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Each year, we like more games than we can fit in our Advent Calendar. Those honourable mentions get their due here, in 2024's Selection Boxes. 2024 was my first full year at RPS, and as a guides writer, it was a year packed with the sort of games that make you roll your sleeves up, wipe sweat from your brow, and stare up at the sky from the trenches, ruminating on what life is like when you aren't dealing with...

about 10 hours 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 fell moons rise, and in their cold glare emerges a parcel from the dirt. Bloat and gangrene, crimped as if by tourniquet. A dark promise wriggles within. Grip the fibrous handles, feel its jagged soul imprint upon your palm. Now pull! Rend the sinew, tear muscle from bone, hatch their fetid gift! The yoke draws near! Take up the...

about 11 hours ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Each year, we like more games than we can fit in our Advent Calendar. Those honourable mentions get their due here, in 2024's Selection Boxes. My selection box isn't really a selection box. It's a tray of barely-nibbled leftovers, hastily lifted from my Steam backlog. One of the disadvantages of being news editor, you see, is that I have developed a goldfish-grade attention span. In my hectic pursuit of the next scoop, or the next Elden Ring update changelog, I...

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. The fell moons rise, and in their cold glare emerges a parcel from the dirt. Bloat and gangrene, crimped as if by tourniquet. A dark promise wriggles within. Grip the fibrous handles, feel its jagged soul imprint upon your palm. Now pull! Rend the sinew, tear muscle from bone, hatch their fetid gift! The yoke draws near! Take up the...

1 day ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. Here we are, the final voyage of 2024. This is the last advent calendar entry of PC gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun. Days elapsed: 24. Writers employed: 8. I hope this hurts. It's short and unsettling sci-fi horror game Mouthwashing. Brendy:...

2 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. The fell moons rise, and in their cold glare emerges a parcel from the dirt. Bloat and gangrene, crimped as if by tourniquet. A dark promise wriggles within. Grip the fibrous handles, feel its jagged soul imprint upon your palm. Now pull! Rend the sinew, tear muscle from bone, hatch their fetid gift! The yoke draws near! Take up the...

2 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. An ancient tale, often re-told - and that's just the story of the development studio that made it. It's the Journey To The West-inspired boss rush Souslike Black Myth: Wukong! Jeremy: I am half Taiwanese and spent most of my 20s...

3 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. The fell moons rise, and in their cold glare emerges a parcel from the dirt. Bloat and gangrene, crimped as if by tourniquet. A dark promise wriggles within. Grip the fibrous handles, feel its jagged soul imprint upon your palm. Now pull! Rend the sinew, tear muscle from bone, hatch their fetid gift! The yoke draws near! Take up the...

3 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.

4 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. It was a rainy day when she walked into my office, hard rain, like stray stones from a truck on the highway hitting your car bonnet. I lit my cyber-cigarette and put my feet on my desk, I don't know why,...

4 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. There's a slight breeze and a comforting glow coming from the crack's in today's calendar door, the sound of merriment and many accents from all over the world. Better join in the campfire revelry, because whoever's there won't be staying for...

5 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. Happy weekend all. Due to the intervention of Dark Powers and also, half the Treehouse already being on holiday, we neglected to do a round-up of staff Xmas plays before signing off for the year. Well, I’m pretty sure nobody did one. I can’t see anything scheduled in the RPS Post-A-Tron, but the RPS Post-A-Tron is an unreliable beast, full...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

"A tactically rich turn-based game with some meaty role-playing elements", was how Staff Sergeant James Archer characterised his Menace hands-on, back in September. The only thing missing from his account of the game was the bread needed to make that rich, meaty concoction a tasty, nourishing sandwich. And by bread, I of course mean the strategic layer - the parts between the turn-based battles where you pick your next mission, improve your squads, deal with pop-up story events, appraise your...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

I’m hoping you’ll forgive a spot of mission-bending here, given Should You Bother With? Is usually intended to test out the new and the strange of gaming hardware. Instead, I want to talk about mini PCs – not just small-form-factor desktops, but properly tiny, box o’ chocolates-sized computers – which have, of course, been around for decades. Recently, however, I’ve been wondering if mini PCs are finally on the cusp of having their moment as serious games machines. Between rising...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

This is The Rally Point, a regular column where the inimitable Sin Vega delves deep into strategy gaming. Clambering deep out of the Contemplation Pit, where reading reviews or opinions or, god help you, Takes, is forbidden, I am curious to learn how people have been categorising Songs of Silence. Its structure most resembles Songs of Conquest or Heroes of Might and/or Magic, but with little RPG emphasis or base building, and minimal tactical fighting. Taxonomy is arbitrary and often...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

