Overwatch 2 has dumped plans for their promised PvE Hero Mode

When Overwatch 2 was first announced at Blizzcon 2019, Blizzard promised an ambitious “highly replayable” PvE component that somewhat justified the ‘2’ at the end of the title. Last night, the Overwatch 2 development team announced that they’ve scrapped most of their ideas including the Hero Missions mode which had skill trees, levelling up, and other light RPG elements shown off in the trailer below. Instead, they’ll be gradually releasing co-op story missions and integrating them into their ongoing seasons, similar to how PvE operated in the first Overwatch.

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You can try the Dead Space remake for 90 minutes with a Steam free trial

It’s long been possible to download demos of some games on Steam, particularly during periodic Steam Next Fests. It’s also technically possible to buy a game, play it for under two hours, then refund it if it’s not for you.

As of yesterday, you can experience a marriage of both these ideas on Steam via a time-limited 90 minute trial for EA’s Dead Space remake.

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This extreme overclocking EVGA Z690 Kingpin motherboard is more than 50% off at Newegg

EVGA’s Kingpin motherboards are some of the most bonkers out there, proper slabs that are designed for extreme overclocking with hugely impressive power delivery, multiple BIOSes and some unique features. They’re also hugely expensive, normally costing close to $1000, but a deep discount on their Z690 model over at Newegg brings it to $400. That’s still pricey, but a reasonable pickup given the feature list for anyone designing a top-end gaming rig around Intel’s 12th-gen or 13th-gen Core processors.

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CCL are offering an RTX 4070 gaming PC with Diablo 4 for £960

It’s been a little while since we covered a prebuilt gaming PC here at RPS, but there’s a good deal today on a RTX 4070 system over at CCL.

A configuration that includes a Ryzen 5 5700G, 16GB of DDR4 and 500GB NVMe SSD is available for £960 when you use code GAMER20 – and you even get a free copy of Diablo 4, which debuts on 6/6 and looks quite promising!

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Long Covid Mods translate “real-world symptoms” into Elden Ring, Minecraft, and The Witcher 3

A new series of challenge mod packs aim to raise awareness for Long Covid and chronic fatigue symptoms using three perennial favourites: Elden Ring, Minecraft, and The Witcher 3. The initiative is called Long Covid Mode and all three mods make sweeping adjustments to the games, turning “real-world symptoms into in-game effects.” Take a look at some of the examples below:

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Veiled Experts is 3rd person Counter-Strike, and somehow it’s utterly fantastic

I’ve been meaning to write about Veiled Experts for over a month now, since playing it religiously during the Final Beta Test. I’ve been putting it off mostly because I’ve been busy, but also because I’m trying to find a way of saying “actually it’s really good” without people laughing and throwing garbage at me. It’s very hard to describe Veiled Experts to someone in a way that doesn’t prompt an instant dismissal. That was my reaction too. I saw it on Twitch, my mind said “third person Counter-Strike”, and sent an automatic signal down to my lips to proclaim the words: “sounds awful”.

Thank goodness for boredom. Later that day I was at a loose end and saw that Veiled Experts was free, so I downloaded it and tried it out. And here we are, a month and a bit later. The game is about to release into Early Access, and I’m desperately trying to get everyone I know to play it with me, because it’s bloody phenomenal.

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You can try the Layers Of Fear collection today, thanks to a chilling UE5 demo

After giving us a release window for horror collection Layers Of Fear, developers Bloober Team have now set a concrete date: June 15th, 2023. The game previously changed its name earlier in the year, dropping the pluralisation of Layers Of Fears. Presumably, it’ll still explore more than one fear, though. You can see for yourself as the game released a new demo today, available on Steam until May 22nd.

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David Gaider says making mythological musical Stray Gods was “a little bit more complicated” than expected

What can I say? I love games that have a bit of a sing-song. I’ve enjoyed the pop platforming of Sayonara Wild Hearts, the DIY DJ-ing in Fuser, the grungy game-meets-album Teenage Blob, and the recently released fist-pumping robot-thrashing Hi-Fi Rush just to name some from the top of my noggin’.

Music is a definitely big part of these games, but Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical has set itself on a different kind of musical path, in that it’s actually a musical. I’m talking like a full-on ballad-belter, curtain-caller, exit-stage-left-er musical. And get this: it’s also a modern retelling of the mythos behind the Greek Gods. It feels like my inner theatre kid has chugged ten Red Bulls and is waiting for her cue to burst out.

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Stylish mech shooter Hawken returning with a free-to-play PvE game

Five years after competitive multiplayer mech shooter Hawken shut down, a new game will invite us back to stomp around in its scrappy mechs. Announced last night by developers and publishers 505 Games, the free-to-play Hawken Reborn will launch into early access tomorrow. This time, it’s a PvE game, with story missions plus open patrol zones to explore and complete jobs. I was enamoured with the jetdashing scrappy mechs and greeble-covered apartment blocks of the first game but always wished it had a singleplayer or co-op campaign, so I’m certainly curious about this.

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