Stalker 2’s Stories Untold update delivers a new questline and a place to chill in the Burnt Forest this week

Stalker 2‘s getting a bunch of new quests just in time for the holidays, with an update dubbed Stories Untold sending you off to investigate a mysterious headache-inducing radio signal when it arrives tomorrow, December 16th. There’ll also be a new hub area in the Burnt Forest and a new suppressed rifle for you to fiddle with as you chill by the campfire.

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The Arc Raiders Cold Snap update is out now and turns map strategy upside down with new frostbite mechanics

Embark have released the Arc Raiders Cold Snap update, which douses the popular extraction shooter in glittering snowfall. Ah, how gorgeous the flakes twinkling above the Spaceport gantries. How beautiful the frozen lakes of Dam Battlegrounds. It’s definitely a mite nippy all of a sudden, though, isn’t it? Best take shelter in that bunker before your fingers and toes turn Uncommon green and Rare blue.

Oh dear, there’s another player inside that bunker and she won’t let you in. Still, perhaps if you start shouting the patch notes through the door she’ll relent out of curiosity? Very good, let’s begin.

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Total War: Attila becomes Tolkien war, as a massive Lord of the Rings mod delivers its full campaign

If you’re in the mood for more TWar following the recent reveals of Total War: Warhammer 40,000 and Total War: Medieval 3, one of Total War: Attila’s most ambitious mods has finally made it to 1.0 release. It’s taken a decade for Lord of the Rings conversion The Dawnless Days to deliver its full ring-warring campaign, but that day’s arrived at long last.

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Angeline Era is all about the joy of hidden worlds and the looping frenzy of combat Dodgems

As a kid playing RPGs in the 90s, I’d roam backdrops spamming the pick-up button in hopes of secret treasure. I’d do this especially in PS1 Final Fantasies, with their deceptively inert hand-drawn environments, and their greasy invisible walls. You’d smoosh Squall Leonhart’s galloping form up against the level border as though bashing a skirting board with a hoover nozzle, and every now and then, you’d be rewarded with the hitch of a searching animation.

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Doom’s 32nd birthday has birthed a site which lets you rip and tear through fan-made levels in your browser

Amid the maelstrom of things happening last week, the original Doom blasted out the candles on a big cake commemorating its 32 years of demon destruction. As part of those celebrations, the shooter which can be played on (inhales) human test, lawnmower, electric toothbrush, tractor, the bad social media place, pregancy test, and gut bacteria – it’s gained another way in which to be appreciated. There’s now a website called DoomScroll which lets you dive into a bunch of fan-made level WADs via browser.

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What’s on your bookshelf: Fucksweeper and HoloVista’s Nadya Lev

Hello reader who is also a reader! It’s time to upend another sackful of tomes over your head, care of another game developer. This week, we’re talking to Nadya Lev – co-founder of New York studio Aconite, and developer of the splendidly unsexy Fucksweeper, which I had the pleasure of trying not to be seen playing in a crowded airport lounge in 2024.

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Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic’s director unconvincingly attempts to dispel concerns over its release date

One a them Star Wars was announced at the Let Geoff Have This He’s Got Nothing Else Going On Awards this week, from none other than Casey Hudson. It’s called Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, a name that will instantly make any Knights of the Old Republic oldhead point at their screen that’s Chappie style, which also happens to be a game that Hudson was project director on. The only problem with Fate of the Old Republic is that the studio that’s making it only got started this year, calling into question how far away it is – a question that Hudson, kind of, answered.

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Become a forsaken nun and find absolution in the dead, almost-techno gothic horror world of Metamorphosis

There is something that lies in the belly of Metamorphosis that makes me recoil. The surface level concept is easy enough to follow. It is a 2D pixel art horror where you play as a “forsaken nun” who “walks the long road to absolution.” The world you find yourself in in the game’s demo is overbearing, crushing. Initially you find yourself in the depths of a church, and even that is worth questioning – what church has depths? When you come across a device, and what on the offset looks like gothic horror a la Bloodborne becomes perplexingly technological.

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Exodus devs want you to know that despite Matthew McConaughey’s AI deal, not a drop has been used in their game so far

There has never been a time where the presence of a big Hollywood celeb making an appearance in a video game has drawn me in. Who cares! Most of the time they are not voice actors, and are just doing their own voice, maybe sometimes lending their face. And yet here we are with Matthew McConaughey, a man who is happily lending his voice to some AI software, in Exodus, a game that’s basically just another Mass Effect from some folks who actually made Mass Effect. But! Said folks would like you to know that McConaughey’s performance is all him, thanks very much.

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RuneScape: Dragonwild’s Fellhollow update gets a zombie-bashing and magical farming look-in ahead of its release next week

It’s funny to think that RuneScape: Dragonwilds, one of those cosy-ish, survival crafty type of games doesn’t have farming just yet, but I suppose that’s understandable given it is an early access game. Doesn’t matter much either, as farming will be coming to the game next week as part of its Fellhollow update, which just got another look-in through a new gameplay trailer that also shows off all sorts of undead bashing you’ll be doing.

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