If you’ve given up on Civilization 7, Civ 6 is free with all DLC expansions for a limited time on Epic Games Store

Civilization is a series in thrall to the illusion of endless incremental progress, and what more bruisingly poetic way to refute that narrative than by sticking two fingers up at this year’s ailing Civilization 7 and opting to play 2016’s much better-regarded Civilization 6 instead. Conveniently, you can currently get Civilization 6 for free on the Epic Games Store – the giveaway runs till 24th July.

Of course, if you’re mad about Civ 7’s failings, there’s a fair chance you already own Civ 6. But the freebie does include access to all of the game’s DLC and expansions, so might be worth bagging if you only ever bought the base game from a different store. For clarity, you do not need to stick two fingers up at Civ 7 while downloading the free version of Civ 6. It is a piece of software and cannot respond to your hatred.

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FromSoftware are reportedly working on an unannounced game alongside The Duskbloods that could release next year

Alongside working on The Duskbloods and Elden Ring Nightreign‘s post-launch bits, FromSoftware are reportedly deep in development on an unannounced game that could release next year.

That’s according to MP1st (via VGC), which claims said game is codenamed FMC, multiplatform and – based on “the nature of the source these details come from” – at an advanced stage of development.

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The Necromancer’s Tale is the most I’ve enjoyed creating an RPG character in a while, and no I don’t mean the walking corpses

I’ve only dipped my distal index fingerbone in The Necromancer’s Tale, a just-released historical fantasy tactics RPG from Psychic Software, but I can at least report back that the character creator is a gentle joy, to the point that I was disappointed to reach the end of it. True to the promise/threat of “400,000 words of hand-written narrative and lore”, it’s a hearty choose-your-own-adventure prologue that follows the protagonist’s infancy and early adulthood. Each choice you make skews the stats on the left. Might sound unremarkable of concept. Here’s why it’s stuck with me.

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Elden Ring Nightreign’s next enhanced boss wave crashes against the shores of frustration at the end of this month

If you’re sick of being tag-teamed by Gaping Jaw & Darkdrift Knight, then I bring good news. Elden Ring Nightreign‘s next wave of enhanced bosses have now successfully RSVPed to the big darkness party. They’ll be arriving when the next cycle begins on July 31st.

Sure, that was the most logical point for a fresh rotation, given it’s when the established lot of Everdark Nightlord duos were set to disappear. Though, for whatever reason, FromSoft haven’t fully committed to a date until now. One can only assume the Equilibrious Beast was busy polishing its horns.

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Engineering puzzle designer Zach Barth almost made a Factorio-like automation game, but “got really bored really quickly”

“I’m not a perfectionist,” says the guy who makes niche puzzle games that turn me into a gibbering wreck obsessed with efficiency. And I feel a wave of comical fury. If like me you’ve been whirring and clicking your way through very good engineering puzzle game Kaizen: A Factory Story, you’re probably a fan of previous work from the same developers. The creators of Opus Magnum and Infinifactory may have dissolved their old studio Zachtronics and chemically regenerated as Coincidence Games, but there are still large traces of a Zach present. I caught up with designer Zach Barth to ask about perfectionism, the Factorio-like automation game he gave up on out of boredom, and how the team managed to make a story about factories in 1980s Japan feel human.

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Rockbeasts is about managing an animal band in a BoJack-style world, but it’ll need to do more than horse around

BoJack Horseman was a show about Horsin’ Around.

There was a good thing that had once been and a horse man who was now years removed from it, but still clung on to the idea that the magic was still there. I’ll not stray into spoiler territory, but that clinging generally didn’t go too well for old BoJack. He was a bitter, selfish, washed-up star who so often looked back, rather than looking forwards. It was to his detriment.

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Helldivers 3 is “hopefully many years away” says Arrowhead’s CEO, who did not vote for gun

Helldivers 2 developers Arrowhead have made clear that they’re still very much all-in on the game right now, with adding more stuff to the good shootery thing they’ve got going being the main focus. That said, the studio’s bigwigs have provided a couple of hints at what the future might hold for them, with the latest being that Helldivers 3 is “hopefully many years away”.

Also, they aren’t fans of players voting to rename a city on Super Earth ‘Gun’, which is a thing that’s been going on in Helldiverland lately.

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Breath Of The Wild meets Banjo-Kazooie golem adventure Tall Trails is just plain nice

If you don’t have anything else on this morning, perhaps you’d like to fill the life of a small clay golem up with purpose. I cannot be certain, but at present I believe that the easiest way to do this is with the demo for Tall Trails. It reminds me of playing old N64 3D platformers round my mate Liam’s house between watching VHS recordings of Keenan and Kel, which is a nice place to be. It’s also got Breath Of The Wild’s stamina wheel and freeform clamouring, although you don’t need to worry about that too much because you can stuff chilli peppers into your boot and use it like a jetpack.

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The Dark Queen Of Mortholme is a reverse Elden Ring where you play the final boss

FromSoftware’s RPGs have done much to explore the cycle of death and resurrection that games have historically taken for granted, but ask comparatively few questions on how the bosses feel about all this. What of the growing psychological weariness that comes from having to swat the same quixotic gnat over and over? What of the despair that grows from realising that, in the eternal battle between godly power and free resurrections 4 life, resurrections will always win out on a long enough timeline. Broken meta. Plz fix. My crumbling empire and poetically exposed eterna-hubris cannot take any more.

What I’m saying is, when people talk about Dark Souls being about “overcoming adversity”, they are lying to themselves. Dark Souls is about being a tiny little cheater running face first into a wall until your head is so used to the shape of the bricks that they simply have no effect on your fat, dumb skull. Dark Souls is about using an unfair advantage to torture gods who are much better than you at everything.

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