Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Did you have a fine old time in Blackreach, the mazy, Dwemer-built underside of Skyrim's sprawling mountain map? Do you like murdering Ents in slow motion? Do you want to see smells? You might be interested in The Axis Unseen, which has just launched on Steam - it's the work of former Bethesda developer Nate Purkeypile, one of the big brains behind Blackreach. The Axis Unseen isn't an open world RPG, nor is it a work of genre fantasy like...

about 6 hours ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Shotgun King developers Punkcake Délicieux have quietly rolled out another ticklish oddity in the shape of Build The Sun, a work-in-progress 2D god sim. In Build The Sun you preside over a tribe of alarming yet cute inkblot creatures, who sometimes remind me of Pikmin and sometimes, of that awful 'roided-up panther monster from the opening stretch of Another World. Your objective is, indeed, to build the sun, because there isn't one: the game's pastoral pixelart world is engulfed in...

about 6 hours ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Netflix have shut down one of their more trumpeted video game initiatives - a Californian studio known as team "Blue" and stocked with former Halo, God Of War and Overwatch developers. It was a major plank in Netflix's on-going efforts to extend their film and TV streaming empire to what Nic insists on calling the "greasy screen". The news comes via Gamefile and Stephen Totillo, who cites a company representative. Netflix have yet to make a formal announcement. Team Blue's...

about 8 hours ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

I forgot about just-launched horror game Tormenture when ravelling together this week's round-up of potent PC releases, but thankfully, Maw disciple Fachewachewa was on my case in the comments. It's one of your 'cursed video game' videogames in the spirit of Inscryption and Pony Island, and based on a quick blast with the demo, it seems lush. It's set in the 1980s, a premise I now automatically find horrible because I was born in the 1980s and that was, like,...

about 9 hours ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Not many people hit the refund button on Sonar Shock, the indie immersive sim that’s rated Very Positive on Steam. But those that do tend to complain they couldn’t get the hang of the controls. You can understand why. Try to strafe left to dodge an attack from a blubber monster, and you’ll instead rotate on the spot. Attempt to turn the camera with a flick of the mouse, and you’ll discover that your view remains fixed in place -...

about 11 hours ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Dave The Diver is getting a story DLC and, possibly, more games set in the same universe. This comes from an interview with developer Mintrocket's new CEO Jaeho Hwang, who spoke to VGC at Gamescom Asia about their plans to expand Dave and his diving. A future Dave may not even dive, but like, connive. Keep a beehive alive. Jive. Collect tithe. Hwang says that "besides the story DLC" that they're working on "right now", they also "want to make...

about 12 hours ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. ‘Tis the season for new gaming CPUs. While Intel gear up to release their efficiency-focused Core Ultra 200S chips, AMD have announced a November 7th launch date for their Ryzen 9000X3D series – the latest to use their framerate-juicing 3D V-Cache. No specific CPUs have been named, for some reason, but we can be reasonably sure from leaks and retail...

about 12 hours ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The Caves Of Qud developer has posted a cryptic riddle that sounds a bit like a release date in disguise. A post on the game's Steam page yesterday reads: "{n} purple wardens beseech the Chair, What is death, if one rose is fair? How long from beetle moon to beetle moon?" That means absolutely nothing to me. But at least one fan in the comments knows their lore enough to have translated it, resulting in a specific date later this...

about 13 hours ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Gangstalk is a cat-and-mouse game in which you play both cat and mouse. It's a stalking game in which you are the person stalking you and also, you are the person being stalked. By you. Yes, I too am wearing an expression of puppy-eyed dismay and confusion. But it sounds interesting, sufficiently interesting that I can disregard the very loud DYSTOPIAN WORLD framing in the trailer. GANGSTALK: A Horror Game from the POV of Your Stalkers Watch on YouTube Devised...

1 day ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

If you're fondly dreaming of an actual Steam Deck 2, not some half-and-half OLED travesty, you should also be fondly dreaming of a better class of battery. Valve designers Lawrence Yang and Yazan Aldehayyat have shared a little of the company's thinking regarding "generational leaps" in hardware, commenting that they don't want to release a Steam Deck sequel that is "only incrementally better", and in particular, that they don't want to release a new Steam Deck that is drastically more...

1 day ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Back in the protean stink of 2013, the beast we call Factorio sprouted in lowercase early access form and began its meticulous, ravenous conquest of the emerging factory sim genre. Some say that Factorio gave that genre life, though I'd point at Dwarf Fortress as one among many notable forebears. Today, the terrain of factory simming is hotly contested by rival piles of conveyor belt spaghetti. I'm not just talking about Satisfactory or Shapez - they're even making philosophical factory...

