Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Way back in 2004, that terrible year where I swore off video games entirely to focus on my university studies, developers 1C SeaWolf announced Captain Blood, a piratical action game loosely based on Rafael Sabatini’s adventure novels, in which a crew of 17th century freebooters set forth across the Spanish Main to rescue a magistrate’s daughter from assorted bilge-drinking scallywags. Early footage painted the portrait of a spirited 3D hack-and-slasher featuring much buckling of swashes, heaving of hos and jollying of rogers.

Jim Rossignol (RPS in peace) was cautiously enthused when he played Captain Blood in 2008. “It was actually pretty fun – especially the arcade boat violence between speedy galleons – but I’m not exactly holding out for a masterpiece,” he wrote. Alas, Captain Blood’s ship struck a reef in the shape of unspecified publishing disputes, and sank beneath the waves after one last defiant preview showing in 2010. Now, the game has risen from the depths Flying Dutchman-style thanks to new developers Seawolf Studio and General Arcade and publisher SNEG Ltd. It’ll finally launch on PC later this year.

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You might have noticed that the second most played game on Steam right now is Banana, which released back in April, but has seen an explosion of popularity over the past couple of weeks. What is Banana? It’s a free idle clicker in which you click on a picture of a banana to make numbers go up. If the number goes up enough, the game drops additional pictures of bananas into your Steam inventory. Actually, it’s not even an idle clicker – simply leaving the game open all day is enough to generate a slow but steady supply of these banana pictures.

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Look, who knows when we’ll see Fallout 5 – there’s an increasingly less-than-zero chance we’ll all be living in a real post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland by the time Bethesda get around to revealing anything, if their deliberately slow approach to The Elder Scrolls 6 (it’s been nearly THIRTEEN years since Skyrim) is much to go by. Still, even without a full sequel, Fallout is all around us – in multiple seasons of a television show, in Fortnite, and now in Call of Duty.

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When it comes to the ultimate showdown of all-time great fighting games, Marvel vs Capcom 2 might well take my personal bet for being the best of the best. I spent countless hours throwing down with housemates, friends and random passers-by who looked like they were up for a brawl during my teenage years. Yet the arcade classic has – as far as I can tell – never been given a proper PC release before the recent announcement of a new bundle of the comic-book crossover series headed to Steam this year.

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The original Resident Evil might be returning to PC – and soon! – if recent signs hold true. An age rating for the 1996 survival-horror classic was recently confirmed by European suitability judges PEGI, hinting at an impending (re-)release for the almost three-decade-old zombie game.

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Yesterday, we learned that Sims-like Life By You had been canceled, and its developers Paradox Tectonic had been shut down by parent company Paradox Interactive. Later the same day, game designer Willem Delventhal shared more a detailed account of his experience working on the game through to its cancellation, via LinkedIn.

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Tales Of The Shire unfolds in a world without shadow. There are shadows, technically, but they’re so mellow and fuzzy they might as well be stray pools of sunlight that have forgotten to glow. In this latest chunk of Lord Of The Rings memorabilia from developers Wētā Workshop and publisher Private Division, you are a custom-created hobbit who has just taken up residence in the charming Tellytubby town of Bywater, there to spend your days foraging, fishing, feasting and fraternizing with your fellow halfings, all of whom wear expressions of rosy-cheeked humour so intense in their winsome affability that your own face soon forms a merry rictus in response – like that terrible smile from Disco Elysium, but cosy. Oh god, no. Oh god, get it off me.

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When I wrote our Still Wakes The Deep review I mentioned the true-to-life Scottish slang used by the oil rig workers of this North Sea horror. It was wonderful, but all these slang terms were being translated in the subtitles for some reason. “Gobshite” became “bastard”. The “polis” were localised as the “police”. And every “yersel” sneering out of the machismo-ridden workers became “yourself”. Well, turns out that’s the result of the game defaulting to “International English” for its captions. But if you want to immerse yourself in Scottish vernacular as deeply as protagonist Caz McCleary immerses himself in hazardous chemical spills, good news. There’s another option, says one of the game’s developers.

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Japanese role-playing game enthusiasts are eating good this week, as Square Enix announce a 3D remake for 1993’s Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge Of The Seven. It’s a high fantasy RPG in which you must shore up an empire and defend it from generation to generation against a group of legendary adventurers, who were trapped in another dimension many moons ago and are positively livid that people don’t talk about their sacrifices enough. It’s out 24th October 2024, and springs from the turbulent brains of the team behind 2020’s Trials of Mana remake, which was well-received. I’ve got a trailer’s worth of rabble-rousing orchestral music and sparkly tag-team finishers below.

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American Truck Simulator already has in-development DLCs which will see its 18-wheelers head to Arkansas and Missouri, but SCS Software have also commenced building a third: Iowa.

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