invite 7% of their US workers to retire early, as the Xbox division talk up "strong cost discipline"

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:30:00 +0000

Microsoft are reportedly offering early voluntary retirement to around 7% of their US-based employees in yet another effort to 'right-size' their trillion dollar business.

"A wordless world that speaks": Lofsöng is like a Playdead game set in a Brutalist nuclear exclusion zone

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Lofsöng is an ash-blown, top-down exploration game set on an Earth ravaged by nuclear winter, whose Brutalist structures form a sleeping, sunken language, revealed by sound. You are a "childlike figure" – notice the qualification – accompanied by a magic origami sculpture that refolds into such unlockable forms as gliders and sailboats, allowing you to zip ever more gracefully among the post-apocalyptic monoliths.

Masters of Albion and Sintopia show god games are nothing without a deity's twitchy fingers

Julian Benson — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000

I've been thinking a lot about hands this week. Weird little things, covered in fingers and nails, always clenching and unclenching. Though, for once, they're not on my mind because I can't shake the realisation that they're basically boney squids attached to my wrists. No, I've been thinking about hands because I've had my dirty mitts all over Masters of Albion and Sintopia, two god games which put meat-hooks front and centre.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's first birthday is here, cue an anniversary patch giving everyone in the J'RPG special hairdos

Mark Warren — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:56:34 +0000

It's been a year since Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 rocked up and had Nic say lots of nice things about it. Developers Sandfall Interactive have decided to celebrate both milestones by putting out a patch that adds in a bunch of fresh trims for the RPG's litany of head hair havers.

Woot have knocked 72% off this potent analog gaming keyboard

Reece Bithrey — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:54:58 +0000

One of the first times I remember seeing an optical analog gaming keyboard hit the mainsteam was the Razer Huntsman V2 Analog launch in 2021 - what feels like naffing ages ago now. Since then, we've seen keyboards gain more controller-like tech, like rapid trigger inputs and Hall Effect switches, but optical analog boards are where it all started, and the Huntsman v2 Analog remains a fine option today - especially when it's going cheap.

When this keyboard was new, it retailed for $250, although with this current discount, a brand-new one (with its 1-year Razer warranty) is down to $70 from Woot. That works out to 72% off, which I needn't say is quite something.

Save 35% on one of the best budget racing wheels of all time for console and PC sim racing

Reece Bithrey — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:17:52 +0000

The Logitech G29/G920 racing wheel design has been around for the best part of a decade, and has introduced countless people to the world of sim racing - myself included. It's a humble but well-made wheel with gear-driven force feedback, a full set of on-board controls, and convenient compatibility with console and PC (the console depends on the model you choose; both work with Windows) that makes it a versatile choice for sim racers just starting out. What's more, at £169 from Amazon for both G29 and G920 variants, it's the lowest this wheel has been since Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Don't miss The Third Shift, a Game Boy horror museum that cleverly entangles Resident Evil-style CCTV perspectives with point-and-click investigation

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:10:25 +0000

The most horrifying thing that ever happened to me while playing Game Boy was a school 'friend' flicking the power switch while getting off the train, just as I'd finally beaten that one maddeningly obscure block puzzle in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. He's lucky he's not buried somewhere under the railway lines between Shipley and Baildon. There were Game Boy horror games, but they were mostly crammed-down approximations of Resident Evil and the like, and I found them about as spooky as a frowning Potato Head. The Third Shift is out to address this lapse, and so far, it is doing it extremely well.

Leaked Xbox Game Pass Starter Edition looks to bundle a small library of games with your Discord Nitro membership

Mark Warren — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 09:24:02 +0000

Days after announcing a price cut for the existing Xbox Game Pass tiers, which'll no longer get new Call of Duty games at launch, it appears Microsoft have an all-new tier lurking up their sleeves. Dubbed Game Pass Starter Edition, leaks suggest it'll be something akin to the the established baseline Essential Game Pass tier, but bundled in with a paid subscription to Discord Nitro.

