Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I have a strange affinity for brutalism. It sucks you in, engulfs you in its stature, kills your spirit in such blunt, obvious ways, that I can’t help but be wowed by in all its oppressiveness. As an architectural styling, it is also supremely opportune for sick parkour tricks, something Léonard Lemaitre (Babbdi, Straftat), Nathan Grange and Niels Tiercelin all deeply understand with the volumetric VHOLUME, a “first-person parkour adventure set in a dystopian brutalist city where bureaucracy turns a simple task into an odyssey,” which now has a demo.

Read more

It’s undeniable that for throwback 3D retro aesthetics, the original PlayStation and Nintendo 64 are the consoles that most people try to emulate. So I’m always quite chuffed to see a game that takes its visual cues from more recent consoles, like, say, Bel’s Fanfare, a very 3DS-era looking Zelda-esque game where you play as a little demon girl who works as a cleaner on a strange, massive ship.

Read more

You know, sometimes I wonder if Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone ever sleeps. At any given moment it sounds like he’s working on something, whether that be yet another update for Stardew Valley, or the definitely still in development, just wait a while you silly sausages, Haunted Chocolatier. And, as it turns out, somewhere along the line, Barone had even considered making Stardew Valley 2.

Read more

The purpose of a Tamagotchi is to have a tiny, portable digital pet with you at all times that you can feed and feed and feed until it grows into something slightly bigger, different, a new creature almost. It’s generally a sweet, albeit potentially irritating (the beeps…) little micro-game that may cause a touch of stress, but certainly no feelings of fear. In Full Bloom, however, asks “what if your Tamagotchi was actually a blob of an organism with nothing but a mouth that you must continuously feed… or else…”

Read more

Other opinions about the storefront aside, the Epic Games Store launcher, on an experiential level, sucks. I’m not just being needlessly mean here, because this is the exact word Epic Games Store vice president and general manager Steven Allison used in a recent interview about the launcher, where he also detailed what you can expect from it over the course of the rest of the year.

Read more

I can only think of two reasons to get a 65% gaming keyboard instead of, at the very least, a tenkeyless: you either have a desk the size of a playing card, or you actually fell for the Alt+F4 trick once, and now harbour an everlasting bigotry towards the Function keys that conspired in your humiliation. Regardless, we’re all friends here, and boards this dinky can have a time and a place – especially if they’re as good as the QPAD Flux 65 Model 5.

Read more

An Assassin’s Creed designer who publicly spoke out against Ubisoft’s return-to-office mandate claims the company have now fired him. Developer David Michaud-Cromp posted on LinkedIn last week that he’d been put on unpaid disciplinary leave after recently criticising the policy change on the social media platform.

If you’re out of the loop, Ubisoft have recently revealed plans to push remote staff back into offices amid a bloodbath of game cancellations, restructuring and voluntary redundancies. The company intend to have employees return to working in-office five days a week, with an annual allowance of work-from-home days. All of these moves have understandably not gone down well with French unions, who’ve subsequently called strike action.

Read more

As any Civ player knows, time has a habit of passing. Next week, Civ 7 will turn a year old. It’s been a year of regular additions and tweaks following the mixed initial reception to Firaxis’ attempt to do something different with their grant strategy behemoth. Fitting, then, that the devs have rung in that first birthday by revealing when they’re hoping to drop some big changes that’ll have “major implications” for Civ 7.

Read more

I’m going to a toddler’s birthday party on Saturday and I have it on good authority from Alva’s dad that there will be trays of sandwiches and a couple of cakes from M&S. There is no booze provided. I’m not sure if that’s because there should be no booze consumed at a two-year-old’s birthday, or only that we should bring our own. I guess I’ll find out for sure if they frisk on the door. However, if Valheim‘s latest anniversary update is anything to go by, I am now looking forward to Alva’s fifth birthday.

To mark five years in Early Access, developer Iron Gate have released an anniversary patch that is a damn sight better than the prospect of watching a sad looking Colin the Caterpillar cake getting pawed at by hungry toddlers. There are flower garlands, mysterious axe heads, and a steady 60 fps on Steam Deck performance mode. Who doesn’t want mysterious blades at a birthday party?

Read more

After being accused last week of using AI-generated artwork to promote their store’s new year sale, retro game sellers GOG have reportedly addressed the issue in a private Discord server for paying supporters. According to this fresh response from a GOG staffer, the banner was made “with the help of Al tools” and was “mistakenly allowed” to be pushed live on the storefront.

Read more