1 day ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Vampire Survivors was our best game of 2022 and one of the best roguelikes, period. And over the years it's received a slew of updates that make it a bit bigger and a bit better, but nothing that's been mega substantial. That is, until today's announcement that it's getting an Ode To Castlevania expansion, classed by developers Poncle as the game's biggest DLC yet. More characters, more weapons, a weapon selector, an enormous stage. I simply can't wait to devour...

1 day ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

RailGods Of Hysterra is one of those games that, as it were, shovels a bunch of relatively dried-up concepts into the squirming furnaces of something appealingly ghastly. On the one hand, it's burdened by talk of "crafting", "base-building" and "survival" - all things I have enjoyed but am currently weary of, and which together make the game sound interchangeable with half of Steam. But it's elevated, on the other hand, by talk of living helltrains that eat crocodiles for breakfast....

1 day ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

In a climactic scene of the original Final Fantasy VII, hero and amateur snowboarder Cloud Strife stands with his fellow adventurers as they are about to face a final, possibly fatal battle. With the steely glare of a polygonal warrior on the verge of killing god, he turns to them and says: "Let's mosey!" It's an unintentionally comical moment - an easy-going phrase, as if they're all going to the shops and not jumping into a big glowing pit at...

1 day ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Earlier this month, we learned that Star Citizen studio Cloud Imperium Games were mandating overtime for employees in the lead-up to their fan convention, Citizencon, which was held this past weekend. Additionally, this TOIL (time off in lieu) wouldn’t be made available until the release of space game Star Citizen’s accompanying single player campaign, Squadron 42. At CitizenCon over the weekend, CIG head promiser Chris Roberts said that he’s “confident” that Sqorty-two will release next year, 2026, via Ian Games....

1 day ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Happy this week, everybody! In my efforts to achieve the absolute tranquility needed to spend five days shovelling PC game news stories into a ravenous otherworldly monster, I often go for an early morning walk. I tend to do this while wearing my trusty, enveloping Honcho Poncho, because the UK summer is thoroughly behind us and the very air has begun to squelch. Anyway, while walking this morning I think I actually scared somebody into crossing the road. It turns...

1 day ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Booked For The Week is our weekly chat with industry folk about the books they love, have loved, and are hoping to love in the future. No cool industry person this week, I’m afraid, but I do have a consolation prize for you. A comment from valued RPS community member #1694 a few weeks back reminded me that I once...

2 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The Sunday Papers is our weekly roundup of great writing about (mostly) videogames from across the web. Sundays are for reconnecting with old friends, reminiscing about good times, and eventually going to bed feeling an unbelievable sense of calm, contentment, and a newly invigorated sense of self. Lol nah I’m going to play Mechabellum and eat gnocchi from a packet. Asda’s vegan pumpkin pesto is very good though. Here’s some writing I personally found interesting about games (and game related...

3 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This weekend marks the last chance to stuff your hands into the giant plastic tub of loose Lego that is Steam Next Fest, until the next one in like February or something. We’ve been smushing all our demo recommendations up against those of Eurogamer and VG247 in the Wishlisted hub, so there’s no shortage of us-approved tasters to catch up with. As for what we’re playing this weekend, well... Brendy I like the idea of dipping back into Hades 2...

4 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. A trend of gambling-inspired games has surfaced in the wake of poker-like deckbuilding roguelike Balatro. The recipe? Take a standard game of chance you might find in any casino and mash an uncountable number of bells and whistles and gizmos and weirdnesses into it, then slather it in a "one more...

4 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Deadlock gives me the shakes. Valve's not-so-secret third-person MOBA shooter is a fiercely competitive game of push and pull through monster-peppered city streets. You'll get into hectic scrapes with a giant blob man and come out of it sweating and swearing, and possibly alive. It is tactical, deep, instinctive, and an interesting work-in-progress. It elicits adrenaline almost as much as it forces murder economics down your piehole. This is the kind of game that puts you into a blistering, exciting...

4 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. Deep beneath my desk lies a secret shame: impenetrable black thickets of power leads, sprouting forth across two overlapping extension units. Such a failure of cable management pierces my conscience like the beat of Poe's tell-tale heart, and yet I’m forever powerless – as in, I can’t be bothered – to...

4 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

You probably still know Fullbright as the studio behind Gone Home, a delicately experimental first-person yarn about a girl exploring her family home after travelling overseas, and learning about the turmoil in her absence. Picture that game in your mind: the quietness of the hallways versus the crash of a thunderstorm outside, the sickly-sweet 90s décor, the fairy lights and screwed-up balls of paper, the gentle amber pressure of cloistered teenage memories. Now, imagine a faint scuttling behind the skirting...

4 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Following their remasters of Star Wars: Dark Forces and PO’ed, the sickos at Nightdive have done it again, this time with 1995 FPS Killing Time. Despite being one of the eight people in the world with a 3DO in the house, I missed this one the first time around. Let’s learn about it together. Best start with the trailer. Killing...

