Want a PCIe 4.0 SSD for 10% off? This Ebay code has you sorted

A new deal, another pair of deals on NVMe SSD drives. This time, it’s the Solidigm P41 Plus which is the subject of our deals post, with a 1TB model available for £48 and a 2TB model available for £90 – some incredible prices for PCIe 4.0 SSDs capable of up to 4125MB/s reads. To get this price on these drives from Ebuyer, just use the code APRIL10 at the checkout at Ebay.

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The Electronic Wireless Show podcast S2 Ep10: endure and survive The Last Of Us’s PC port

A week late but never a dollar short, The Electronic Wireless Show podcast talking about the past present and… well mostly just the present, to be honest, of The Last Of Us Part 1. It’s had, and continues to have, a few problems with its PC launch last week, so we discuss that, we talk about the TV show, and we talk about some of the impact the game has had in general. Nate tells us all about Ceramus the Brick Knight, James polls us on Steam Deck alternatives coming out of the woodwork, and there are a lot of cowboy metaphors. Plus: what we’ve been playing this week, and our recommendations! It’s a rootin’, tootin’ good time alright! Apolgies in advance for the recording going on the wonk right at the end, though.

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RPS@PAX 2023: Meet Bioshop Infinite, the barbershop quartet that’s been a PAX fixture for nearly a decade

There’s a moment in BioShock Infinite‘s opening act that’s always stuck with me. As you emerge onto the floating city of Columbia, the game takes you on a guided tour of the sights and sounds of this airbone civilization. As you saunter through the streets, you learn about its citizens and its creator, just sort of taking it all in. The sun is shining. You’re surrounded by smiles. Before you know it, an airship rises above the clouds and perches next to a hugging couple, gently swaying in the summer breeze. Aboard the ship is a barbershop quartet, cheerfully harmonising the iconic Beach Boys tune God Only Knows. It’s a memorable scene, and has become an integral part of the game’s lasting iconography.

But for Tyler, Nick, Derek and Greg, this section was more than just a fun tease for the secret behind Columbia’s unusual success. Self-confessed music school kids, the quartet inspired them to create their own musical group styled after Infinite’s singing hairdressers. In 2023, BioShop Infinite celebrated their ninth year at PAX East, where they performed a wonderful collection of harmonised tunes to an absolutely packed community room – and we were there to film it.

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Road 96: Mile 0 review: an unexpected but enjoyable mashup prequel

It’s weird that Road 96 has gotten a prequel, because it only came out about six months ag- what’s that? A year and a half? Good lord. Still, it seems a slightly odd move, because Road 96 – a first person hitchhiking choose ’em up about the collective action of wayward teens bringing down a totalitarian government – doesn’t really need a prequel. On top of that, Road 96: Mile 0 is a sequel to developer DigixArt’s first game Lost In Harmony, a musical runner about skateboarder Kaito whose fiend Aya is dying of a terminal illness.

In Mile 0, Kaito and his family have moved to a small gated town called White Sands, in the 90s USA-adjacent dictatorship Petria, and made best friends with Zoe, who 96ers will remember as a recurring NPC from that game. Zoe is the daughter of an important minister and lives in the nice part of town; Kaito’s parents are workers who are forced to live on the wrong side of the tracks. Through a combination of Road 96-style character-driven vignettes and Lost In Harmony-style rhythm action tracks, the two come to the conclusion they must leave White Sands. If you played Road 96 you kind of already know how Mile 0 has to end.

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Minecraft Legends is a curious and charming blend of adventure and RTS

There’s always been something quite comforting about loading into a brand new Minecraft world. Dropping into that first forest, punching that first tree… It’s a promise of all the myriad adventures to come. And despite some fundamental changes in genre and perspective, it’s something that the team behind the upcoming Minecraft Legends has tried hard to preserve.

I recently was treated to the most in-depth look so far at Minecraft Legends, in an hour-long livestream which gave us all some much needed answers on what manner of beast Legends actually is. It’s a curious blend of action adventure and RTS, one that shares Minecraft’s focus on exploration, but guides the player down a stricter, simpler path of summoning friendly mobs and constructing defences to repel a Piglin invasion. This will likely be a solid introduction to the RTS genre for a lot of players, but I came away unsure about whether the game will have enough depth to keep its prospective playerbase’s attention.

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Lil’ Guardsman remixes Papers, Please in a cute deduction adventure

Last night ID@Xbox held their latest showcase to spotlight all sorts of indies. One of the highlights was the cute deduction game Lil’ Guardsman, a riff on Papers, Please where you work on a guard post, choosing to accept or refuse entry for fantasy folk wanting to get into the city. Or you can just jail them. It looks like lighthearted fun, and it’ll be hitting PC and consoles later this year.

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Remedy’s Quantum Break delisted from storefronts after temporary Game Pass removal

Jack Joyce has run out of time, or steam, both work! Remedy’s time-bending Quantum Break – part superpowered shooter, part live-action TV show – has been delisted on Steam and The Microsoft Store. The game’s Steam page is still up, but it’s no longer available for purchase on PC or Xbox consoles. Publisher Microsoft had already confirmed the game would be “temporarily” removed from Game Pass (for console, it was never on the PC version) due to licensing issues, although there was no word on a removal from storefronts.

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Hammerwatch 2 takes the hack-n-slashing series open world this summer

The world of hack-and-slashing Hammerwatch returns this summer with a sequel, developers Crackshell have announced. Just like the first game released ten years ago, Hammerwatch 2 is a top-down fantasy ARPG where you’ll be building your own hero, choosing between a series of classes, and battling hordes either alone or in a co-op group of four.

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