If you’ve been narked about favourite bits of Fallout not yet appearing in Amazon Prime’s unexpectedly good live-action show, hold your horses. In an interview, the showrunners have talked about holding back certain “iconic elements” to do them in a hypothetical second season right rather than cram in all the greatest hits—and also so the show didn’t “seem like it was written by people who just like spent 10 seconds reading the Wikipedia page for Fallout and didn’t bother to like bring in some deeper cuts.”
Following a mild-to-moderate outcry, Ubisoft have clarified that queasy worm gangster Jabba The Hutt isn’t, in fact, a Star Wars Outlaws special edition or season pass exclusive. The apparently much-beloved star slug will appear in every edition of the game, but if you scrape together the credits for the Gold or Ultimate Editions, you’ll get access to a Jabba’s Gambit mission as part of the game’s season pass.
It’s a timely clarification, because I’ve just checked on Xitter and yes, #Jabbagate has been trending… in reference to unflattering photos of Donald Trump in 2016. And also, Steven Gerrard in 2020. And… Wrestlemania in 2017? Jabba is quite the meme these days, it seems.
I’ve been watching this year’s ostensible “major” news developments – the launch of a Fallout TV show, the impending release of Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree, to pick a couple – with a sense of zealous disapproval and weary resignation as to the hubris of human beings. Do these brazen publishers and developers not know that this, the year 2024, is the Year of Shadow the Hedgehog?
Sega said as much only a few days ago. They’ve announced a series of fan celebrations for Sonic Adventure 2’s Ultimate Lifeform, beginning in the traditional style with a Shadow-themed MotoGP bike and an associated LEGO tie-in. And now, the earth quakes underfoot as we learn via The Hollywood Reporter that Keanu Reeves, forgotten star of 90s romantic drama A Walk in the Clouds and also those recent John Wick films, will play Shadow in the forthcoming movie adaptation Sonic 3.
Just Cause developers Avalanche have become home to the latest union in the games industry, with over 100 staff at the Swedish studio set to be covered by a new agreement formed with local labour unions.
The former president of Blizzard has suggested that players should have the option to tip developers after finishing a game. That’s on top of paying $70 for the game in the first place, mind.
Fallout: London, the Fallout 4 mod set in a post-apocalyptic English capital that’s large enough to effectively be its own game, has been hit by an indefinite delay just two weeks from its planned release date. The reason? Fallout 4’s long-in-the-works next-gen update is now due to drop just two days after London’s planned launch date, which its fan devs say will “simply break” the ambitious project.
Five years after LawBreakers shut down, we’re getting to play the gravity-defying multiplayer FPS again thanks to fans. LawBreakers was the first game from Boss Key Productions, a studio co-founded by Gears Of Wars lead designer Cliff Bleszinski, and it had delightful ultraviolence beneath its uninspiring genric look. Alas, it did not sell well. Boss Key closed less than a year after launch, and the game soon followed. But after years of work, a group of fans this weekend successfully ran the first public test for a workaround to play the game again. While there’s no clear launch plan yet, more playtesting will follow.
As MMORPGFinal Fantasy 14‘s upcoming Dawntrail expansion gets ever closer, Squeenix have released a benchmarking tool that lets you see how your rig might handle its graphical update. Not only that, but it also lets you sample the new female Hrothgar playable race. So far, folks seem to be happy with the tool and the catmoms.
With Dawntrail set to launch on July 2nd, Squeenix’s benchmark tool lets you see how your PC will get on with said dawns and trails. Once you’ve got it downloaded, it’ll essentially take you through a trailer showcasing some of its new South American-inspired environments. Lovely palm trees, splashes of colour, some bits showing off the new Viper (dual-wielding blade person) and Pictomancer (ranged magic person) Jobs. You can see the trailer for yourself, which I’ve embedded above.
The tool also contains a character creator, which lets you see some of the improvements the devs have made to the little details, like beards and lips and eyes. Some seem really happy with the change, in particular darker skin tones getting some much needed tuning. Most seem pleased with the female Hrothgar’s design. Others aren’t so keen on fangs being removed for female Keepers Of The Moon Miqo’te. Teeth are a contentious topic.
Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter’s #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, my eye has been caught by the slow (yet speedy!) reload of a flintlock, feathered dinosaurs, parrying bullets, snowboard stunting, an underslung chainsaw, and heaps more. Check out these attractive and interesting indie games!
We hired Katharine back in 2017 as our first full-time hardware writer, having been impressed by her rare talent for writing about tech in an approachable way. It quickly became obvious that Katharine’s skills stretched beyond just hardware and in 2021 she became editor-in-chief, responsible for running the entire site.
Now, sadly, she is departing RPS for a new adventure. Come say thank you and farewell.
