Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

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Diablo IV Steam Deck report: scorching performance is worth the installation faff

As well as it runs on your average desktop PC, it wasn’t until I began playing Diablo IV on the Steam Deck that its demon-thwacking really clicked for me. Largely because this was my first experience of it with gamepad controls, and using thumbsticks and face buttons to move and toss out spells just feels more… I don’t know, direct? Like I’m actually controlling my Necromancer and her boney bodyguards, not just clicking a unit and watching their animations.

It helps that Diablo IV’s Steam Deck performance is surprisingly spry, with fast 45-60fps framerates within reach even when leaving the majority of graphics settings on Ultra quality. Unlike all of the other best Steam Deck games, there’s no native support for its Battle.net launcher, but with some resourcefulness, that needs only be a temporary barrier.

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Reality Bytes: Amid Evil VR is an intriguing experiment

Some games adapt to VR more naturally than others. Games that take place primarily in a cockpit, like Elite Dangerous or Euro Truck Simulator 2, need relatively little adjustment to make them enjoyable in VR. They don’t require the player to move around much, and their whole shtick about providing an authentic, immersive experience.

Games that require a lot of fast movement, or require the player to keep track of a lot of different objects, are generally harder to make work through VR Goggles. Hence why Amid Evil VR caught my attention. Shooters are common VR fodder, but they’re typically built as VR experiences from the ground up. Amid Evil, on the other hand, is a flatscreen retro shooter designed to be reactive, surreal, and above all, fast. It’s a game where you zip around arcane dimensions like a magic missile, splattering weird little armoured guys with enchanted swords and a staff that fires planets. It’s a brilliant game, one of the best old-skool shooters to emerge from the genre’s revival. But on paper, it’s about as VR friendly as Morpheus.

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Get your meaty hands on the Tetris Super Meat Boy spinoff on June 22nd

Tetris is grand, but it could do with more chainsaws. Thus (presumably) went the thought process of the developers behind Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine, a Super Meat Boy spinoff about lining up colourful meaty blobs while dodging buzzsaws and other grizzly hazards. Think Tetris meets match 4 meets Meat Boy slapstick.

A demo came out in April, but publishers Thunderful Games have just announced you’ll get to play the full thing on June 22nd.

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Winnie-the-Pooh mutates into a meaty abomination in Ring Of Pain studio’s next game

Everyone’s favourite hunny-yellow bear will mutate into a fleshy horror bristling with extra arms and eyeballs and glands in Winnie’s Hole, the next roguelikelike dungeon crawler from Ring Of Pain developers Twice Different. The earliest Winnie-the-Pooh stories are no longer under copyright in the US, see, meaning people can do whatever they want. Including this. Inevitably including this. Come see the horrible Pooh and his hole in the announcement trailer below.

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Wildfrost’s first big update makes life easier for players old and new

Out of all the roguelike deckbuilders that have followed in Slay The Spire‘s footsteps, Wildfrost is my second favourite. The cardplay never quite reaches the dizzy heights of Spire or Monster Train, but it’s far cuter than either of them and still absolutely splendid. Now’s a great time to pick it up, too, because its first big update is primarily aimed at clarifying rules to help new players avoid all the painful deaths I suffered through.

Developers Deadpan Games have released a roadmap, too, revealing a rough plan for what they’re working on next.

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Ding ding: Diablo 4 has its first Level 100 Hardcore player

Former Starcraft and Dota pro “cArn” has won the race to hit level 100 on a Diablo 4 Hardcore character, thus earning him a letter from the king and a nap. This is Diablo’s permadeath mode, where one death is enough to wipe your progress. He dinged his final ding on his Barbarian in the early hours of June 5th, just five days after the game’s early access launch, and he’s now been officially confirmed as the first Hardcore centurion. It’s a feat that sounds as impressive as it does exhausting.

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Punishing tragicomic RPG Lisa: The Painful is getting a definitive edition

Adam (RPS in peace) once described Lisa: The Painful as “Earthbound by way of thecatamites”, but that was back in 2014 and there’s a decent chance those references mean little to you. That might be part of the reason why Lisa has remained a cult classic, even if it has overwhelmingly positive reviews from those who persevered with the punishing, deranged, tragicomic RPG Maker game.

Now it’s 2023 and Lisa: The Painful is getting a Definitive Edition re-release, and I’m lucky that I can draw on better known references. It’s like Undertale by way of… Uh, thecatamites?

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