Former PlayStation head isn't sure how Sony can recoup those big budgets without first-party games coming to PC

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 22:04:05 +0000

Last month, a report emerged that claimed that Sony would no longer be putting its first-party games like Ghost of Yotei on PC, with online games like Marathon being the exception. The PlayStation maker is yet to confirm or deny this, and the report even noted that Sony's strategy is "constantly shifting," meaning this may end up proving untrue. But former Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida says he's not seen any proof of PlayStation changing their strategy this console generation.

Shapez 2 leaves the factory floor today as it launches into 1.0

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 20:42:05 +0000

I delight in looking at shapes, I suspect we all do. They are the building blocks of life, often turned into literal building blocks handed to us as wee babes to help us make sense of the world. Games like Shapez 2, then, feel like a natural through line from this point, a mechanical orchestra that lets you put all sorts of shapes together to build factories that produce more shapes endlessly. And now that line has seen its end, as Shapez 2 has left early access today, arriving at its 1.0 release a little less than two years on from its original launch.

500 FINGER FILLET is a knife game take on Buckshot Roulette where you must stab your hand 500 times

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 19:12:25 +0000

I have never played the knife game, the game where you rest your hand on a table, splay out your fingers, and stab the gaps between with a knife, increasing your speed as you go. The reason I have not played the knife game is because I like my fingers, and do not trust my own fine motor movement enough. Good thing video games exist then, 'ey? Specifically, it's a good thing 500 FINGER FILLET exists, or will exist somewhere down the line, a roguelite clicker where you have to stab yourself in the hand 500 times to escape a deadly trap.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2's gun toting, bird flipping, violent sheriff featuring DLC gets a release date

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:59:04 +0000

After a rough launch last year, work on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 continues, with the game's first DLC, Loose Cannon, having now settled on a release date: April 27th! That's soon, like next week soon as long as my materially non-existent calendar is right. A new trailer and a fresh bout of details about the DLC were shared too, offering some insight into what you'll actually be doing.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced doesn’t include the Freedom Cry DLC, Ubisoft say they made a “clear choice” to focus on Edward’s adventure

Mark Warren — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:15:00 +0000

Yep, after years of messages in bottles washing ashore in the form of reports claiming Ubisoft are remaking Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, it’s finally coming on July 9th. I've seen the newly dubbed Black Flag Resynced and all the tweaks Ubisoft have made to the very good pirate game which also features some assassinating.

A few things have stuck out to me. Most notably, what I didn't see.

Land ho, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced's system requirements have washed ashore

Mark Warren — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:15:00 +0000

Mayhaps ye have heard the legend of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, the remake Ubisoft havefinally revealed today, April 23rd, after years of reported and leaked whispers. Ahead of this Black Flag remake's arrival on July 9th, its required PC specs have slipped into port.

What is best in life? A free Conan Exiles update that completely revamps the game's graphics and more

Oisin Kuhnke — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:12:26 +0000

I know that Conan Exiles exists because everything must be based on some kind of pre-existing property. Still, the fact it's managed to continue to exist for a whole decade tickles me. What do you mean this game based on a 100 year old character that most people probably link to Arnold Schwarzenegger above anything else is still going strong? So strong, in fact, that it is getting a big update next month that revamps the survival game's look and makes various nice sounding tweaks. For free!

"The best game ever": Old World designer dreams of making a sequel to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri that "renews the mechanics"

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 14:32:13 +0000

We called Mohawk's strategy game Old World "almost the perfect blend of Civilization and Crusader Kings III" back in 2021. As such, the opinions of people who worked on Old World are of interest to me. Here's one: designer and programmer Daniels Umanovskis would very much like to make a sequel to the undersung Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, because it is "the best game ever".

Europa Universalis 5 is getting its first big DLC in May, a race to save the crumbling Byzantine Empire

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:52:08 +0000

Unreasonably grand strategy game Europa Universalis 5 will get a Byzantine Empire-themed expansion called Fate of the Phoenix on May 6th, developers Paradox Interactive have announced. Not heard of EU5? Back in October, our reviewer Brendy called the game "a deep and intricate historical simulation that will overwhelm you with menus as much as it will compel you through centuries of global history."

