Travel back to the days of cable TV with Blippo+, a time-hopping FMV game about… I’m not entirely sure, actually

We don’t really get to write about Playdate, that bespoke games console with a built in crank, here on RPS very much because it is very much not a computer (though former EIC Katharine did review it back when it launched). Well, not in the way we need it to be for our purposes. But I have an excuse to do so today! Over the weekend at the PC Gaming Show, a trailer for the Panic-published, faux-streaming service Blippo+ was shown off, one that captured my attention quite quickly.

Read more

Elden Ring Nightreign’s latest update is here to save you from frame drops, buggy bosses, and more

When you have a game that is so run focused like Elden Ring Nightreign, balance is the key to not getting someone to throw their controller at a wall, cursing their own birth as they do so. Up until now, there were parts of Elden Ring Nightreign that certainly weren’t balanced, though that mostly came down to a few bugs. As of today though, there’s a new update you can download for the roguelike which brings in some much needed fixes.

Read more

You’re not alone in thinking Lies of P: Overture is a bit tough, but an update is coming to smooth things over

Finding Lies of P: Overture a bit too hard? Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you just “get good” like those randos you see littered all over Twitter. I’m actually here to say that you’re not alone on this one. The story expansion for the conceptually weirdest Soulslike in town dropped during Geoff’s Onslaught Of Generally OK Announcements (aka, Summer Game Fest) as a surprise release, and it seems like the general feedback so far has been “please make it a bit easier so Twinkocchio doesn’t get battered so hard.”

Read more

Helldivers 2 just rolled out mega city battles against the Terminids, kicking off an “unprecedented assault” of bug fascism

Helldivers 2 developers Arrowhead have unleashed the latest twist in the game’s Galactic War, with urban battles against the Terminids now on the cards. Rather than defending cities on Super Earth, this time the task is swatting bug invasions of population centres across multiple planets.

A tough assignment, but to be fair, successfully protecting their home planet against the still-at-large Illuminate should have given players plenty experience of street fighting (not the Ryu and Chun-Li kind).

Read more

Wizards of the Coast will make “CRPGs that are going to be as serious as BG3”, and their D&D action game wants to be the stuff of gelatinous cube dreams

Wizards of the Coast knows the people thirst for more more Baldur’s Gate 3-ish CRPGs, and the company’s president has made it clear they still plan on making those kinds of things, even if the D&D action game they recently announced will be a different kettle of magic frogs

“Don’t get me wrong,” said President John Hight when speaking to Polygon about the different possibilities making a D&D game offers being a factor in going that route with this latest game, “we are going to do CRPGs that are going to be as serious as BG3.”

Read more

SAG-AFTRA union reach “tentative agreement” with game companies that could end the latest voice actor strike

Video game voice actor union SAG-AFTRA say they’ve reached a “tentative agreement” with a group of games companies that could bring an end to the latest voice actor strike, providing it gets approved by the union’s National Board and members.

This tentative deal “puts in place the necessary AI guardrails that defend performers’ livelihoods in the A.I. age, alongside other important gains,” say SAG-AFTRA. That’s been the key issue at the heart of this strike, with the union citing a desire to push for protections against VAs being replaced or imitated by AI, though it has previously faced some criticism for how it’s handled striking deals with companies that use AI.

Read more

007: First Light’s Bond plays “more reckless” than Agent 47’s murder chess, and after scissoring Mads Mikkelsen before diving off a balcony, I think I get it

As soon as Hitman devs IO Interactive were revealed to be making a Bond game, I was on board with it. Agent 47 and 007 have a bunch in common, at least in terms of the sneaky, shooty, or stabby stuff their jobs entail, so IO’d be putting a fresh twist on a kind of game it’s already proven great at making. There is a difference though, and having killed Le Chiffre in Hitman over the weekend, I feel like I understand it better than before.

IO exec Hakan Abrak has offered his view on how 007: First Light‘s Bond will play differently to 47 in an interview with IGN, which I’m glad to see also saw him emphasise that the studio aren’t done with the Hitman series.

Read more

At Fate’s End is a witchy swordy slashy from the Spiritfarer developers

Hey, that’s the Gary Oldman Dracula armour, I thought to myself as I watched the trailer for At Fate’s End last night. That’s the raddest and reddest armour anyone has ever worn, and any game with armour that looks like it has my interest. Oh, oh. It’s from Spiritfarer developers Thunder Lotus? You can ride a giant bull who looks like it subsists entirely on HGH and Weetabix? Yeah, go on then. Go on all the way.

Read more

Don’t worry, confused skongers, Hollow Knight: Silksong’s release definitely isn’t tied to that Xbox handheld

The collective desperation for Hollow Knight: Silksong has evolved. Rather than people getting all up a height about the prospect of getting any news about it, they’ve now been left up a height due to confusion around some news they have gotten about the game. Cue Team Cherry having to step in to offer a bit of clarification about Silksong’s Xbox Showcase cameo yesterday.

In case you were washing your hair, Silksong popped up during the bit that saw Microsoft introduce its handheld, the ROG Xbox Ally. There was the usual hardware spinning around and looking cool, plus Xbox’s Sarah Bond saying when Silksong popped up on the handheld’s screen that the game’ll be “available at launch and in Game Pass when the Ally releases later this year”.

Read more