Why the skibidi are you adding skibidi to the Cambridge Dictionary? We think it has “staying power”, answer word boffins

Skibidi. Dop, dop, dop. Yes, yes. Skibidi. Double u. Neem, neem. This is the clarion call of the modern age, the infernal message brought unto our virgin ears by the Skibidi Toilets. No, wait, keep reading! It’ll be worth it. Probably. After all, the word skibidi has now been added to the Cambridge Dictionary, and this is a reality we’ve all got to reckon with.

Skibidi Toilet, in case you’ve been living somewhere free from the influence of vertically-framed surrealism, is a long-running series of 3D animations by YouTuber Alexey ‘DaFuq!?Boom!’ Gerasimov. It generally conveys the tale of a great war between a legion of heads protruding from loos and an army of folks with cameras for heads, with help from Half-Life 2 assets and inspiration from the annals of Garry’s Mod machinima. Any 12 year olds you know probably can’t get enough of it. Or think it’s lame because they’ve already moved on to the next thing.

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After Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ controversial patch 1.5 made key bosses immortal, here’s the obligatory rollback mod

Last week, soulslike Wuchang: Fallen Feathers got a patch that rendered a number of its bosses unkillable, seemingly in response to pressure from some Chinese players. For those who aren’t keen on the patch’s changes, which particularly transforms the challenge you’ll face in the game’s fourth region, there’s now a mod dedicated to undoing them by letting you roll back to a previous version.

For a more in-depth view of the changes patch 1.5 made and what they mean for the game, it’s well worth reading our Jeremy’s story on it from last week. The short version is that a number of big foes associated with the Ming dynasty have been made to fall down in exhaustion when you defeat them, rather than being killed. As you might imagine, this has implications not just in terms of the minute-to-minute experience of playing Wuchang, but also the story it tells.

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What’s on your bookshelf?: The Stanley Parable, The Beginner’s Guide, and Wanderstop’s Davey Wreden

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! That’s two weeks in a row now, which I’ve decided is enough for me to not have to caveat or lampshade the word ‘regular’, except obviously in this specific instance. We are back 4eva, in the Blakean Infinite sense, which is my favourite reference for making my fecklessness seem profound.

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Battlefield 6 beta’s rush mode gets a balancing tweak with EA monitoring the situation, amid player complaints about battle bigness

EA have made a tweak to the Battlefield 6 open beta’s rush, and are keeping tabs on the situation in case it needs more balancing changes. This comes as some FPS folks and Battlefield vets have voiced their displeasure with the version of the mode that’s debuted in this second weekend of beta action.

The biggest moans are related to size. Namely the amount of players on each side in these revamped rush battles and the relatively small maps they’re being contested on. As you might imagine, those two elements being a bit titchier in scale than previous Battlefields has also had knock on effects for other aspects of the mode.

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“Multiple” future Hardspace projects are coming, as Hardspace: Shipbreaker devs Blackbird Interactive take full ownership

Floating amid the scrap belts of space, some news. Hardspace: Shipbreaker is now owned by developers Blackbird Interactive, with the studio having bought control of the ship-stripping sim from publishers Saber Interactive. They’re not having a rest after cracking open that bubbly either, writing that “multiple Hardspace projects” are in development.

Blackbird revealed all of this via a Steam post, writing that they’ve “reached an agreement with Focus Entertainment, our publishing partner, to reacquire full ownership of the Hardspace: Shipbreaker intellectual property”. So, as you might expect, doing plenty of Hardspacey things is going to be a big part of the studio’s plans going forwards.

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Rally Point: The wonderful vibes of Aetheris are a hint about its design goals

The first striking thing about Aetheris is its strange and colourful look. The second thing that strikes about Aetheris is the gorgeous animations and storybook trappings of its presentation, even in its loading screen transitions. The third is the strange vulnerability radiating from the village of lizardy people you’re responsible for, and the parties you form with them. The fourth striking thing is that this a roguelike, it’s a bloody roguelike isn’t it, oh goddamn it.

It also binds the spacebar to “accept”, something I learned by accidentally starting a bossfight in a terrible position that threw a whole party away. Or would have, if not for the ol’ ctrleffor. I will never be stopped.

The fact that I kept playing instead of sulking and libelling a random CEO is a hint: I bloody love Aetheris.

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