Brendy is gone now (RPS in peace), reduced to a mocking cackle on the wind, and I alone stand in my ignorance between you and this very first EU5 "Immersion pack", in which there is Hellenism, bureaucracy, and the opportunity to "restore the Pentarchy to strengthen the Eastern Church". I don't even know what "byzantine" really means, other than being a word I use to describe Paradox grand strategy games. Was Europa Universalis 5 insufficiently byzantine before? Ach, here's a trailer.

GTA: Carcer City, a San Andreas mod which turns Rockstar's dark snuff game Manhunt into a full-on open world, has a demo out

Mark Warren — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 11:45:12 +0000

If you've ever longed to see Rockstar's controversial early 2000s snuff game Manhunt get a fully-blown crossover with its slightly more jovially murdery sibling Grand Theft Auto, a San Andreas total conversion mod that's recently released its first playable demo might be up your alley. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to put some distance between me and that probably very bloodstained alley.

£69 for one of my favourite wireless office mice is quite the steal

Reece Bithrey — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 11:06:21 +0000

I've used Logitech's MX Master office mice for the best part of six years by this point, beginning with the MX Master 3, then the 3S and now the MX Master 4. Weirdly, the best one to pick up from a value and features standpoint is the MX Master 3S, which I noted in my original 2022 review to have the same excellent ergonomics as its predecessor, versatile wireless connectivity, a zippy 8000 DPI sensor and much more. For £69 from Amazon (nice), it's a return to one of the best prices I've seen on this rodent in a few weeks and in a general sense.

"Unlocked the toilet door in the Euro Trash mission to prevent soft-locks" read Samson's latest patch notes, which also introduce special drift cars

Mark Warren — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 09:58:43 +0000

If you've spent days trapped in a loo after Samson cheekly locked you in one during a mission, then I bring good news. Liquid Swords' latest patch for their buggy crime sim's freed you from your bondage, while also adding some new tuned cars for you to race around while you celebrate no longer being stuck in the shitter.

This 512GB SanDisk Ultra Micro SD card has dropped to its best price in months on Amazon

Reece Bithrey — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 09:39:41 +0000

Flash storage prices bad - I get it. You don't need me to keep wittering on to prove how iffy things have been in recent months, although with RAM prices lowering and some 'deals' beginning to emerge again, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. Thus, Exhibit A - this 512GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSD card is £50 on Amazon. Okay, okay, yes, you could pick these up for £30-£40 last year, I admit, but this is the best price this card has been since January, where it's otherwise between £75 and £80.

Crimson Desert's latest patch adds new difficulty options, lets you adopt a pet bird, and unglues cats from shoulders

Mark Warren — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 09:08:35 +0000

Another Crimson Desert patch is upon us, with developers Pearl Abyss delivering more of the additions they outlined earlier this month. Though, they didn't get as deep into specifics on the likes of new difficulty settings and extra pets back then as they have in their latest notes, which also run down a raft of fixes for the red pudding.

Ecco the Dolphin: Complete revealed, a mixture of remaster and brand new game spanning every Ecco game from the 8 to 16-bit era

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:43:16 +0000

It's happening dot gif - we are getting more Ecco the Dolphin. As teased in January, series creator Ed Annunziata and development studio A&R Atelier are working on a remastered collection that includes Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time, together with a brand new game. The collection also features "meta quests" that allow players to weave "custom courses" through "any combination of levels from any game in the franchise and share them with the community."

A little bit Black & White, a little bit Fable, Molyneux's citybuilder Masters Of Albion has the potential to break free of its influences – but it has a lot of work to do

Julian Benson — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Every time the ghoul smacks his hands against my crypt, a red light pulses and sends cracks spiderwebbing across my screen. If I don't beat down the undead creature soon, he'll break into the tomb and kill my character in his sleep, forcing me to restart the day. It should be easy to kill the monster, after all, I've two strapping heroes nearby, multiple ballista towers, and my godhand courses with lightning. But, for some reason my heroes have decided to attack other, less threatening monsters, my towers aren't shooting the ghoul, and my lightning bolts refuse to strike.