5 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Below the thunders of the upper deep, far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, its ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep Subnautica 2 sleepeth - but not for too much longer, as Unknown Worlds' open world survival game is due to surface in early access form next year. In the wake of last night's trailer, store pages have gone live on Steam, Epic Games Store and Xbox, shedding a bit more light upon the aquatic monster's nature and in particular, how it...

5 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Bloober Team have announced their next horror game at last night's Xbox Partner Preview showcase. It's called Cronos: The New Dawn and it's about - bear with me here - going to the past, harvesting souls, then going to the future so they can help you. It's all because you are, um, wanting to find a special rift in the future, so you can go back to a special version of the past. I think. Anyway yeah, it looks kinda...

5 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Genre tags are slippery, fickle things at the best of times, but I feel like each one I use to label Dunebound Tactics almost diminishes it, as I’m sacrificing something precious for the sake of powering on through the arid sands of easily comestible, digestible, poop-estible online content. Ah well, circle of life and all that. Plus, at least it’s thematic: you’ll have to make sacrifices yourself if you want to progress across its unforgiving deserts. This one’s got shades...

5 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Alan Wake developers Remedy have announced their very first multiplayer game, a three-person co-op shooter set in the world of Control and thereby, the Remedy Connected Universe. Previously codenamed Condor, it's called FBC: Firebreak - and I am going to immediately recommend they shorten it to Firebreak, because that caps-into-colon combo is going to wind me up when I'm writing news posts at speed. While I'm throwing my weight around, let me also instantly rebut the pedants who are even...

5 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Remedy have released the first proper in-game trailer for Alan Wake 2's second expansion, The Lake House. It's billed as even more of a horror experience than the base game, and takes place in a research facility run by the Lynchian ghostbuster organisation you may have encountered in Remedy's paranormal shooter Control. As such, the expansion forms a direct connection between the games, and may - read: definitely will - harbour a few clues about the story of the forthcoming...

5 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Developers Unknown Worlds and publishers Krafton have given us our first proper look at their next open world exploration sim, Subnautica 2, which will launch on PC via Xbox Game Preview in 2025. It'll support four player co-op, alongside the returning singleplayer survive-o-buildy experience, and it'll take place on a brand new planet. Here's the reveal trailer. Subnautica 2 - Official Announcement Trailer | Xbox Partner Preview 2024 Watch on YouTube "Whether you're bringing the experience of your previous adventures...

5 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Bohemia Interactive have announced that Arma 4, the next big instalment in their shooter simulation series, will release in 2027. The announcement came at the tail-end of Bohemia's 25th Anniversary Concert, alongside some disturbingly gun-less footage of a coastal promontory with rippling ocean waters against a cloudy sky - it reminds me more of The Elder Scrolls 6's announcement teaser than any tactical mili-banger. Perhaps they're secretly making an open world walking simulator? I kid, I kid. Please put the...

5 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Back in 2021, that dark epoch known as the Pre-Edwin Age, there was but one Ed at Rock Paper Shotgun - the venerable Ed Thorn, aka Edders. Edders had a dream, the dream of Halo Infinite getting a battle royale mode. Like Moses descending from the mount with a Needler in either hand, he bedazzled and amazed us with visions of "an enormous playground stitched together from some of Halo's most iconic maps of yore; Warthogs and Mongooses roaming the...

5 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. Ever been in a position where two people are really going at each other, hurling pointed jabs and insults back and forth, and you're stuck in the middle? Well then, perhaps you'll empathise with the enemies in Archons, a twin-stick Vampire Survivors-like where you control two characters at once, and attacks...

5 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Nepos Games are the two-person studio behind Nebuchadnezzar, which Nate Crowley called "two thirds of an outstanding historical city builder". They've just informed me they're making a new building sim called County Of Fortune. It ain't a city builder, though. In fact, it claims to have murdered the city builder in cold blood, which is unfortunate, because I was really looking forward to a round of Manor Lords later. "The city-builder is dead, long live the county-builder," declares the press...

