Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

$2,699.99 (was $2,949.99)

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There are lots of games in the same way there are lots of crisps. Many of those games are good, in the same way that many crisps are shaped a bit like Jesus. But even a crisp shaped like Jesus ceases to delight after you’ve seen a few. Great, you think. Another bloody Jesus Dorito. Hurl it on the pile. You crave something transcendent. Like a Möbius strip Wotsit. Or a Salt ‘n Vinegar Disco inscribed with the Corpus Hermeticum. Something that changes the way you look at crisps forever.

Anyway, Hell Clock is not that, but it does has a wicked sick knife spin attack, so carefree in its centrifugal flesh mangling that I resented every screenshot I had to take for making me move my finger off the funny spin button.

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I’ve had Le Mans Ultimate on my radar of things that let you drive around in realistic circles for the past couple of years, but I’d never dived into its early access. Part of that was being utterly spoilt for choice in terms of existing options when it came to getting my GT racing on, with the likes of Automobilista 2, Assetto Corsa Competizione, and even slightly older sims like Raceroom competing for pole position in the racing bit of my Steam library. Add in the behind-the-scenes turmoil that’s frequently surrounded publisher Motorsport Games over the past half-decade, and you get ample reason to take a wait-and-see approach with their latest offering.

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A few of the UK’s fanciest former indie developers are going indie again… with help from venture capital. Still Wakes The Deep and Dear Esther creators The Chinese Room have slipped the surly bonds of former parent company Sumo Digital in the course of a management buyout, with “facilitation” from Hiro Capital. Now “fully independent”, they’re focussing on the creation of original games, with two unannounced projects in the offing once they’ve finished developing Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2.

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Turtle Rock’s Evolve was, for me, an almost-brilliant asymmetrical shooter straining to extract itself from the jaws of a live service kaiju maddened by a sludgy diet of unlocks and micro-transactions. It was a huge round of hide-and-seek featuring one, very large and fast, upgradeable alien monster and four hunters equipped with jet packs, trackers, forcefield nets and assorted demolition gear. I had a grand old time at launch as the Wraith, a godawful sneaklizard with warping capabilities, like a xenomorph moonlighting as Corvo Attano. But such thrills were sabotaged by the grindiness of the early game and by an infuriating deluge of paid DLC. Publishers 2K Games delisted it in 2018, after attempting to reboot Evolve as a free-to-play game. The beast clings onto a little life care of a community Discord for existing owners.

Even given the reaction to Evolve’s nickel-and-diming, it seems unlikely a sequel would have stripped out the live service progression elements and reverted to something like the menu-light horror movie sandbox approach of the developer’s previous Left 4 Dead. After all, Turtle Rock went onto make Back 4 Blood, a zombie blaster marinated in grindogubbins. Still, I’d have liked to see them try it. And look, they almost did.

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Warframe scares me a bit. Ok, it scares me a lot. Here’s this big free-to-play MMO that’s been growing for over a decade, adding layers upon layers of complex sci-fi lore and context to its imposing metal form.

I couldn’t tell you before googling it why one of my fellow article writers had declared in the chat for a recent press preview that Excalibur Prime users won’t be spared when the revolution comes. I can tell you that its end of year 2025 update is called The Old Peace, and looks like it’ll be a hoot.

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Soulframe is getting a Wazzard. No, not a wizard, a Wazzard.

What’s a Wazzard, you ask? Same, friend. You best believe that when I got a chance to talk to Geoff Crookes and Sarah Asselin, creative director and senior community manager on Digital Extremes’ still-in-alpha fantasy MMORPG, I asked them. Is there a difference between the Wazzard of Wastes the player fights in the demo of the game shown off at this year’s TennoCon, and your regular neighbourhood wizard?

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$1,499.00

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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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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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