Masters Of Albion, the new god game from Peter Molyneux's studio 22 Cans, fizzes with promise, but it has a lot of kinks to work out in early access if it's going to become more than a bucket of enjoyable mechanics. I don't mean for that to sound dismissive. There is a lot of fun to be had in this fusion of city builder, crafting, tower defense, god game, but it's also far from finished.

How many pampered hikers can you freeze in alpine tycoon game Above the Snow?

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:31:15 +0000

I recently spent time in a mountain youth hostel, which offered a choice of hikes up nearby peaks together with the regulation climber's breakfast of imploded sausage plus violently oversugared orange juice. The worst thing that happened to me there was that I bunked next to an older German man who talked in his sleep. He sounded pretty distressed about something, possibly the sausages. I'll be inflicting far worse on my guests in Above the Snow, a tycoon management game in which you build, decorate and populate an alpine resort.

After an hour in the beta, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is both a limp Mass Effect and a leaden interpretation of a very good TV show

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:00:00 +0000

It's early days for The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, but I can say confidently after an hour with a beta version that I don't want to have sex with anybody in it. The TV show (I've not read the books – bite me, beltalowda) has a terrific cast of seasoned character actors portraying cheesy, hard-wearing oddballs from all around a colonised, fiercely class-divided solar system. Owlcat's third-person RPG adaptation is set alongside the events of the show's first season, and you catch wind of the Canterbury's destruction and mysterious events on Eros in newscasts, while exploring the beta level: a wheel-shaped Pinkwater mercenary spacebase off the shoulder of Jupiter.

The next Frostpunk game isn't a city builder, 11 Bit Studios reveal, alongside a modern "reimagining" of survival game This War Of Mine

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 13:23:05 +0000

11 Bit Studios have confirmed that they're making a brand new Frostpunk, alongside a "full" reimagining of their 2014 survival story This War Of Mine, and two other "completely new" games codenamed P14 and P12. No, they're not talking about the already known-about Frostpunk 1886. The forthcoming Frostpunk project will apparently expand the doomy city-building series "into a new genre." Please not roguelite. Please not deckbuilder.

Ubisoft have reportedly cancelled Alterra, a life sim blending Animal Crossing with Minecraft, after almost three years of dev work

Mark Warren — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 11:59:15 +0000

Ubisoft have reportedly cancelled an unannounced life simulation game dubbed Alterra, which devs had spent nearly three years weaving into something that combines aspects of Animal Crossing with Minecraft's voxel building. The cancellation reportedly hasn't resulted in any immediate layoffs.

A legend gets cheaper as the Logitech G502 Hero gaming mouse cuts 22% off from Amazon

Reece Bithrey — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 11:26:52 +0000

The Logitech G502 Hero has been around for eons by this point, with former RPS chief Katharine's original review of this mouse taking place back in October 2018 (when I was just 16 - god, I feel old). Nonetheless, by being an elder statesman of the gaming rodent world, it means this mouse can often be found at quite heavy discounts. Currently, it's just £27 from Amazon, which as per my price tracking graphs, tells me it's the best price we've seen the G502 Hero since Black Friday 2025. Not bad at all.

£520 for this Asus Prime RTX 5070 GPU and a free copy of Pragmata feels like a solid deal at the moment

Reece Bithrey — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 11:07:45 +0000

It's been a bit of a miserable time for shopping for components like RAM, SSDs, and GPUs - well, essentially anything that needs memory to function - as shortage-spiked prices remain high across the board. It means my usual task of deals-hunting on these types of items has turned more into a form of damage limitation against these rises, and this Asus RTX Prime 5070 graphics card for £520 from CCL feels like the best price it's likely to be for some time. We have seen the 5070 for well under £500 in the past, but in the current climate, this is about as low as we can hope for.

Adding naval warfare in time for Crusader Kings 3's Silk and Silver expansion would have blown Paradox's "schedule out of [the] water"

Mark Warren — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 10:48:21 +0000

Naval warfare won't be coming to Crusader Kings 3 with the big merchant republics expansion Paradox are set to roll out towards the end of this year. The studio say that they want to make sure they do sea battles justice, and so didn't want to shoehorn them into a DLC which already comes with "a fair amount of risk", while also blowing up their planned development timeline.