5 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Praise the gods, it's Hades 2 update day, and developers Supergiant are not mucking about. They have bolstered the nippy roguelike with a heap of shiny new things in this "Olympian Update", including a new weapon with homing attacks, a liver-pecking boss fight, two new animal familiars, and the home region of the Gods - mount Olympus. It's probably the biggest update they've made yet in terms of fresh sights. And by "fresh sights", I mean Dionysus sporting a leopard-print...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

In a recent chat with the Ian Games Network, IO Interactive boss Hakan Abrak said the Hitman developer "absolutely feel(s) like 20 plus years of training for the agent fantasy, creating an agent that travels the world and globetrotting whatnot, has given us some know-how" on bringing James Bond to the greasy screen ("greasy screen" is my new attempt at coining a "the big/small screen" but for games. I foresee big success.) Abrak is so confident, in fact, that he...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Leadership at Don’t Nod yesterday “presented a reorganisation project to the employee representative bodies,” via financials report, in response to "a balance sheet that highlights the need to secure the company's resources" following the underperformance of Jusant and Banishers: Ghosts of new Eden. In plain terms, this means that up to 69 workers at the French company are at risk of layoffs due to an 11% year-on-year decline in operating revenue, via IGN. The number represents "29% of the Paris...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. I punched a cultist in the face in Streets Of Rogue 2, just because. He started running away - something I would not allow. When another robed cultist spotted what was happening, he tried to intervene, and a kind of Benny Hill pursuit chain began. We ran across a beach, through...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Archetype Entertainment and Blur Studio's space RPG Exodus was announced back in December, and was broadly notable for a couple of things: 1) Matthew McConaughey plays a character, and 2) the game's story is woven around time dilation during faster than light travel, with star-hopping adventurers prosecuting a fight against evil Celestials over hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. Now, it is notable for three things, the third thing being a cosmic blubber-spire of gurning faces who want to eat your...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. The existence of Knights In Tight Spaces, sequel to Fights In Tight Spaces, implies the existence of an unknown quantity or perhaps, an infinity of follow-up games that rhyme with both of those. Frights In Tight Spaces is the obvious horror spin-off. Sleights In Tight Spaces would be an urban pick-pocketing...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Ah, what a pickle I’ve gotten myself into. I need to climb down from this table if I’m ever going to meet up with my teammates and finish the game, but the stupid zombies cannot get me if I stay up here. It’s an absolute gherkin, I tell you. A real cornichonundrum. The steel pipe in my right hand is doing a decent job of whittling them down, and the torch in my left lets me see the expressions of...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Twitch have temporarily banned an account run by streamer Asmongold, otherwise known as Zack Hoyt, after he expressed genocidal sentiments about Israel's killing of Palestinian people in Gaza. According to the eSports journalist Rod Breslau, he's been sent to the naughty step for a grand total of two weeks, which I'm sure will be a huge inconvenience and will really teach him the error of his ways. Assuming Breslau's sources are accurate, it's a great demonstration of Twitch's tolerance for...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Back in September, open world publisher Ubisoft put out a 3-days-weekly return to office mandate for their entire staff worldwide - a decision that French Video Game Workers Union (STJV) said was "made without any tangible justification or any consultation with the workers’ representatives". In response, the STJV called on staff in France to hold a three-day strike beginning yesterday, which the union reports to be underway with the participation of more than 700 workers, via Le Monde. "This decision...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

"Do you have a ping of 1000 or something," my opponent asked, during my inaugural bout of Straftat. Ah yes, this is it, that sense of unpleasantly intimate sheepishness. That's the withering late-90s chatbox scorn I've been missing, in this age of glossy live service multiplayer. I hid under a stairwell in order to meditate upon my response, then laboriously typed: "No, I just suck." Right on cue, the other player tumbled into view and shredded me with an AK....

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247.I’ve never learnt to drive, and while I’ve always told myself it’s impractical - unnecessary, expensive, potentially dangerous for someone with undiagnosed but, I suspect, incredibly likely dyspraxia - I’m not sure...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Riot Games are cutting more jobs at their studios, the company announced today. This is the second time in a year the League of Legends developer has laid off workers. Chairman and co-founder of Riot, Marc Merrill, made the announcement yesterday, claiming that by cutting these jobs the company was "evolving League" and "investing heavily in solving today’s challenges". A total of 32 people have lost their jobs, mostly workers on League of Legends, according to a figure the developer...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. You might have caught this one during Day Of The Devs earlier this year. It’s stuck with me since because the developer Tanat seemed like a rad dude, and also because there’s nothing I cherish more than taking a bad pun and just absolutely going to town on it, marrow and...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. In the grim darkness of the far future, you will not have to worry about getting preyed upon by rival Space Marine chapters whilst duffing up the Tyranids, for there are no plans to add a PvPvE mode to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. That's according to game director Dmitry Grigorenko, who observes that enjoyable PvPvE is the "holy grail"...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. The allure of the sea-green GameBoy screen is difficult to resist. Picking up from where Pokémon left off two decades ago, Letalis is a bleepy-bloopy retro RPG about wandering from town to town and doing battle with dodgy local leaders to prove your worth. But you won't be doing the fighting...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. My name is Edwinus Evans Thirlwellus, Commander of the News Writers of the North, General of a small lonely box of unpainted Warhammer 40,000 Orc figures I was given for my 21st birthday, and loyal servant to the true emperor, Timmy Mallett. FATHER TO NO MURDERED SONS. HUSBAND OF NO MURDERED...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

