Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Dear Hideo Kojima, you’d better give us a proper update on your new Metal Gear-style action-espionage game-movie wotsit Physint soon, because for every hour that passes, I think of another unbearable title pun.

I’m not very Physinterested in Physint right now, a game defined by what it Physisn’t. Perhaps I’d be more Physinto it if Kojima Productions would share a proper outline and explore the Physintricacies. But this is Hideo Kojima, a man of *grunts, strains* Sphysint-like enigma. Still, at least we now know that Don Lee from Train To Busan is in the stealthy film-o-game, together with Charlee Fraser from Furiosa and Minami Hamabe from Godzilla Minus One.

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Techland’s Dying Light: The Beast launched last week and is, sources say, “a good Dying Light game, and a fine open-world zombie game in general, full of crunchy combat and simple but satisfying number-go-up loops”. Being a new videogame, it also has some bugs. The most dramatic of these appear to be problems with its day/night cycle and weather system.

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It is written that when the Sumerian king Gilgamesh first beheld the gleaming ramparts of Uruk‐Haven, many centuries ago, he said unto his architects: “be sure to save up gaps for those long straight ones, and try your best to start a multiplier”. But then Gilgamesh realised that, by means of temporal fluctuations too nonsensical to explain, he was actually looking at the submissions page for Falling Block Jam 2025, the latest Itch.io “make a thing with a theme” festival, which ran from last week till today.

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Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s hitherto beta-only update 1.0.28650 is now a fully public release that any dang fool can download without switching to a Steam playtest branch. I’m still noodling my way through the lower levels of Team Cherry’s new metroidvania, blissfully unbothered by any pressure to review it or write Silksong walkthroughs. As such, I asked our reviewer James to have a look at the patch notes and pluck out any important changes, based on his many, many hours in Pharloom.

A shadow glided over James’s face, then returned and took up residence in one earhole. Wordlessly he outstretched a gnarled finger towards item 3 on the list: “Fixed Savage Beastfly in Far Fields sometimes remaining below the lava.”

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Hello reader who is also a player! Once again I have failed in my fervent efforts to meddle with the Earth’s rotation so as to suspend time exactly at 11.30am, Saturday morning. I fear that another week is upon us. Fortunately, it contains some new PC games, spanning full releases and early access launches. Some of those new PC games may even be worth a modest portion of your lifespan and personal capital. Here’s a list of the ones I find most appealing or notable.

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Is there anything left that Silent Hill can offer us? Last year, I felt the answer to that question was a resounding no. The series’ comeback game The Short Message, a short teaser of a horror experience, landed far, far away from my tastes, and last year’s Silent Hill 2 was a remake of a game that needed one perhaps less than any other. This year is different though, because it has a true, full-sized, and most importantly new entry to bring this question back to the forefront. And Silent Hill f is a game that has, annoyingly, put me in my place.

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Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – the only regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books that has no conception of space, time, responsibility or consistency. Also, I can’t read. Still, I’m feeling confident we can get through this together. In that, I have no other choice. This week, it’s editor and author for books like Digital Love and Well Played, and writer on games like Orion Trail and Bramblewood, Heidi McDonald! Cheers Heidi! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?

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Whenever possible, I like to sucker-punch everybody’s weekend plans by blogging the release of a huge 4X strategy game, factory sim or other managerial timesink last thing on Friday. In this case, I’m ambushing you with the avid rodent carpentry of Whiskerwood, the new city builder from Railgrade developers Minakata Dynamics and Manor Lords publishers Hooded Horse. It’s got 40 different commodities, an elaborate weather simulation, and a demo out now on Steam. Haha, yes! You are welcome.

In Whiskerwood, you are a mouse mayor setting up island colonies on behalf of some bastard fat cats. Yes, this one’s a straight-shooting allegory, but going by the release date trailer, any transferable learnings about the plight of the mouse proletariat come a distinct second to the joy of plaiting conveyor belts.

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A group of game industry folks including Reigns studio Nerial, Saturnalia creators Santa Ragione and Streets Of Rage 4 outfit Lizardcube have launched Palestinian Voices in Gaming, an international volunteer network to support current and emerging independent Palestinian developers.

First convened in May 2024, the network are currently looking to connect Palestinian game devs with volunteers and funding partners. They’ll provide administrative help to any developer trying to get access to funding, and assistance managing resources and volunteer contributions, once secured. They aim to follow and boost each project from “production to announcement to publication”, and are already working with a range of smaller independent games, many of which explore recollections of pain and loss through speculative fiction and fantasy.

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I confess, after reading the comments on yesterday’s Endless Legend 2 early access impressions, I am mortally afeared that I’m one of those accursed “positive outliers” I keep reading about in the Gamer Witchfinder Almanac. Seemingly, a fair portion of you were turned off by the recent Steam demo. You may be interested, then, to read specifics about how Amplitude have changed the game in response to demo feedback.

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