Steam, Minecraft, Roblox and Fortnite risk "becoming onramps to abuse, extremist violence, radicalisation or lifelong harm", claim Australian government

Mark Warren — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:52:42 +0000

Update: Roblox and Epic have responded to RPS' reach-outs about the Australian government's transparency notices.

Arcade roguelike KAZ will probably break my arrows keys, and yet here I am wanting to play another round

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 21:55:59 +0000

The less buttons I have to press a game, the better. I am not doing a bit here, no japes to be found, a refined, paired down control scheme is like a cherub's smile to me. KAZ, then, is arguably almost the perfect game, perhaps three buttons away from such a status, as it only requires four of them. Those will be the up, down, left, and right arrows keys (or the WASD keys, depending on your hand preference (and okay you do also need to press enter occasionally, I'm getting away from myself here)).

Casualties: Unknown is Noita for furries, and oh so deliciously miserable

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 20:37:09 +0000

"This game contains depictions of violence, self harm, and general misery," opens Casualties: Unknown, a short but still considerate content warning for the survival game ahead. Boy howdy is that last one accurate! We'll get back to that, first, how about some setup.

Take a flight to the uncanny valley with Aion 2, the MMO all about verticality that's going global this year

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 19:05:32 +0000

The concept of an MMO getting a sequel is always a strange one to me, but nonetheless Aion 2 is here. Or at least it will be, sometime this year, as NCSoft have confirmed that "the only MMORPG built around a world where the sky is the battlefield" (perhaps an odd place to plant your flag) is getting a global release on PC later this year.

"Mythology, by its nature, is told and retold": Hades 2 dev on changing its controversial ending

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:00:00 +0000

Last year, Hades 2 left early access, and Mark liked it! He did note, however, that its ending was potentially going to end up polarising, and with the accuracy of The Fates, this came to pass: Supergiant changed the game's true ending a month after its 1.0 launch because enough people didn't like it. This didn't land with universal praise either, for a myriad of reasons, but it stuck, and in a recent interview, the developer's creative director Greg Kasavin shared his thoughts regarding the process of making such a change.

Endless Legend 2's answer to the common 4X problem of "goldfish" AI is a cunning system of badges, from Pleasant to Bully

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 17:30:00 +0000

The least involving part of any 4X strategy is very often diplomacy with AI civilizations. Even Endless Legend 2, a game with a faction of coral people who can make other people like them by infesting their territory with spores, does settle into a formula. You make friends with other leaders forever or you define them as enemies and obliterate them. Maybe you grease the wheels by offering some minor nation a palmful of glowy rocks in return for passage through their lands.

Developers Amplitude are trying to give Endless Legend 2's diplomacy more consistency and flavour, however, by giving the world itself a memory. As of the game's latest update, you'll find it harder to cuddle up to other factions after spending 20 turns incinerating their dominions. Even worse, you might be permanently branded a Bully.

Enshrouded approaches the Roblox event horizon with the addition of Adventure Sharing in its latest update

Oisin Kuhnke — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 16:51:22 +0000

Roblox is the carcinisation of video games. It is an endpoint that, despite many varying diverging paths, many games ultimately end up at, even if they look noticeably different. Enshrouded is now approaching its own carcinisation with its latest update, Forging the Path, which introduces the awaited Adventure Sharing feature.

Call of Duty won't hit Xbox Game Pass at launch going forwards, as Microsoft's subscription service gets a price cut

Mark Warren — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 16:19:28 +0000

Microsoft have announced some changes to Xbox Game Pass. As of today, its Ultimate and PC Game Pass tiers are having their prices slashed, but neither will get Call of Duty games at launch going forwards. Instead, new instalments in the shooter series will hit Game Pass about a year after release, with already released CoDs remaining available to play as normal.

Unionised Build a Rocket Boy staff take legal action against MindsEye studio, accusing management of breaking the law with "invasive" surveillance software

Mark Warren — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 15:25:32 +0000

A group of unionised staff at MindsEye developers Build a Rocket Boy are taking legal action against the studio, claming that management's installation of surveillance software on their work devices violated data protection laws. The staff, represented by the IWGB Game Workers Union, claim Build a Rocket Boy haven't been transparent about what data was collected by the software and how it was stored.

