Break open a dead MMO and find what goofs and horrors await in Gorgon’s Garden

MMOs are a strange facilitation of games because they are, ostensibly, dead on arrival. Not dead in the sense of “lol dead game,” that exact comment you see littered in the comments of articles, videos etc. about literally any online game, no matter how popular it is. Dead in the sense that it will die, as all things do, because one day the servers will go down and there will be no (legal) way to play it anymore. I put the legal in brackets there because there are many a fan effort that allow you to play a range of “officially” dead MMOs, but what would a game about a Frankensteinian revival of such a thing look like? Probably, Gorgon’s Garden.

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Old School RuneScape is getting its first new skill since it launched, and so the XP grind begins anew

A thing I find a lot of joy in is the fact that despite there’s technically a new, shinier, perhaps by some people’s standards better version of it, Old School RuneScape is still kicking around. Before the Old School was tagged on the front end of it, RuneScape was an MMO I put many hours into (and found little success in) as a youth with too much free time, so the fact practically two decades later it’s introducing a brand new skill into the game simultaneously impresses me and strikes existential fear into my heart because of how old this game actually is.

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Nivalis catches yet another delay, this time into 2026, but it sounds like it’s for fair reasons

There are two sides to every game delay coin. On the one hand, it’s a shame when you’re looking forward to a thing only to have to wait even longer for said thing. On the other, there’s too many damn video games these days and, oh, gods, don’t we all just have a laundry list of things to attend to right now? So make of it what you will that Nivalis, the cyberpunk restaurant sim set in the world of Cloudpunk, has been delayed.

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The Paranormal Activity games gets a slightly new name and a scarily underwhelming first gameplay trailer

You know, with the original Paranormal Activity steadily approaching two decades of existence, it’s becoming harder and harder to recognise what it actually was and is as opposed to the cultural consensus around it. First and foremost you probably think of it as a cheap, jump-scare-filled kind of horror movie, when in actuality the first entry in the series is a slow, tense window into the world of gaslighting and, obviously, the paranormal. Being as removed as we are from this means one thing: IP expansion, which we’re viewing today in the form of the first proper trailer for Paranormal Activity: Threshold, the video game adaptation from the developer behind The Mortuary Assistant.

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After EA’s buyout and creator exodus, The Sims team wants you to know their “values and commitment remain the same”

Last month, something a bit surprising, and perhaps concerning, took place in the games industry: a deal was made which saw that a mixture of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, equity firm Silver Lake, and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners had privately acquired EA. There’s a whole host of reasons why this is worrisome, but one reason in particular is the way that it might affect The Sims.

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Please let me bow before The Protectorate’s gold-trimmed porcelain thrones, The Outer Worlds 2

I blast my way through another hulking dragoon, and run off down a corridor, companions breathlessly in tow. Surrounded by doors, I pick one before the next platoon of goons can descend upon us. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Nirvana. A rare breather from The Outer Worlds 2‘s rollercoaster of shooting and talking.

For a moment, I just take it in. Breathing deeply, my nostrils fill with the scent of fresh bleach. My mouth waters at the sight of surfaces you could eat your lunch off of. My eyes widen at the brilliance of the gold trim. Somehow, I can hear the fact there mush be a fresh roll in each perfectly-maintained cubicle.

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Either Battlefield 6’s battle royale mode will release next week or they’re adding granite, or something called granite

You are leaving the mission area, soldier! Actually, the mission area is leaving you. It is sick of your shit. It has decided that your foxhole isn’t part of acceptable reality anymore. Battlefield 6’s long-awaited battle royale mode seems likely to be revealed on 28th October. In less than a week, we could be laying eyes on the Battlefield interpretation of the well-worn Plunkbat and/or Fortnite premise of a vast map fringed by corrosive oblivion that shrinks overtime, forcing scavenging players into a claustrophobic last stand.

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Hello, Pacific Drive DLC, Boltgun 2 trailer, Denshattack release window and Solasta II early access update

Right, so, I’ve thus far failed to grow a second pair of hands, despite Edwin suggesting me and Oisin try. Sorry, mate. As a result, here’s a quick run around the houses of interesting stuff we’ve not covered from yesterday’s Galaxies showcase that I think’s worth nattering about.

Look, you can’t ask a person to choose between writing about a shadow-dropped Pacific Drive expansion and some other things that folks in the RPSverse may also be interested in hearing about. I can’t be expected to make decisions. That’s illegal.

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Have Fallout 4 and New Vegas again, say Bethesda, and also a release date for Fallout 76’s Burning Springs

Yesterday was Fallout Day, the date in the series’ universe when the bombs dropped and permanently turned a lot of people into those skeletons you grind into dust while tramping about in your power armour. Bethesda awakened Todd Howard from cryo-sleep, and announced some stuff in a broadcast. Fallout 4 and New Vegas are being sold to people again. Also, in admittedly more exciting news, Fallout 76‘s Burning Springs update got a proper release date.

The upcoming second series of Prime Video’s Fallout TV Show was also there, with that and the 76 update set to make December very Walton Gogginsy.

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Spec Ops: The Line director’s new insomnia horror game Sleep Awake will release in December

Speaking as a veteran insomniac who routinely has to operate across time zones, let me share a few of my top tips for staying awake when you really want to sleep. Firstly, fill your eyes with as much light as possible – moonlight, fridgelight, phonelight, flamingoilbarrelight – and your lungs with as much bracing external air as they can take. Secondly, enlist a similarly restless friend for some mutual tickling. Thirdly, remember your failures. All of them. Fourthly, consume a carefully calibrated mixture of fresh fruit and coffee, then look up dad jokes on Reddit.

It doesn’t feel like any of these proven strategies will work in Sleep Awake, the new first-person “psychedelic” horror game from former Spec Ops: The Line director and designer Cory Davis and his team at Eyes Out. Nobody wants to tickle you here, going by the trailer. Nobody has any dad jokes to share. They just want to beat you to a bloody sludge with pipes.

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