Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Gamescom is exploding all around us, but there is still time to lower a pincer into the pile of Steam indie game announcements and reel up the occasional treasure. In this case, it’s the demo for Cupiclaw, which is possibly the first ever “roguelike deckbuilding claw machine game”. You know how Balatro made you feel about Joker cards? Well, this game wants to make you feel the same about claw machines. It’s a terrible turn of events, frankly. I’m sorry for inflicting yet another potential bingeplay upon you. Here’s a trailer.

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I’ve only managed to carve out the time for about two hours of staff-bonking simian action in Black Myth: Wukong thus far, but it’s been enough that I’m already quite enamoured with just how consistently novel and creative it’s been. I’m enjoying it enough to wish I’d encountered it in a vacuum.

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Now, I never played quite as much as our Brendy did of the original Splitgate. But I had a fun time with its mixture of Halo-esque trigger pulling and portalling around! So I was intrigued to give the alpha version of Splitgate 2 a go and see if it had a little more substance to it than its initial reveal, which gave off a, “it’s Splitgate but with more money” feel.

Well, I think it’s… a bit serious? It certainly has more polish and some extra additions, yet I didn’t come away from it thrilled by its more competitive, class-based FPS leanings. I think it just needs a bit more time, perhaps, for a portal to open and some silly rocket launchers and baseball bats and zombies to come tumbling out of it.

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Marvel Rivals, Netease’ free-to-play Overwatch wannabe comprised of superheroes from the Marvelverse, is set to launch on December 6th. And in a “hah, take this Overwatch!” way, they’ve also announced that all of its heroes will be unlocked for everyone straight off the bat (man). Oh no wait, he’s DC isn’t he. To be fair, I’ve only watched one Avengers film, two Captain Americas, and Thor: Ragnarok (without seeing the other Thors). All of which I have zero recollection of. Anyway, yes, Marvel Rivals.

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Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has been delayed yet again, pushing the troubled RPG into the first half of 2025. Publishers Paradox Interactive and developers The Chinese Room say the delay will allow them to continue to polish the game, respond to feedback, and expand on its story.

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Here’s the news: there’s a new Mafia game, it’s called Mafia: The Old Country, and it’s set in 20th century Sicily rather than in America as per the previous three games in the series.

That’s about all we know, but hop below and you’ll find a trailer.

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Oh, and new Indiana Jones And The Great Circle trailer! Great. I’ve been looking forward to a nice, juicy chunk of extended gameplay. You know, something to really convey the flow of the game, rather than the admittedly impressive but nonetheless very fragmented snippets we’ve gotten so far. Now to sit back and…oh, wait. Hang on. It’s just actor Troy Baker telling me about all the great acting he’ll be doing. It is great, by the way. He’s doing a fantastic job. Maybe just, you know, a crumb of acknowledgement or elucidation over the whole ‘interactivity’ part?

Anyway, don’t mind me. I’m just an old fool who likes to press buttons. And, to be fair, it’s not like Machinegames don’t have a great track record. Anyway, here’s some good news: The game releases December 9th this year. Have a release date trailer.

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Fine, that was slightly mean of me. There’s clearly at least fifteen people still playing Starfield, and Bethesda are today rewarding their commitment with a free buggy named the Rev-8. Today! It actually looks pretty nifty. With it, you’ll be able to hop, jump, and skip the tedious ballache that was hoofing it across the RPG’s needlessly large planets. Here’s a looksie:

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Announced at this year’s Geoffcom, RoadCraft is a new game courtesy of the vehicular bods behind MudRunner and SnowRunner. This means it’s very much a simulation game where you’re fighting terrain with tyres, except this time you aren’t just driving about, but managing a fleet of machines to carry out heavy construction work. Think a mixture of logistics, cars, cranes, and paving some lovely new roads from a once dilapidated junk heap.

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As much as I’m a sucker for the grimmest and darkest of grimdark fantasy settings, the try-hardness of it all can get a bit grating at times. You could make the same argument at the opposite end of spectrum, of course. Cosy games seem locked in a perpetual arms-race to twee each other into the dirt, chopping their rival’s dog-petting hands off and taking a sparkly tinkle on their pastel corpses. But hand-drawn RPG Heroes Of The Seven Islands feels more authentic than all that. It’s bedroom antifolk by way of chill dungeon synth, by way of an antelope sorcerer named Jean-Pierre.

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