"Not all machines are twisted mechano-socialists": Helldivers 2's latest warbond brings back a mech suit from the original game

Mark Warren — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:16:49 +0000

Helldivers 2's latest warbond is set to deliver two new exosuit stratagems, bringing a bit more variety to the robotic getups you can summon to help fight Super Earth's enemy of the week. One's the Helldivers 2 debut of a mech from the first game, while the other's got a big shield. Unsurprisingly, the gear pack they're part of is dubbed Exo Experts, and it's set to arrive next week.

Off the Grid studio Gunzilla faced a forced shutdown petition over alleged unpaid bills, and are accused of owing one company over $100,000

Mark Warren — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:33:36 +0000

Gunzilla Games, the studio behind NFT-infected battle royale game Off The Grid, have been accused of owing a marketing company over $100,000 and is facing more allegations from workers that their pay has been delayed. Gunzilla have also faced two instances of legal action over alleged unpaid debts to other conmpanies, who petitioned UK counts to consider pushing the studio into enforced liquidation.

Are Pragmata’s hack-filled shootouts thrilling, or fatiguing? How Capcom’s shooter tackles the age-old challenge of blending action with puzzles

RPS — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Pragmata is the new third-person moonbase shooter from Capcom in which you play Hugh, a gruff spacedad, with a small girl android named Diana riding around on your back. The game's core gimmick is that Diana can (and, indeed, must) hack the robots you're battling to nix their shields and so forth, using a real-time holographic minigame in which you move around a grid to reach a green square. There are also simpler varieties of hack for opening doors and springing traps.

Crusader Kings 3's latest batch of major expansions invite you to choose between God and gold, with playable popes and money-grabbing republican merchants

Mark Warren — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 09:43:34 +0000

Paradox have revealed the next round of expansions coming to medieval monarch strategiser Crusader Kings 3 as part of its fifth chapter of add-ons. The two major DLCs it includes - dubbed By God Alone and Silk & Silver - will let you play as two new types of ruler, theocratic religious bigwigs and money-driven republican merchants.

Save 45% on this capable ultralight Turtle Beach wireless gaming mouse in a limited-time Amazon deal

Reece Bithrey — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 09:10:46 +0000

The Turtle Beach Burst II Pro is one of the newer kids on the block in the burgeoning category of ultralight gaming mice, and is a veritable treasure trove of features, with a sub 60g mass, a zippy 30,000 DPI sensor and comfortable frame. When this rodent was first released, its only real problem was its price - an issue that has since been addressed with a hefty 45% discount that's brought it down to just £66 on Amazon. A far cry from its £120 RRP.

How to buy a used graphics card: spotting scams and dodging duds in the memory shortage crisis

Jon Martindale — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:20:58 +0000

Oh boy, you’re looking to buy a new graphics card in 2026. As exciting as that is, howeber, there is one big catch: you have to buy a new graphics card in 2026.

The impact of ongoing memory shortages is as well-documented as it is terrible, so you should already know that a new-new GPU means sky high prices. Used graphics cards have therefore become an increasingly attractive option, despite relative price bumps of their own. But where you might score a discount by buying through classified ads, you must also contend with rampant scammers, potential mining and AI-use degradation, and the usual concerns with second-hand anything: is it actually in "good condition?"

Fortunately, even in the cowboy world of used components, there are some general tips and advice worth considering to help find your way to a pre-loved GPU that will give you many years of enjoyable playing. Hopefully, without any panicked calls to a customer service helpline.

This week in PC games: the "final" Molyneux game, ski resort management, Game Boy horror and a glamcore heist sim

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:40:41 +0000

Happy this week, all! I return from my holiday in the mountains with spirit restored, skin bronzed, and knees destroyed and reforged into coiled springs of purest Adventure. Such wonders are my knees today! I rejoice in their knobbly tenacity and tensile splendour. I go out into the street in my pants and laugh, laugh at all the pathetic urban weaklings with quadriceps like overboiled spaghetti that could not bestir a butterfly's wing. I line up this week's new PC games and shoe them into the Maw like sparkling meteors.