How do we save the open world? is an irregular series about the state of open world games and associated ideas about exploration, curiosity and discovery. Early on in Terry Pratchett's novel The Light Fantastic, a spell is cast to map the world. It begins as a "fireball of occult potentiality," dangling in the Great Hall of the Unseen University, which evolves into a ghostly "embryo universe." The embryo expands "lightly as a thought," with spectral continents "sleeting" through walls...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Two men on the board of directors for Epic Games have stepped down from their positions after the US Department of Justice investigated the board under antitrust laws. The pair of directors were originally appointed to Epic's board by Tencent (who slurp upon a minority stake in the Unreal Engine company) but the United States government took a look at this and said: ah-ah-ah, you're not allowed to have a director in your boardroom if they're already fingers-deep in the...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. Ahhh, the lap of the ocean is calming isn't it? And it's really warm here, too. What's interesting is that the sounds of the sea are occasionally masked by the sounds of multiple segways. Weird. Of course, it's Like A Dragon:...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Steam sales aren't the drop-everything-and-grab-yer-wallet events they used to be, according to you lot. The Winter sale that began yesterday is almost identical to the Autumn sale that ended just two weeks ago, for example. But you can still find one or two gifts if you bore deep enough into the ice. Me? I'm only interested in one thing. How many of these games are snowy and chilly enough to induce wonderful hypothermia? I'm on a frostbitten quest to find...

6 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Open that bottle of space champagne, the aliens have been wiped out. At least that's what the interstellar pilots of Elite Dangerous are celebrating in the galaxy-sized multiplayer space sim. Earlier this month, the Thargoid menace finally landed in the Sol system, putting earth itself under threat for the first time, not to mention other human homeworlds and colonies. This meant players were invited to drop everything and head for home - to embark on one last great stand against...

7 days ago

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Frostpunk developers 11 bit studios have cancelled a new, console-oriented game in response to both "shifting market trends" - in particular, declining player enthusiasm for "narrative-driven, story-rich games" - and specific problems during development. As a consequence, a number of 11 bit staff are going to lose their jobs, though at least half of the affected development team are being offered the chance to move to other projects, including a few unannounced ones. As detailed in an investor release today,...

7 days ago

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Path of Exile 2 early access review Even incomplete, this huge early access ARPG is a gem, with a unique and flexible skill system and compelling world. Developer:Grinding Gear Games Publisher:Grinding Gear Games Release: Dec 6th On: Windows From: Steam Price: £24/$30/€28 Reviewed on: Intel Core-i5-12600K, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, Windows 10 At any given moment I am in the center of a wonderful vortex of skeletons. Bones splash and rattle and burst out of the ground in...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The announcement of The Witcher 4 with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's Ciri as protagonist has attracted a bit of discussion. Some of the reaction is online toddlers waxing wroth about a video game having a (somewhat older!!!) woman as lead character, and especially, shock, a video game in a series that has hitherto starred a man. And some of it is people commenting more thoughtfully on whether Ciri genuinely makes for a suitable Witcher protagonist, given that she isn't...

7 days ago

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Caves Of Qud review A rich roguelike RPG so deep you will need to bring a thousand torches just to get to the bottom of it. Developer: Freehold Games Publisher: Kitfox Games Release: Out now On: Windows From: Steam, Itch, GOG Price: £25/$30/€29 Reviewed on: Intel Core-i7-11700F, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, Windows 10 "We are a people who honour democracy," said the dog, scratching himself. "Per our custom, you may drink of our fresh water." The dog was...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Insults are so serious, these days. They're all so insulting, whereas the kinds of insult I cherish are the ones that coax a belly laugh from both the instigator of the roast and the roastee. Here are a few stupid putdowns I've made up specially for Xmas, organised into tiers of savagery. Suggestions welcome! Good luck sneaking them past the Dread Automoderator, and apologies to whoever has to eventually update our list of banned keywords with entries like "gastropustule". I'll...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. Huh, it's a little hard to breathe today, don't you think? Like the air's a bit thin. Anyway, I have a job I need to get to and there's this guy who's going to mentor me on my first day. A...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

It's been rumoured for a while that Sony are about to buy Kadokawa Corporation, a monolithic Japanese media conglomerate that means nothing to the bulk of you unless I append the magic words "parent company of Dark Souls developers FromSoftware" and possibly also, "parent company of Spike Chunsoft". Sony and Kadokawa were reported to be in talks last month, fomenting all sorts of speculation about, say, the PC version of Bloodborne being ritually sacrificed to consecrate the PS6-exclusivity of Dark...