If you've read any of my stuff by now, you'd know that I am a simple man who enjoys violence in his games. No story? Absolutely fine by me - cuts the faff. This is why I like the demo for first-person shooter Cop Bastard a lot. It's set in early 90s Japan, where you'll smoke fools with guns in straightforward homage to 90s action movies. And it has an updated demo - not officially part of the latest Steam...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Last October, Paradox Interactive announced that they and development studio Harebrained Schemes were breaking up, following underwhelming sales of Harebrained's 1930s-set XCOMlike, The Lamplighters League. The publishers had already made layoffs at Harebrained in the run-up to release, implying that preorder numbers were low; ultimately, Paradox wrote it off as a $22 million flop. At the time of the "parting of ways", Paradox chief operational officer Charlotta Nilsson washed her hands of XCOMlikes entirely, commenting that "a new project or...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. The developer of Full Fathom describes it as a "thalassophobia sim". You are the lone engineer on a rustbucket submarine exploring the dangerous waters of a submerged country in an alternate reality 1990s. The warning lights on the control panel are flashing, a buzzer is spluttering like a dying bluebottle, and...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

How do official Bethesda bug compilation videos coinciding with a game's launch sound? Or at least, a proper list of known bugs on day one, to preempt any compilations created by vengeful players? Skyrim Lead Designer and Starfield Systems Designer Bruce Nesmith has spoken a little about the “interesting problem” of how open developers should be about technical issues on day one, given the expectation some players have that every game should be "flawless". When asked by Videogamer if lists...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

If I could extend my arm forty times its normal length, while also granting it the flexibility of a sock filled with mince, I’d probably just use it to take the bins out without leaving my chair. But what if someone were to use this power... for evil? That’s the gist of My Arms Are Longer Now, a cartoony "stealth-comedy" game about worming a single stretchy limb into people’s valuables, which has a Steam Next Fest demo out now. The...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. My earliest memory of the Commandos series of tactical stealth games was my dad bringing home a box copy of the original. “The missions take months. Months!” his mate had told him. Get less shit mates, thought I, for I had already played it elsewhere, and knew that the missions took...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Looking for a new gaming monitor? I don’t mean to tempt you, but this is one hell of a deal. Beating its most recent Black Friday pricing ($1179) by over $200, the Samsung 49" Odyssey G93SC Series OLED Curved Gaming Monitor is now down to $949 at Amazon. That’s $650 off its original list price, and one of the best deals of the year so far. $949 (was $1599.99). 3/yr Warranty. 240Hz, 0.03ms, Dual QHD, DisplayHDR True Black 400, FreeSync...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. Cast your mind back ten years. Done? Good, you survived the hideous form of time travel known as long-term memory. Now, do you see a horrendous first-person shooter anywhere back there, full of memes and intentionally terrible font choices? Congratulations, you may have remembered 420BlazeIt, a freakish eyesore of a game...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Space whale city builder Beyond These Stars has been delayed till 2025, developers Balancing Monkey Games have announced, for there are too many monkeys to balance, and too many astral cetaceans to wrangle before the early access launch. I react to this news with mingled happiness and disappointment. Disappointment at the delay, and happiness, because I hadn't heard of Beyond These Stars before. To coincide with the delay announcement they've released a new trailer, below, which talks us through the...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Neva review Neva is a beautiful platformer about nature and decay that takes Nomada Studio to the next level. The platforming and combat are imprecise enough to distract from a world of dangerous beauty - but not so much that you won't enjoy the journey. Developer: Nomada Studio Publisher: Devolver Digital Release: October 15th 2024 On: Windows, MacOS From: Steam Price: TBC Reviewed on: Steam Deck Neva is the Sophomore effort from Nomada Studio, who you may remember from their...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. Sektori promises to "transport you into another state of consciousness", but what the pulsing soundtrack initially did was transport me to Youtube so I could look up this scene from Spaced, where Michael Smiley raves out to a boiling kettle. By elegant coincidence, that video is about the length of my...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. Credit where it’s due to Silent Sadie, whose Steam Next Fest demo is out now: even within the confines of a 2.5D platformer, I don’t think it could lean any harder into its love of pratfallin’, piano-tinklin’ 1920s comedy cinema. As a pair of scratchy, black-and white intertitles explain, you are...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Both part of Italy’s "not very big" developer community, Morbidware’s Diego Sacchetti and Misbug have known each other for a long time, but hadn’t had the chance to collaborate together until 2019’s The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia - a bullet hell where you dodge projectiles and type in exorcisms to banish demons. They worked well together, so started looking for their next project - something full-time that could take the place on the increasing instability of freelancing. It...