The shake up to Arc Raiders Expeditions may turn the extraction shooter into a week-long bloodbath, but it could pair well with the "significant changes" planned for its skill tree

Julian Benson — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:45:00 +0000

Embark Studios are making a big change to Arc Raiders Expeditions, the recurring event where players opt to reset most of their account data in return for some sweet, sweet skill points and buffs. It may seem like a small change – with you earning rewards for damage dealt within the event, instead of wealth accumulated – but it could turn the game that's become known for its friendly, helpful community into a bit of a bloodbath.

The games industry will never "get back to normal", lament Tony Hawk devs Iron Galaxy, as they make another round of layoffs

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:10:00 +0000

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 developers Iron Galaxy are laying off an unknown number of people, as they struggle to "adapt to the climate" of a videogames industry that is refusing to "get back to normal". This follows a round of 66 job losses at Iron Galaxy last February, which were described as a "last resort".

If Windrose isn't quenching your sealord fantasies, maybe carving out your own Libertalia in pirate citybuilder Corsair Cove will

James Archer — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:31:23 +0000

As if catching the same briny breeze as early access darling Windrose, unannounced but blatantly obvious Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced, and, uh, Soulframe, there’s yet more pirates coming in yet more pirate games. Publishers Hooded Horse have announced Corsair Cove, an island citybuilder and freebooter colony management sim in the works at Tropico 6 and Park Beyond devs Limbic Entertainment.

Soulframe's latest major update is a broadside of pirate weapons, class abilities and outfits, plus falling alien skytowers

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 11:38:32 +0000

Pensive and flamboyant action-RPG Soulframe has just received a new update that adds a pirate class, together with rapiers, cutlasses, and a flouncy sailor's outfit. The class in question is the Duelo pact, which boasts of "swashbuckling abilities": these include an artful dodge that spawns a decoy phantom, an enemy-slowing sword flourish, and the old classic 'flintlock to the face' manoeuvre. They're also introducing a haunted shipwreck environment, plus a bunch of new enemies, another siege infiltration activity, and the ever-popular quality-of-life improvements.

"WHY ARE ALL GAMES ABOUT PIRATES NOW," I lamented to James, before starting this article. James ignored me, being engrossed in his own piece on forthcoming Tortuga-tender Corsair Cove, but the large green parrot on his shoulder screeched "pier pressure!" Mortally wounded by the pun, I staggered across the swaying deck to the Captain's cabin, only to be knocked flat by a barrage of yo-hoing from Ollie's on-going game of Windrose. Flopping around on the planks like a walloped albatross, I cried out to Mark for a restorative glug of rum, but alas, we've not seen him for days; he was last spotted paddling in the spectral wake of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.

There's a hefty Amazon Resale discount going on AMD's excellent Ryzen 5 9600X

Reece Bithrey — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:06:51 +0000

AMD's Ryzen 5 9600X has traditionally been the most affordable entry point into Team Red's latest generation of processors, which yielded modest gains in gaming performance over the 7600X but much larger gains in its efficiency to make it a more optimal choice. It's usually been a deal when I've spotted it at £160-£180 in the past, although you can currently snag an 'As New' condition for £131 on Amazon with its Resale section (formerly the Amazon Warehouse). There was a deal running to get a new one for £135 earlier today, which went very quickly, and this is technically even cheaper than that was.

The horrible Construct cyborgs of tactics game Menace are getting a rework for "style" and "variety", while the devs put a bullet in the promotion tax

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 09:38:14 +0000

Grim and grubby mercenary tactics game Menace is getting a big update that removes a "not-so-popular" promotion tax, gives all units the ability to clear away wrecked vehicles, and reworks the major Construct enemy faction, deemed by developers Overhype to be "severely lacking in uniqueness, variety, and style".

The Sunday Papers

Julian Benson — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Sundays are for watching Youtube videos about different types of laminate primer and working out if you've taken on too much by redecorating the kitchen. One video will recommend one brand and 120 grain sandpaper, another will talk about MDF undercoats and sugar soap, a third will say to ignore the haters and just use a vinyl wrap.