7 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

They say hope is the first step on the road to disappointment, and reader, I’ve made a pretty damn big step. Previously, on my mission to survive S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl with only wild mutants as my weapons, I’d discovered clues that someone else was attempting to tame the Zone’s beastly inhabitants. With one of their electronic tracking collars in hand and absolutely no preexisting knowledge of their location, I set out to find this kindred spirit, only for...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Fists up, a big fighting game mod is due out this weekend. Marvel vs Capcom Infinite came out in 2017 and got some flak for its plastic figurine art style. But this year a modder began work on an overhaul that would grant the game pretty cel-shaded visuals. Since then the modding team has grown to 40 people and the scope of the mod's features has ballooned. It's now going to include new moves, stages, costumes, and a chaotic-looking 2v2...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. Today's Advent Calendar might take you quite some time to polish off. It's ridiculously dense, darkly majestic, and popular among masochists. Come then, touch the withered arm and be transported behind door number 18... It's Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree!...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

First revealed all the way back in December 2023, Archetype Entertainment and Blur Studio's sci-fi action adventure Exodus hit us with a few things: Matthew McConaughey is involved, it looks a bit like Mass Effect, it's being developed by BioWare veterans, and it loves a bit of time dilation. In October of this year, we got a look at some icky celestial faction and zero in the way of actual gameplay. And now? Now we finally get a look at...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

After much teasing, the vicious tyrants of Arrowhead Games and their noxious puppets, the "democratic government" of Super Earth, have announced the very first Helldivers 2 licensed crossover. In yet another hollow display of solidarity in the name of "Liber-tea", they've teamed up with the loathsome fascists of Killzone, the elderly shooter series from Sony and Guerrilla Games. From today, you'll be able to buy weapons, armour and cosmetics belonging to Killzone's despicable stormtroopers from the Helldivers Superstore, and there's...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Times Of Progress is a special game for me, because is the first news tip I have ever received from Sin Vega, Prime Minister of Strategy Gaming, way back in spring this year. Sin once described writing news articles for our former news editor Alice0 (RPS in peace) as like practising backflips in front of the kung fu master. Writing about a new city builder at Sin's suggestion is like being invited to budget the development of Londinium by Julius...

8 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Toy Box sounds like a very Xmassy game, but then you watch a trailer, and realise that it is not very Xmassy at all. It's a free visual novel with a macabre puzzling element. The setup is that you're a toy inspector working for a jovial Grand Toy Maker, his face hidden above the top of the screen. Your job is to disassemble toys - five in all - according to his eldritch written instructions, and either "salvage" them or...

9 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Great was the adulation last week when FromSoftware announced a new Elden Ring game, Elden Ring: Nightreign - and great the lamentation from certain quarters when it was revealed to be a co-op-focussed experience. If you missed the reveal, perhaps because you value sleep over the spectacle of Geoff Keighley's fashion friends, let me catch you up: in Nightreign, you pick from one of eight preset characters and explore a parallel-universe version of Elden Ring's Limgrave map, fighting lesser foes...

9 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. Uh, it's probably not a problem - probably - but I'm seeing a small discrepancy in today's advent calendar and... no, never mind... it's well within acceptable bounds. Go ahead, open the door. It's co-op comedy and scientific survival game Abiotic...

9 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Quick, the world is in peril, your adopted daughter is under threat, and nearby villagers are being terrorised by monsters. What do you do? Oh, you're sitting down at a cosy table in the local tavern. You're playing a card game with a dude called "Aldert". The wind outside is howling, and so are the nightwraiths, but you're just sitting there. Playing another "cow" card. Okay. Guess you'll be happy to learn that the Witcher 4 developers have more or...

9 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Sometimes dogs are hard to shut up. Over a year and half after releasing Hrot from early access, the developer of the Quake-inspired shooter has fixed the dogs after discovering that a few of the canines have been, for some players, barking in a hideous and endless loop. "A lot of people have complained about some barking," said developer Spytihněv in an update post. "There are some negative reviews about it, but I've always thought that it's just some people...

10 days ago

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At 9 years old, in the plastic seats of a Sega Rally arcade machine, I quickly learned that "automatic" is better than "manual" without understanding why. And now I know: changing gears is a fucking chore. This year, in my mid-thirties, I finally learned to drive. And weirdly, a racing game about destroying clapped-out old bangers helped me along. Thank you Wreckfest, for all the bottled road rage you allowed me to unleash. When I say "helped" I don't mean...

10 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. Today’s door has a big DO NOT ENTER sign, suggesting your immediate opening of it was in fact prohibited. Banned. Taboo, even. Yet it’s hard to see why, as it swings open to reveal a spectacular sunset view, interrupted only by...

10 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Seasons greetings, reader! It's almost time to hang your stocking by the crackling fireplace and post your handwritten letters to Santa up the chimney. If you don't have stockings, a fireplace, or a pen, rest easy. I've had a word with Santa's elves, and they say it's permissible to hang a trash bag by your George Foreman grill or local equivalent, and leave a comment on an RPS article instead. Wot you want for Wintermas, then? Extra trash bags? New...

