Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Can a ship be a horse archer? This is one of the many maritime musings Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord‘s devs had to grapple with when putting together the flotilla of vessels which make up its naval warfare-themed War Sails expansion.

Ahead of War Sails’ release on November 26th, I chatted to a couple of its developers. Naturally, I was keen to hear about what the process of assembling the expansion’s armada. A particular challenge as each of Calradia’s historically-inspired nations has access to unique ships.

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Seasons of Solitude is a soulful balance of survival game and turn-based strategy about an exiled prehistoric tribesman who is trying not to trash his own habitat. It’s the work of Estonian developers Ninjarithm Studio, and is based on Estonian myths.

There’s a demo on Steam, which I’ve spent barely any time with, but this seems Interesting – Interesting enough that I wanted to get a write-up in front of you before the weekend. Please disregard the rapid-fire editing of the trailer below: it works as an overview of the mechanics, but doesn’t really convey the sleepy pensiveness of the actual game.

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Krafton have revealed PUBG spin-off Black Budget, just in time for alpha testing of the extraction shooter to kick off next month. As you might expect given the genre, this latest work from PUBG Studios is all about getting out of the bad vibe zone in good time, after shooting some baddies in said zone. Oh, sorry, tactically shooting some baddies in the bad vibe zone.

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If Ubisoft’s rumoured Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag remake were an actual ghost ship, we’d be long past the point of snatching glimpses of the vessel through unnaturally dense fog at two bells during the morning watch. We’d be long past the point of spotting a spectral Jolly Roger between stormy crests, its deathshead wreathed in St. Elmo’s Fire. The damn ghost ship is square abreast of us now, the hollow-cheeked revenant of Edward Kenway dangling from the rigging.

People keep pointing at the ghost ship and screaming, but Captain Ubisoft has his eyes firmly on the horizon. “Steady as she goes, lads!” he trills, as hordes of translucent pirates pour over the rail. “Steady as she goes till some hypothetical future time when we might announce a thing, maybe!”

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It’s fair to say Fallout 4‘s anniversary update’s earned some stick due to effect it had on PC mods, just like the RPG’s next-gen update did before it. Lots of works needed updating, and while that happened pretty quickly in a number of cases, there was still disruption for some additions that generally feel a lot more necessary over on console.

Enter modding platform Nexus Mods, who’ve decided to follow-up the update by putting together their own “anniversary collection” of Fallout 4 mods from the works they host, with hopes it’ll serve as a free alternative aimed at celebrating ten years of the RPG being modded.

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Similar to Nic (RPS in peace), I am both beguiled and maybe just a little riled by how much Tarsier’s Reanimal looks like the studio’s previous Little Nightmares games. Once again, it’s a game about small children in sinister headgear travelling through a collapsed and raggedy storybook world of ogres and abductors. Still, Tarsier have a magnetic capacity for icky monster designs – shout out to Spider Sheep in the trailer there, who absolutely won’t be getting an eye-popping animated Marvel spin-off – and Reanimal is something of a departure once you peel back the layers of suppurating flesh.

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Moreish roguelike bullet hell Vampire Survivors is getting a cousin next year. It’s called Vampire Crawlers, or as per its Steam page: Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors. It’s a first-person roguelike deckbuilder in which you can fight Merdusas with spinach and it’s set to hit PC in 2026.

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Biff! Smash! Spear to the groin! Asteroid to the jaw! It must be a new gameplay video for Tides Of Annihilation, the Arthurian fantasy action game from Eclipse Glow Games that’s out to steal either Stellar Blade, Final Fantasy XVI or Bayonetta‘s lunch – do me a favour and pick one, because I can’t decide. I can’t stop comparing this game to things. I think there’s something wrong with me. Help.

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80 Days and Heaven’s Vault developers Inkle are making a new “narrative deduction game” and audio drama called TR-49, in which you fiddle with a bunch of creepy old machines. It’s based – or so they tell us – on a family connection to World War 2 espionage, and takes inspiration from Return of the Obra Dinn and The Roottrees Are Dead.

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Show me your quacking war face. Well, show the swarm of rubber ducks Arc Raiders devs Embark have seemingly unleashed upon your character’s living quarters your quacking war face. Otherwise you’d better be careful where you put your feet, lest you upset them and loose avian anarchy on the world. Also, a gun which might have been your favourite for decimating squads of poor shootery fools with other loadouts has been nerfed.

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