8 days ago

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This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. One of the most important lessons in skiing is, presumably, to look where you're going. You wouldn't want to ski with your eyes closed or while viewing yourself from a drone pointed back at the mountain from above. That'd be daft. Or maybe not. Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders is the frosty...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. This week, we're highlighting the best demos you can play during Steam Next Fest, which is running October 14th-21st. We're calling this Wishlisted, in partnership with Eurogamer and VG247. Normal games for normal people, that's what everyone loves. Cosy experiences where nothing goes wrong and you have absolutely zero things to investigate and no otherworldly mysteries to worry about. It...

8 days ago

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What is the cutest type of eyeball? This question has plagued the games industry since Nintendo first allowed millions of unsupervised children to play god with Mii avatars and their customisable peepers. In low-stakes fishing game Webfishing, you can give your fuzzy avatar one of 33 styles of eye (I counted). This is the mark of a solid Animal Crossing-like. There's a lot of other character creation bits and bobs, of course, but you'll have to catch a bunch of...

8 days ago

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Diablo 4: Vessel Of Hatred review The new Spiritborn class’s centipede Animorph is a great addition, and mercenaries widen buildcraft significantly. But Diablo 4’s core loop is still mostly unexciting, and the story here feels thin and laboured. Developer: Blizzard Entertainment Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment Release: Out now On: Windows, Linux From: Steam/Battle.net Price: £35/€40/$40 Reviewed on:Intel Core i5-12600K, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070, Windows 10 Write travel journalism to imaginary places, my spaghetti once spelled out. Do package holidays count?...

8 days ago

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Sometimes, a game needs an original premise before I'll write it up, and sometimes, it just needs a flying car, or a slick revolver with pistol chambers outlined in mouthwatering red neon. Say hello to ExeKiller, which I am filing under "not new, but news to me". I know, "ExeKiller" sounds like a computer virus, though I think the people who make viruses tend to favour less obviously nefarious names, like "Microsoft Werd". Hang on, that's what I'm writing this...

8 days ago

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If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. I loved the original Until Dawn - a spruced-up horror take on those old FMV adventure games, with just the right mix of B-movie self awareness and creature feature scares. I was very close to buying the recent remake, actually, until I watched the extended prank scene online and realized, oh no, they’re taking themselves seriously now. They prestige-ified it....

9 days ago

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If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Merry mid-October all! It's chucking it down here. This week I'm mostly playing a game of my own devising called There's A Hole In My Raincoat And I Can't Find It. The Maw is unlikely to be sated by such flotsam, so it's just as well there are also a bunch of new PC games on the cards. Please run...

9 days ago

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If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Booked For The Week is our weekly chat with industry folk about the books they love, have loved, and are hoping to love in the future. Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! I need to start getting...

9 days ago

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It's not far away, you know. The promised land of never having to experience a game the way it was intended again. That long sought after holy grail of sticking your fingers in your ears and going wahwahwah. But it’s not going to be something created by people with talent, vision, expertise, drive, a dream, or a story in their hearts. No, as with everything in our imminent future, it will be achieved by putting a bucket over your head....

9 days ago

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If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. The Sunday Papers is our weekly roundup of great writing about (mostly) videogames from across the web. Sundays are more making and freezing a bunch of sandwiches so I can later toast them at my leisure. Not sure why, just fancied becoming the sort of person with a bountiful hoard of sandwiches. Before I get seriously locked in to some...

10 days ago

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"Studio Ghibli" is a genre of game, in the same way "Aliens" and "Blade Runner" are genres of game. Blue skies, wind rustling grass that's a just-so shade of green, a preoccupation with flight? Welcome to Ghibli town, friend. You'll find all of the above and several other familiar pieces of iconography in Europa, a puzzle and story-led adventure that's out now. Europa | Steam & Switch Official Launch Trailer Europa's launch trailer.Watch on YouTube Europa claims to offer 3-4...

10 days ago

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If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Thronefall is a pleasant, minimalist mashup of tower defence and strategy, in which you build up a base during the day then defend it from monstrous hordes at night. It launched in Early Access in August last year and has been wooing people with its cool colour palette ever since. Now it's hit 1.0. The 1.0 update adds three new...

10 days ago

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The regular comments to this column inform me that many of you are cat owners, so this week, I would like to someone to explain to me how my cat can bound across a room, jump, and catch a moving dressing gown cord flawlessly, and yet fail to locate the stinky cheese Dreamie I’m holding out to her without several moments of smelling unrelated locations. Either way, this is my new favourite videogame, which gives every other game a lot...