10 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. 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. Can one sleep on a bookshelf? I'm going to find out. See you in the new year. Or, probably next Sunday with another minimum effort column entry. Book for now! The RPS Advent Calendar...

11 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. Today’s advent calendar window is a window upon Xmas past. It returns us to the days of LAN parties and dial-up, of demo discs and Fileplanet – a more innocent era, before multiplayer shooters fell under the spell of progression. Not...

11 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. Squeezing through the advent calendar window into a sodden glade of flower and coral, you spy a curious organism on a ledge in the shadows. It’s a video game of some description, though it looks like a squirrel, with frantic white...

12 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

Most of the population of the RPS treehouse is currently hanging limply off various branches after the ordeal that was "staying up until 6am to cover everything announced at The Game Awards. So let's keep this brief, and no one speak too loudly please, we're sensitive at the moment. Here's what we're all playing this weekend! BrendyI just want to play Wreckfest and not think. I want to see a car turn to shards, and for the little driver man...

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. Crimson Desert first galloped onto the scene in 2020, with a bombastic trailer at Gamescom 2023 showcasing some particularly beautiful medieval open world action adventuring. It's got horses, fishing, plate armour and roving heroism, but one thing it lacks is a release date. Now, thanks to The Geoff Awards, that's changed! Well, sort of - Crimson Desert is out sometime...

13 days ago

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Stealth launching a game during an awards ceremony is cool. But you know what's cooler? Stealth launching a union. As many in the games industry settled in for an evening of advertisements and blockbuster backslapping, one group of US workers quietly succeeded in organising something of their own. Employees at Zenimax Online Studios launched their union with 461 members, as announced on social media site Bluesky last night. The members include engineers, artists, web developers, and game designers. Most of...

13 days ago

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Will the bulletting of my beloved dinosaurs never cease? Turok: Origins will revisit the dino-hunting archery of ye olde Nintendo 64, reimagining it as a story of three native huntsfolk out to lambast large lizards. The big new angle is that it'll be a third-person shooter and you can play in online co-op as a team of T-rex wreckers. You then slurp up their dino DNA to upgrade your character. Come and watch these crimes against nature in the trailer...

13 days ago

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Earlier this week we heard rumblings of a new character announcement for Tekken 8, and at the same time a trailer dropped a big unmistakable hint for red-dressed rabble rouser Anna Williams. Turns out that unmistakable hint was mistakable. My mistake. At last night's Game Awards we learned that the next fighter to come to the game will be... Clive? From Final Fantasy XVI? Sure. Why not. TEKKEN 8 - Clive Rosfield Gameplay Trailer Watch on YouTube Ah yes, lots...

13 days ago

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. Would you like to know more? Open the door and earn your citizenship today. It's Helldivers 2! Graham: Ever had a weird, funny friend who one day cut off his long hair, started wearing shirts, and put all his Warhammer figures...

13 days ago

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Capcom are working on a sequel to Okami, the wonderful 2006 Zelda-like in which you play a sun goddess in a wolf's body, roaming a world of ink and parchment. It’s being being co-developed by M-TWO Inc, Machine Head Works Inc and CLOVERS Inc, and directed by original Okami game director Hideki Kamiya. I am tickled pink, I tell you. Find a trailer below. Okami sequel - Project Teaser Trailer Watch on YouTube There’s not much to share at this...

14 days ago

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Naughty Dog have announced their long-gestating new game, and their first in a long while that's not a sequel. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is a science fiction bounty hunter game set on a mysterious isolated planet, and the first cinematic trailer is below. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Announcement Trailer Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet's announcement trailer.Watch on YouTube "Intergalactic stars our newest protagonist, Jordan A. Mun, a dangerous bounty hunter who ends up stranded on Sempiria – a distant planet whose...

14 days ago

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Aaron Paul, he of a heartbreakingly fraught performance as Todd in Bojack Horseman, and also Breaking Bad, is starring in a new strategy story game from AdHoc, a studio with ex-Telltale developers at the helm. Dispatch is a story-focused strategy game where you’ll play a broke superhero trying to get himself a new mech suit by working at a hero dispatch center. Having trouble tracking a trailer down for this one, but you can find it here on Steam. Wait....

14 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'm a big fan of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, which pit Sonic and pals against a stable of characters from Sega's other games, including Total War and Football Manager. I'm less of a fan of Sonic's other kart racing exploits, but I'm still cautiously interested to learn he's getting back behind the wheel. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds was just announced....

14 days ago

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Back in the mid '90s, I was hooked on an PC racing game called Screamer. It got a sequel a couple of years later, and then the series went dormant. Until now, when it's seemingly returning as a foreboding, anime-infused racer about defying death, once again called simply Screamer. Huh! Huh. You'll find a trailer below. Screamer - Teaser Trailer Screamer's animated announcement trailer.Watch on YouTube I guess Ed will be happy? The trailer doesn't show anything in-game, and there's...

