Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The Rat King is dead, long live the Fool King. In this medieval roguelite autobattler, you must murder a skeleton monarch with dice. You will do this not by loading bags of D20s into a culverin and shooting the Fool King point blank, though yes, that sounds like an amazing lategame unlock. Instead, you will be rolling the dice to determine how many knights, peasants, wizards and crossbowmen you can summon to each battlefield. I’ve been playing the prototype, and while roguelites are thick as wheat these days, this is a promising contender. Here’s a trailer.

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PC gaming mouse ‘n’ keeb manufacturers Endgame Gear have admitted to and apologised for unknowingly spreading malware, after an infected version of the OP1w 4k v2’s Configuration Tool software was left available to download from their website.

After Reddit user Admirable-Raccoon597 raised the alarm, having installed the Configuration Tool and found the malware hiding inside, German tech site Igor’s Lab confirmed that the publically available application had been compromised for at least two weeks. Endgame Gear have since replaced the dirty software with an apparently safe version, and today shared a post admitting the oversight – though claimed no sensitive data was stolen via the server infrastructure that was hosting it.

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Riot’s spin-off fighting game with the terrible name, 2XKO, is getting a closed beta in a few months and, to entice fans to sign up, the developers have released a new video showing off pink-haired League Of Legends bruiser Vi doing some biffing. I know you like biffing, so I’m telling you about this despite being unable to reliably write the title of this free-to-play wrecker without carefully typing it out like my mum composing an email with a single forefinger.

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A new report delves into the behind-the-scenes chaos caused at Elder Scrolls Online studio ZeniMax by Microsoft’s mass layoffs earlier this month. Staff say the manner in which the corp let go of around 9k staff was “inhumane” and has left those who remain facing an incredibly tough future.

An unannounced MMO in development at ZeniMax, codenamed Project Blackbird, was one of the games cancelled by Microsoft as part of the corporate bloodletting, with Rare’s Everwild and The Initiative’s Perfect Dark reboot also being canned. Just last week, the ZeniMax Online Studios United (ZOSU) union said they’re still fighting on behalf of workers at the studio left in limbo by Blackbird’s cancellation.

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Splitgate 2 is being taken “back to beta” by developers 1047 Games, who say it “launched too early” and are now planning to rerelease it next year. The move has reportedly seen the studio lay off 45 workers, and they’ve confirmed that the original Splitgate‘s servers will be shutting down in a month’s time.

The news comes following a mixed launch reception for the portal-filled shooter, which likely wasn’t helped by studio CEO Ian Proulx controversially announcing that it was going live while wearing a MAGA-style “Make FPS Great Again” hat on stage at Summer Game Fest. The exec subsequently apologised for that boneheaded publicity stunt.

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SSR Wives: The Murder Of My Winter Crush is Silent Hill 3 for people who like the chibi proportions of Final Fantasy 9 and also, people who hoot in adoration when they see a low-poly model of an iMac. I am both of these people. Created by Hen Studios with a demo on Steam, it’s a sour and sugary blend of survival horror and romantic visual novel. You play one of several anime characters with names such as Tradgirl and Chudboy, all trapped in The Town That Time Forgot.

Those mouth-wateringly chubby iMacs? They are save points, the local equivalent for Resident Evil’s typewriters. Excellent work, game. You have reminded me of my advancing age in a way I actually enjoy.

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$79.99 (was $134.99, 41% off)

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If I’m interpreting the press materials for Gossamer Matrix correctly, this is an FPS in which you might accidentally stuff a chocolate bar into your AK47 while trying to reload. The result will not be a fusillade of chocodrops. Instead, you will be gunned down like the miserable office slob you absolutely are. So keep your workspace tidy, chief.

I’m looking at my desk as I type these words. It contains: a piece of paper with “gel” written on it, purpose unknown; a stolen Cafe Nero mug, never cleaned; Vikram Chandra’s memoir Geek Sublime; and a bag of raisins. I do not own a gun, because this is the UK and one of the UK’s few advantages is that the vast majority of people don’t own guns, but if I did own a six-shooter and were lured into a gunfight right now, I guarantee I’d be stuffing raisins into the chamber while choking to death on my own bullets.

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EA and DICE have decided to let players choose between locking weapons to classes in the forthcoming Battlefield 6, or being able to equip any weapon to any class. It might sound like a throwaway technicality, next to the existential terror of reports that EA want the new shooter to find a following of 100 million players. In practice, the decision to give players the option of locking weapons to classes is Serious Business. it’s the latest manifestation of a debate that goes back to Battlefield’s formative squabbles with rival FPS Call Of Duty in the noughties.

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The Stop Destroying Videogames citizens’ initiative, the EU petition that’s part of the Stop Killing Games campaign, has had an anonymous transparency complaint filed against it.

That’s according to Ross Scott, the YouTuber who’s become the figurehead of Stop Killing Games, which in case you’re out of the loop aims to stop publishers rendering online games unplayable when official support ends. Instead, the movement wants companies to be required to put concrete end-of-life plans in place if they elect to do things like turn servers off.

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