11 days ago

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Tomb Raider 1-3 got the remaster treatment earlier this year, and surprise surprise, now Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered is on the way. That'll include Angel Of Darkness, of course, the entry of the sexology that could most obviously benefit from some TLC. The remasters are being handled by Aspyr in partnership with Crystal Dynamics, as per the original trilogy remaster. This new batch includes 1999's Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, 2000's Tomb Raider: Chronicles, and 2003's much maligned Tomb Raider:...

11 days ago

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Steam now shows customers a message to let them know that they're buying a license when making a purchase through the storefront, rather than any outright ownership. The change has been implemented internationally in response to new California legislation due to take effect next year. When viewing a game in your Steam shopping cart, a message is now shown under the "Continue to payment" button. "A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam," it...

11 days ago

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I was a few days late with the news when I wrote last week that Football Manager 2025 had confirmed its release date for this November. Now I know that I shouldn't have bothered: Sports Interactive have now delayed FM2025 until March 2025. "In our last Development Update in September, we explained that we needed to push FM25’s original release back to give ourselves more time to deliver the best possible experience for this first instalment in a new era...

11 days ago

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"Post Void is a masterpiece of compulsive motion and hypnotic, irresistible sounds," wrote Sin of YCJY Games's "orgiastic" shooter. "It does something to my brain that I've never experienced before." The developer's just-announced Keep Driving seems a lot less inclined to scramble your grey matter, though it's partial to the old rose-tinted goggles. It's a droll, backward-glancing and slightly ominous 2D management RPG in which you drive to a music festival on the other side of the country. Along the...

11 days ago

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After a hard day's editing articles about three Disco Elysium spiritual successors - each more politically outspoken than the last, in a kind of Sophisticated Pooh collage of escalating Marxism - I like to kick back with a nice chill game about Lovecraftian space monsters. That game is Konafa Game's Starless Abyss - a roguelite tactical deckbuilder published by Descenders and Yes, Your Grace outfit No More Robots. It puts you in command of a fleet of upgradeable spaceships, who...

11 days ago

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Those two other Disco Elysium "spiritual successors" were but filthy pretenders, or at best, the thesis and antithesis resulting in this afternoon's triumphant synthesis.* The real Disco Elysium spiritual successor is whatever they're making at Summer Eternal, a just-announced "art collective/RPG studio" founded by a group of, once more with feeling, former Disco Elysium developers. The press release for this particular Disco Elysiulike has the most actual names on it of the three we've learned about this week. It is...

11 days ago

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Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun Steam Deck Academy brings together all our guides and explainers on getting the most out of your Steam Deck, no student loans or sweaty dormitories required. Few games demonstrate the disconnect between graphics and aesthetic like Metaphor: ReFantazio. A pure technical analysis would conclude that it has the fidelity of an early Nintendo Switch game at best, and yet anyone whose heart flickers with even the tiniest ember of sentiment will instantly fall in love...

11 days ago

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If you care about my opinion, I generally still think sticking with a micro SD is the safer and simpler option for Steam Deck storage, but if you’re set on upgrading the internal SSD of your handheld, the Corsair MP600 CORE Mini 2TB SSD is your best bet, now down to $129.99 on Amazon. $129.99. Up to 5,000MB/sec Sequential Read – High-Density QLC NAND.See at Amazon It’s a sharp drop from its $239.99 list price and the best price ever...

11 days ago

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Fire up the Steam page for Stellaris, one of my favourite space sims, and you will see 28 pieces of DLC, ranging from free character portraits to £35 expansion passes that span a bunch of species and story packs. Stablemate Europa Universalis 4 has 37 DLC packs under its banner, while Cities Skylines is streets ahead with a whopping 62. Paradox Interactive have long built their core game business around putative forever-projects that trail an enormous mantle of paid expansions....

11 days ago

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Maximizing storage for your Steam Deck or ROG Ally is, frankly, essential. While the built-in SSD handles most games well, few will truly push it to its limits, meaning a good micro SD card is often your best bet. Enter one of the year's standout deals for Steam Deck owners. The TeamGroup 1TB A2 Pro Plus micro SD card is currently down to $59.99 on Amazon—a sharper offer than the recent Lexar Play 1TB at $66.49. At this price, it's...

11 days ago

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You have woken to the sound of multiple former Disco Elysium developers arguing inside your own skull. They are bickering about whose game is the true spiritual successor to the rockbottom detective RPG. Is it the unnamed project announced earlier today by new studio Longdue, involving some kind of "psychogeography mechanic"? Or is it this one, XXX Nightshift, a cerebral sci-fi RPG set in a posh polar hotel about a detective "solving gruesome murders, breaking sacred hearts, or just killing...

11 days ago

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If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Indonesian indie developers stellarNULL have announced action adventure game Mentari, a coming of age story about a magical girl who heals the world and fights baddies with the power of dance. As they attack you, you'll hit them with sick twirls and the 'ol two step, cleansing them of a sickness called the "Stillness". Bonus fun fact: Mentari means "Sunshine"...