14 days ago

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Fumito Ueda is the august visionary behind ICO (small boy rescues small girl from evil castle), Shadow Of The Colossus (grieving boy murders several massive stone animals), The Last Guardian (small boy and huge, dopey dogcat escape from another evil castle). Now, he's getting into Gundams, though it looks like small boys are still a feature. Epic Games Publishing have just unveiled Ueda and genDESIGN's latest creation - Project: Robot. Find a trailer below. Project: Robot - Reveal Trailer (Studio...

14 days ago

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Well here's one I didn't see coming: a new Onimusha game. It's called Onimusha Way Of The Sword, and is the first new game in Capcom's samurai action-horror series since... well, that upcoming VR entry doesn't count, and nor does the Warlords remaster in 2018. So, 2012? Maybe 2006, if you rule out the Unity browser game? Cor. Onimusha Way of the Sword - Reveal Trailer Watch on YouTube On the off-chance that you've never played an Onimusha game, and...

14 days ago

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Arrowhead and Sony have released a new Helldivers 2 update that introduces the long-rumoured third faction, the Illuminate. Titled Omens of Tyranny, the update also stirs in city maps and a driveable jeep with a mounted gun that immediately reminds me of Halo's Warthog, and is hopefully just as fragile and bouncy. Here's a trailer. Helldivers 2 - Omens of Tyranny | PS5 & PC Games Watch on YouTube And here are some smoking bullet holes - I mean, feature...

14 days ago

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Looter FPS Borderlands 4 has gotten its first trailer, courtesy of Medium Geoff’s Happy Hour and..wait. What you mean it’s three hours? I’m going to die tonight, aren’t I? Ah well, at least I’ll die doing what I’m ambivalent about. Here’s the trailer for Fourderlands, which is out sometime next year. Borderlands 4 - Official First Look Watch on YouTube “Borderlands 4 is a mayhem-fueled looter shooter, jam-packed with billions of weapons, outrageous enemies, and intense co-op action,” says the...

14 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've lost track of how many Yakuza games are in development at any given moment, but it seems makers Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio have space for more on their plate. During this evening's Game Awards, they announced "Project Century", a new third-person brawler set in 1915. There's a trailer below. Project Century Reveal Trailer The Game Awards 2024 Project Century...

14 days ago

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The Long Dark creators Hinterlands have announced The Long Dark 2, another helping of open-ended wilderness survival. Actually titled Blackfrost: The Long Dark 2 - a travestying of naming conventions that is surely more harrowing than any post-apocalyptic winter - it's out in early access in 2026, and introduces urban environments together with a "Will to Live" sanity system and co-op multiplayer. Here's the trailer. BLACKFROST -- The Long Dark 2 -- Announcement Trailer Watch on YouTube And here's some...

14 days ago

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It's the Game Awards this evening, which means another year of Josef Fares appearing on stage to performatively say "fuck" like he thinks it's naughty. Thankfully this year he also had a game to show: Split Fiction, a new co-op action adventure. It's about two aspiring authors, one who writes science fiction and one who writes fantasy, being sucked into and having to survive inside their own fictions. Split Fiction - Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer | The Game Awards 2024...

14 days ago

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The Geoffies have delivered us a first look at the gameplay for Obsidian’s spacefaring RPG sequel, The Outer Worlds 2. It looks, as you might expect, very much like the first one, but a bit nicer. The game itself was announced back in 2021, but we’ve seen nary a vaguely satirical sign nor very large gun since. Now we have both, plus some punching. Here’s that trailer. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The Outer Worlds 2, which...

14 days ago

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World of Tanks creators Wargaming are getting into the mech-bothering business with Steel Hunters - a new free-to-play Unreal Engine multiplayer shooter, in which Transformers-style juggernauts fight for control of an energy source called "Starfall" on smashable, post-apocalyptic maps. It’s just been announced at Wrasslin' Geoff’s Winter Hootenanny, aka the Game Awards, and there’s a 10 day PC playtest underway right now. Here’s a trailer. STEEL HUNTERS - REVEAL TEASER Watch on YouTube I attended a presentation for Steel Hunters...

14 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. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launched on console back in February, and if I'd had to guess, I'd say it would arrive on PC about a year later. Hey - guess what! Square Enix just gave Rebirth a PC release date: January 23rd, 2025. The PC release will have improved lighting, enhanced textures and models, and support for DLSS and other...

14 days ago

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CD Projekt have screened the first trailer for The Witcher 4, the next instalment in their fantasy monster-slaying series. It’s another single player open world RPG, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Ciri is the protagonist. In fact, she's the protagonist for a whole new Witcher saga, though there’s a tease at the end of the footage that crusty old Geralt may return as well. The Witcher IV — Cinematic Reveal Trailer | The Game Awards 2024 Watch on YouTube...

