The Witcher season 4 premieres next month, Netflix show off recast Gerry from the River and vampiric Morpheus

Oh, Netflix’s The Witcher TV series is back with its fourth series next month, following a lengthy hiatus that’s seen Geralt regenerate from Henry Cavill into Liam Hemsworth. The new series premieres in late October, and first official looks at both the HemsGerry and Laurence Fishburne as Blood and Wine vampire Regis have been offered.

Hang on a minute, I thought, when I scrolled past this news on one of the screens in my Adrian Veidt-esque world-watching setup – Laurence Fishburne’s in it? Yep, it seems that after not getting around to watching the third series, I’ve managed to completely blot out all knowledge that the actor behind The Matrix’s pill distributor is being cast in The Witcher.

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This week in PC games: Dying Light, a Martian themepark sim, a glossy RPG remake and some cuddly LEGO co-op

Some weeks, finding new games for the Maw is like scouring a village of octogenarians for the last remaining virgin to throw into a rumbling volcano. You awkwardly pop the question during a dozen hastily organised afternoon tea dates, and riffle through family trees in desperation as the air thickens with sulphur.

This week, it’s like the mountainside has been invaded by a horde of teenage firebugs. Stop shoving! Form an orderly queue! You are going to give the volcano constipation. Here’s a moderately curated round-up of the most promising specimens. May they burn brightly and stave off the magma for at least another seven days.

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Borderlands 4 update aims to “improve stability for a wide range of PCs”, but comes without proper patch notes

Borderlands 4 developers Gearbox have chucked more wrenches at the shooter‘s PC performance over the weekend, following issues that’ve landed it mixed Steam review fortunes since launch last week. However, if you’re looking for patch notes, you’re gonna be a bit disappointed. Ah well, at least there are essay-length Randy Pitchford Twitter threads to scroll through if you’re partial to someone waffling about how the game runs.

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In Neurocracy, it’s up to you to solve a murder mystery through the internet’s greatest resource, Wikipedia

You might not think of it as one, but Wikipedia is a game. It has untold numbers of characters and stories, each page an interactive slate with your mouse and hand acting as the choice maker for what you learn next, thus impacting your following choices. This is, admittedly, a bit of a wanky, thinkpiecey way of talking about Wikipedia, so instead of that let’s talk about Neurocracy, a game that could quite easily fool you into thinking it is another version of Wikipedia.

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Vampire Survivors developer Poncle on what it takes to be a good publisher: “Not everything can be a breakout hit”

Getting your game a publishing deal has never been an easy thing to do. Right now, it’s especially hard given that for many publishers, if it doesn’t seem like a guaranteed hit, it likely isn’t something they’ll take on. This is something that Vampire Survivors developer Poncle, or rather the actual person, Luca Galante, takes great issue with, and in a recent interview he spoke more broadly of his issues with publishers, and his thoughts on now being one.

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GOG shares their thoughts on preservation in the face of payment processor crackdowns

In general these days it’s never a good time to release a video game unless you’re Rockstar, but in recent months it’s been made even harder due to numerous payment processors cracking down on digital storefronts like Valve and Itch.io. There’s a host of reasons this is problematic, but one less spoken about how this is also an issue of preservation. GOG, another digital storefront, this one owned by The Witcher developer CD Projekt, is known for their preservation efforts, and in a recent interview they shared a bit of their thoughts in relation to these recent issues regarding payment processors.

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Still getting dunked on in Dota 2? Don’t worry, even Gabe Newell gets called a noob once a week, apparently

I don’t play online games particularly often, mostly the only ones that I do enjoy are the kind of games I can play with just my friends. People are mean, you see, and I have a sensitive soul, and also I often find them deeply boring conceptually and in practice. Take of that what you will in relation to this story about Dota 2! Moving on swiftly to a topic that I promise connects to this intro, Gabe Newell! He is a co-founder of Valve, and a noted Dota 2 lover. He also, apparently, is someone who is often subjected to ridicule while playing the very same game his company makes.

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Dying Light: The Beast gets a release date bump so short you’ll wonder why they bothered

Whenever there is word of a video game’s release date being changed, it’s hardly ever surprising because nine times out of ten, it’s because it has been delayed. That’s just the way things are these days, no one can have the luxury of Team Cherry, who took so long making Silksong just because they were having fun. However, in this case, the release date shifting news is actually a positive one, as Dying Light: The Beast will be launching just that little bit earlier.

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Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly is getting a PC remake, bringing its horror photography to Steam

Smile and say AIEEEEE, horror fans! Tecmo and Team Ninja are bringing a “remake” of PS2 survival horror Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly to PC via Steam in early 2026. Why am I brandishing a glyph-covered Canon EOS 90D at you, while singing the Ghostbusters theme? Allow me to explain: Fatal Frame’s signature touch is that you defeat spooks using a magic camera. Naturally, this also means that you have to look steadily and calmly at said spooks while they shimmer and sway towards you. Catch some of that nonsense in the remake’s announcement trailer.

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Balatro’s 1.1 update won’t come out this year, so developer Localthunk can keep working at a healthy pace

Balatro‘s free 1.1 update won’t release in 2025 as originally planned, developer Localthunk has announced. There’s no new release date, but they say the update’ll arrive when they’ve been able to complete it, while continuing to work at a healthy pace.

This update was first announced by publishers Playstack in August last year, with Localthunk subsequently revealing in a chat with Bloomberg that it’ll feature, among other stuff, some new jokers and a revamp of the Matador card. The latter dishes out a cash boost whenever you play a hand that triggers a boss blind’s ability.

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