12 days ago

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A spiritual successor to Studio ZA/UM’s RPG Disco Elysium is currently in development at the newly-formed Longdue. It's set in a world “conceived by the leads” of the canceled sequel. A representative of Longdue told us that "the studio isn't ready to talk about specific names at the moment beyond the people mentioned in the press release, but they are looking forward to sharing more about the game and the studio in the future". They did, however, confirm that Disco...

12 days ago

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If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Perhaps it’s just a testament to the archetypal strength of the image, honestly. I don’t mean to reduce it to a trope, and while I’m positive I’ve seen it multiple times before, there’s no denying this fallen giant king looks especially gorgeous in Bylina. I’ll move on from his large majesty for a moment though, because it isn’t the only...

12 days ago

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That great disturbance in the Force you just felt wasn't a million voices crying out in terror. It was, in fact, me crying out in terror a million times. You see, Aspyr have just announced that they're porting Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles to PC and Steam. I have a complicated relationship with Jedi Power Battles, in the sense that I think I still have scars on my thumbs from when I played it all night on a...

12 days ago

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I will not lie to you, gentle reader. When I first laid eyes on Secret Door's Sunderfolk, while lurking to the rear of a gaggle of journomancers at a preview event last week, I let out an ostentatious sigh. Fortunately, I still mask up to preview events, and am thus free to adopt all kinds of snotty facial expressions without being set upon by burly PRs and shoved into the minifridge for later disposal. To sum it up, Sunderfolk is...

12 days ago

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Intel have announced their latest batch of desktop CPUs, the Core Ultra 200S series, and it's got the component giants singing quite a different tune. Instead of trying to stuff in ever more threads, and ever more PC-incinerating clock speeds, the Core Ultra 200S family – spearheaded by the Core Ultra 9 285K when it launches later this year – will dial back certain specs compared the 14th Gen range. Instead, the focus will be on power efficiency and lowering...

12 days ago

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Kind Words 2 review A tiny, cute city where you can spill your guts or sit in a hot spring dispensing life advice like a happy, wrinkling monk. Developer: Popcannibal Publisher: Popcannibal Release: Out now On: Windows From: Steam Price: £17/$20/€20 Reviewed on: Intel Core-i7-11700F, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, Windows 10 A paper aeroplane falls at my feet, with a note written inside: "Even through everything that has happened... I never stopped loving you." Kind Words 2 is...

12 days ago

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Paradox Interactive delayed jail management simulator Prison Architect 2 indefinitely this August, commenting at the time that the game had notable performance issues, and that its system-led design was proving tricky to tinker with. This came a couple of months after the Crusader Kings publisher washed their hands of the sequel's original developers, Double Eleven. Speaking to me at Paradox's Media Day last week, deputy chief executive officer Mattias Lilja offered a shade more insight on the decision, suggesting that...

12 days ago

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If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. An Italian-language only quirk with Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 Remake almost spoiled the entire plot for fans playing in that language, but was fortunately caught in time for the day one patch to make changes. As spotted by PC Gamer, some garbled lines the player hears upon first picking up the game’s radio weren’t quite garbled enough in the...

13 days ago

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If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Coffee Stain Publishing have announced Goat Simulator Remastered, a spruced-up take on 2014’s open world, ragdolling livestock sandbox with all of the original’s DLC included. I played a bit of this at Gamescom in August, and while the trailer below is proof positive that the remaster does indeed look newer and shinier, in the moment I couldn’t shake the idea...

13 days ago

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If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. It’s always vaguely reassuring to see your own card mentioned by name in the recommended specs for a new release - even if that new release is just a slightly pomaded-up version of 14-year-old open world console game Red Dead Redemption. I could write a laborious metaphor about someone coming looking for me in a saloon using whatever that literary...

13 days ago

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We've all used a Steam Deck, so we all know how poor the battery life can be when playing a more graphically extensive game like God of War: Ragnarok, or Cyberpunk 2077. Here's the trick, you need a good power bank to accompany your portable PC adventures. One of my favorites is on sale in the final hours of the October Prime Day (Prime Big Deal Days) sale right now. It’s the Anker 737 24,000mAh portable charger, which is down...

13 days ago

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I’m told that if I do one more Prime Big Deal Days post, they’ll take off the metal clamps holding my eyelids open, and won’t put them back on until Black Friday next month. Result! So here’s a little after-dinner mint of a PC gaming hardware bargain: JSAUX’s Steam Deck thumbstick covers, which come packaged with some stick-on decals for £8 / $8. Both 20% off, they be, leaving a price so low I have real hope you’ll forgive me...

13 days ago