14 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. RPG Solasta: Crown Of The Magister is getting a sequel. Solasta II launches in early access next year, and they’re aiming to have a demo out sometime earlier. Like its predecessor, this one’s a party-based CRPG with tactical combat, featuring single player and online co-op. Here’s a trailer. Warning: it has shiny rock people in it, the worst videogame enemy....

14 days ago

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Remember when From Software’s Hidetaka Miyazaki said they weren’t thinking about Elden Ring 2, but they were thinking about the continuation of Elden Ring in general? Well, who had “three player co-op musou” on their bingo card? Announced at the annual winter Geoff Awards just now, Elden Ring: Nightreign is a multiplayer-focussed spin-off that pits a trio of Elden Ringers against tides of foes in a world that reshuffles every time you play. It's out in 2025. Here’s a trailer....

14 days ago

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Pac-Man is doing a Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within, everybody. That’s to say, the Bandai Namco series is doing one of those dark, edgy iterations. It’s called Shadow Labyrinth, it’s out in 2025, and it’s a 2D hack-and-slash with gruesome monster designs. But none so gruesome as Pac-Man, who can transform into a huge champing black hole. Wakkawakkawakkawould you play this? Shadow Labyrinth – Reveal Trailer Watch on YouTube You don’t seem to control Pac-Man in Shadow Labyrinth. You play...

14 days ago

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Sifu and Absolver developers Sloclap have announced Rematch, a 5v5 multiplayer football game with a gentle dusting of science fiction, out in summer 2025. If, like me, you really enjoyed the French developers' previous martial art sims, you might, like me, find this news deflating. Football? We already have that at home. It's like a martial art, but all you get to kick is some... ball. I'm not sure I'll ever entirely swallow my disappointment, but credit where it's due,...

14 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. NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound is the next entry in the venerable series of action slice-em-ups, revealed tonight at pre-Geoffies. It’s arriving in 2025 as a joint effort between Koei Tecmo, Blasphemous developers The Game Kitchen, and retro revivalists Dotemu. Trailer below. NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound | Reveal Trailer | Coming Summer 2025 | The Game Awards 2024 Watch on YouTube Here are...

14 days ago

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A master thief creeps over cobbles in an early modern metropolis that splits the difference between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool. Lit by gaslamps that can’t quite dispel the industrial haze, they pass for a civilian - a rough one, admittedly, but not shady enough to cause an itch in the swordarm of any passing guard. Until, that is, they take to the thieves’ highway - following the trajectory of their grappling hook upward to the rooftops, from which they can...

14 days ago

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Open world fuhgeddaboudit simulator Mafia: The Old Country will release in summer 2025, according to a Youtube trailer that has leaked on social media ahead of tonight's Game Awards. The trailer also treats us to a few snippets of the game's story scenes, shoot-outs and punch-ups. We get to see wise guys swinging knives, riding horses and glowering silently at sun-baked Sicilian countryside. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. It's all set to the sorrowful strains of Madama...

14 days ago

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Tonight is The Game Awards 2024, the first since Geoff Keighley killed E3 and consumed its heart in front of a group of screaming schoolchildren. Just saying, this had better be good, Geoff, especially after the 2023 show’s "embarrassing" shooing-off of developers whose acceptance speeches cut into that valuable trailer showcase time. Who will need to please wrap it up this time? Which games will be revealed? Will there be a musical number to top last year’s Herald of Darkness...

14 days ago

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Marvel Rivals review Perhaps one the slickest free to play PVP releases of recent times, allowing Marvelheads or laypeople to hero shoot with frightening levels of choice. Perhaps a bit too much choice, for those who take their competitive games seriously. Developer: NetEase Games Publisher: NetEase Games Release: Out now On: Windows From: Steam, Epic Games Store Price: Free Reviewed on: Intel Core i7-12700F, Nvidia RTX 3080, 16GB RAM, Windows 11 At first I thought Marvel Rivals was basically rebranded...

14 days ago

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After a failure-riddled start, my attempt to turn S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s mutants into beasts of war is finally bearing fruit. I’ve engineered a Bloodsucker attack that wiped out the worst of villains – someone who was mean to me – and I’ve progressed far enough to really open up the map, and with it, access to more of the Zone’s fiercest fleshwarps. Also, rats. Buoyed by the successful Bloodsucker siccing, I’m back on the trail of some mysterious anomaly scanners, and...

14 days ago

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In more ways than one, today’s Total War: Warhammer 3 expansion marks a milestone for game director Rich Aldridge and his team at Creative Assembly. Omens Of Destruction’s three headline legendary lords each bring new campaigns and units for their respective factions, but it’s the fourth lord - a Khorne champion free to all players - that I imagine Aldridge will end up remembering the most fondly. When Total War: Warhammer released back in 2016, it shipped with eight legendary...

