Anyone that’s played a FromSoftwareSouls game knows how it tells its stories. You meet a wide range of characters, all of which mostly just talk at you in varyingly cryptic ways. There’s also tiny bits of lore offered up from weapons and items too, all of which build up a messy picture. But in something like the upcoming Elden Ring Nightreign, where the main focus is gameplay that encourages you to constantly be on the move, I’ve been left wondering how its story will play out. As it turns out, it’s quite different from the original Elden Ring.
Earlier this year the Black Panther(‘s voice actor) suggested that Skydance New Media’s Marvel 1943: Rise Of Hydra would release in Christmas 2025. We all slept a little easier that night, knowing that King T’Chanda himself had all but rubber-stamped the WW2 action game’s launch window. Well, it turns out the Black Panther was lying to us. Skydance have just announced that it’ll now release in early 2026.
If Letters Had Pants appears to be the product of three different elevator pitches that took place in the same elevator, and somehow resolved amicably rather than eating each other alive.
The first pitch was for a verbal puzzler in which you combine letters into words on a randomised grid against the clock, with the twist that words vanish when scored to create blank spaces that can be bridged by other letter combinations for higher scores. The second pitch was for a bizarrely prudish roguelite that is all about ensuring that letters are properly dressed. And the third pitch was for an archaeological excavation sim in which you exhibit things like lost floppy discs, or sell them to expand your museum. The result, against the odds, is a single and cohesive video game rather than a claustrophobic clownfight. Witness the below trailer.
Doom: The Dark Ages has encouraged us to redirect our booting utensils away from Rematch’s leather balls and into the vital organs of Hell’s revolting soldiers. Along with various punches, flail strikes, and shield thrusts, most of which aren’t even allowed in football. But could the manner of their delivery also be cause for a critical kicking? The Dark Ages notably replaces the lavishly animated glory kills of recent Dooms with faster, simpler melee strikes, so reviewer Nic and I sat down for a gentle argument over whether this was a change for a better.
Steam Deck owners will be familiar with the practice of peering into a new game’s Steam store page and hoping, begging, praying to whatever god is yet to abandon this cruel joke of a reality that it has a little green tick mark on it. This is, of course, the Steam Deck Verified programme, wherein Valve gives good behaviour stickers to games that function fully on their handheld PC.
Soon, this system – so often a source of relief and disappointment – will be expanded, with a view to rating games for compatibility with SteamOS as a whole. As the announcement post explains, that’s because the first non-Steam Deck SteamOS handheld, a new version of the Lenovo Legion Go S, is launching soon, with the possibility of more in the future.
Yes, yes, I’m opting for the scoundrel’s gambit and reporting on a Reddit post. Of a self-imposed challenge run, no less! But I adored the bejeezus out of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and figured this was worth sharing in case it convinces a couple of you to give it a go. Redditor HunterIV4 has chronicled their journey to beat the RPG without dodging, parrying, or even using the powerful gradient parries, in a bid to show that Sekiro reflexes aren’t as crucial to success as they might seem. Thanks, cheery RPS fanzine PC Gamer.
For too long have our video games been tainted by the spectacle of people moving around using their own feet and legs. For too long have our NPCs been left to rot in the grip of “simple town life”, surrounded by acres of thriving grass that have never known the blessed touch of a Chevron or a Ford, let alone that duchess of the asphalt – the Banana Mobile.
All that changes… well, they haven’t shared a release date yet, but rest assured that Car Park Capital will soon be here to transform all of your awful virtual countryside into a sea of rumbling isometric bonnets. Here is a trailer.
Ahoy, consumer of PC games! I fear that Void War may be highly relevant to your statistically determined interests. It’s a space combat game in which you steer ancient, crenellated starships through a frightful cosmos of blood cultists, imperial zealots, and ravening corsairs. You will warp from node to node on a roguelite system map, with each node harbouring battles, story encounters, and the occasional friendly or at least, not immediately hostile face such as a merchant.
I couldn’t offer many Steam Deck-specific insights in my look at Doom: The Dark Ages’ PC performance last week, because a crashing issue was inconsiderately – dare I say, rudely – blocking me from even reaching the main menu. Over the weekend, however, a purpose-built SteamOS Preview update stepped in, making the brawly sci-fantasy shooter playable on the handheld. Just in time for its launch on the 15th, no less.
I’ll confess that as I set about parrying imps between my plastic-calloused fingers, the “playable” part was still dropping minor bombshells. My main complaint with how The Dark Ages runs on desktops is the mandatory ray tracing effects that have, compared to the hardly much uglier Doom Eternal, slowed it right down. The Steam Deck can run many things, but it usually reacts to traced rays by curling up and sobbing until they go away. Still, maybe I should have had more faith in the series that essentially brought functional RT effects to the Deck in the first place, as this most recent, most demanding instalment can still run around a playable 30fps. Without resorting to its lowest settings, too.