14 days ago

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If Space Marine 2's wanton devil-mulching left you hungry for more fantastical depictions of medieval zealotry, maybe take a look at Band Of Crusaders, an open-world party-based RPG in which you are the Grandmaster of a knightly order, trying to keep a bunch of wily Archdemons out of Europe. It seems to play a bit like XCOM, with an oppressive world map that is slowly encroached upon as you travel around recruiting soldiers, interacting with settlements, and picking real-time fights...

14 days ago

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The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. Today’s advent calendar game is already inside your head, for this is not a game you stop playing, merely one you step away from between rounds. Even after you quit, it lingers on the edge of your awareness like a muffled...

14 days ago

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If your PC has ever started randomly roaring, and you check Steam only to find Space Marine 2 is panic-installing a 9 billion gigabyte update, then perhaps Valve's new upcoming feature is for you. For most of us, Steam simply slurps down fresh gigs of installed games automatically when a new update is released (and sometimes schedules the updates according to its own capricious whims). But the platform is testing a new option in the beta client, which lets you...

14 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. I have to write at least 250 words for a news post. Rock Paper Shotgun’s CMS (content management system) even has a built-in widget that shouts at me if I don’t write at least 250 words. "Page 1 body content is quite short" it says if I go under. How cute is that "quite"? I love being fooled into getting...

14 days ago

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Creation is an act of kindness. One person sloughs off a piece of themselves, shapes it, wraps it, and sends it out into the world in the hope that it might mean something to someone else. Other people do this for us all the time and mostly we don't even notice. The work is unseen and unremarked upon even as, through repetition, we come to depend upon it. Until, one day, that light that they shine can't be seen. Maybe...

15 days ago

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Infamous evolutionary flop Spore, for all its flaws, still had a lot of magic to it. It was fun to design your weird creatures, to watch them try to walk, and - in principle - to turn your humble creations into a spacefaring species. Curiosmos is a very different game, but it has a little of the same appeal. It's a galactic playground in which you smash meteors together to make planets, then tinker with the ecosystems of those planets...

15 days ago

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Hyper Light Breaker is a prequel to the excellent topdown action-RPG from 2016, Hyper Light Drifter. The differences are myriad, given that Breaker is also 3D, open world, co-op and a roguelite. It also now has a release date for its launch into Steam Early Access: January 14th, 2025. Hyper Light Breaker - Official Early Access Release Date Reveal Trailer | Day of the Devs 2024 Hyper Light Breaker early access release date trailer.Watch on YouTube The "Breakers" of the...

15 days ago

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One of video game's greatest pleasures is being able to shoot bits off an enemy and then append them to yourself. TankHead gets it. It's about steering a tank through a desolate sci-fi landscape, blasting similar tank and mecha enemies to bits, then scavenging them for parts using a drone. It's been in quiet development for years, but it got a big reveal during tonight's Day Of The Devs stream. It was also released during tonight's Day Of The Devs...

15 days ago

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Back when I played Path Of Exile 2 at Summer Games Fest, I fought a cave-dwelling boss who summoned hordes of grotty subterranean wildlife to swamp me. Fortunately, I was rolling a Witch - perhaps the best beginner POE2 class - so I could summon an army of skeletons in response. A similar horde vs horde encounter is underway at POE 2 developers Grinding Gear Games. The game launched in early access over the weekend, and has already drawn so...

15 days ago

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In "non-violent and poetic" 2D platformer Symphonia, you're an extremely fancy violinist exploring a realm of musical machines, where gas lanterns kindle fitfully as you approach, crotchets adorn vast cogwheels, and reams of what I really hope isn't actual catgut feed through titanic pegboxes overhead. Sampling the demo, I was immediately enflamed by the orchestral score and placed in a mood of white-gloved sophistication only slightly spoiled by the familiarity of the underlying platform moveset, and by my repeatedly falling...

15 days ago

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The RPS Advent Calender 2024 is underway! Each day reveals one of our favourite games from this year, leading up to our Game Of The Year on the 24th. Check the main calendar post to see the full list. When I were a lad, you’d open an advent calendar and get a piece of chocolate shaped like a bell with an aftertaste so rancid you’d wish you’d eaten the little cardboard window instead. And you’d bloody well make do, too....

15 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. First covered by Alice O (RPS in peace) in 2017, Short Trip was a chill hand-drawn game about driving a tram through a mountain populated by cats. Back then, it was only available as a free-to-play browser or itch.io experience. Seven years later, though, and on this very day, it's out on Steam. Not only that, it's arriving with all...

15 days ago

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Ever wondered what the intro cutscene to Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver would sound like voiced by Solid Snake actor David Hayter? Quite specific of you, but a new documentary from Noclip might just have what you’re looking for. The Past, Present & Future of Soul Reaver interviews key developers from the action adventure game, and about halfway through host Danny O’ Dwyer gets hold of some archive materials, including old audition tapes. These include Mark Hamill reading for Janos...

15 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 Steam Deck OLED has joined Valve’s Certified Refurbished programme, offering a much cheaper way of getting your hands on the best handheld PC around. Provided you don’t mind it being in someone else’s first, anyway. As with official refurbs of the original Steam Deck, "certified" Steam Deck OLEDs are formerly-broken models that have been returned to Valve, fixed up...

15 days ago

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Bulletstorm, Painkiller and Outriders developers People Can Fly are "suspending or parting ways" with over 120 people, shelving one video game project, downsizing another, and "restructuring some of our support teams" in the face of market turmoil. "This action became necessary as external market pressures persisted beyond our forecasts," writes chief executive officer Sebastian Wojciechowski on Xitter. "The video game market is still evolving, and we have to adjust with where things are today. We are redoubling our efforts with...

15 days ago

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I am a Winter baby. My birthday is very close to Christmas, and so you’d think this might make me immune to the serotonin-sapping effects of the greyest season in a “I was born of the cold. Moulded by it” kind of way. No such luck, I’m afraid. So, since there’s only so many Vitamin D supplements and delightfully festive lunchtime Gin and Tonics one can consume, I figured I’d ask: what are your favourite comfort games for the bleaker...

15 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. While it’s always worth starting a new game of Cyberpunk 2077 just to hear Judy say "his own choomba shot him!" for the thirtieth time, there’s now a slightly more tangible reason to start a new journey into Night City’s open world. Update 2.2 went live yesterday, bringing with it a host of fixes, as well as some deeper customisation...

15 days ago

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It seems as if every "wholesome" game is either a Stardewlike or a Animal Crossingbut. Little Rocket Lab? Stardewlike. Piece By Piece? Animal Crossingbut. To be more specific, it's Animal Crossing but your chibi fox protagonist is specifically running a shop, mending and painting objects to sell while maintaining cleanliness and the plants outside. If you can't get enough of upcycling in Trash Goblin, here's one more for you. Piece By Piece - Announcement Trailer Piece By Piece announcement trailer.Watch...

16 days ago

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Ooh, this feels like the biggest news out of this evening's Wholesome Snack showcase: nourishing photography adventure Toem is getting a sequel, appropriately called Toem 2. It looks to follow much of what made the first so well liked, including its pocket-sized black-and-white worlds in which you wander about, snapping photos and helping the locals. Wholesome Snack: The Game Awards Edition 12/10/2024 - Indie Game Showcase The Wholesome Snack showcase containing the Toem 2 announcement trailer.Watch on YouTube I know...

16 days ago

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Naiad review A self-described relaxing game about wild swimming, sunk by tedious and ill-explained busywork. Developer: HiWarp Publisher: HiWarp Release: December 10th 2024 On: Windows, MacOS From: Steam Price: TBC Reviewed on: Intel i5-9400F, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 1660 Pity the "relaxing" games which set out to blanket their players in a wholesome fog. These minimalist or slight experiences set their stall against the mainstream philosophy of video game design focused on action, rules, clear progression, and often violence. So...

16 days ago

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Stardew Factory? Factory Valley? Whichever it is, Little Rocket Lab is a factory-builder about efficiently placing conveyors and robot arms, and is drawn in the warm, pixel art small-town of a Stardew-like. That sounds like a fitting combination, although it does mean you're building a NASA-sized rocketship on the outskirts of your quaint hometown. That can't be good for noise pollution. There's an announcement trailer below. Little Rocket Lab - Announcement Trailer Little Rocket Lab announcement trailer.Watch on YouTube As...

16 days ago

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Duck Detective's first case was The Secret Salami, which paired its cosy mystery about stolen lunches with a protagonist whose divorce and destitution were played entirely straight despite his being a duck. The results were seemingly delightful, and here comes a sequel. Duck Detective: The Ghost Of Glamping will offer a further 2-3 hours of mystery-solving and is aiming for release in 2025. Wholesome Snack: The Game Awards Edition 12/10/2024 - Indie Game Showcase The Wholesome Snack showcase containing the...

16 days ago

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Marvel Rivals, the free-to-play hero shooter from NetEase, launched late last week and is exceedingly popular. It's currently fourth on the Steam daily most played, right between Path Of Exile 2 and the evergreen Grand Theft Auto 5. I think there are three reasons for this enthusiasm: 1) it's free-to-play with the usual comet's trail of microtransactables 2) it's third-person Overwatch with Marvel characters, a straightforwardly enticing licensing sandwich, and 3) people want to have sex with a larger-than-usual proportion...

16 days ago