Against The Storm’s update 1.1 is out, making the early game more interesting

Against The Storm left early access late last year, but has just now received its first major post-release patch. Update 1.1 “isn’t as spectacular” as its developers had first hoped, but it does buff the roguelite citybuilder with som new art, UI improvements and quality-of-life tweaks, as well as new orders to make early stage settlement building “a little more interesting.”

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Get AMD’s former fastest graphics card for $500 at Newegg when you buy an open box model

AMD’s flagship RDNA 2 graphics card, the RX 6900 XT, continues to drop in price over in the US. Right now you can pick this once-fastest-ever Radeon GPU for just $500 when you buy an open box model from Newegg. That’s outstanding, given that this card cost twice as much when it debuted in 2020.

This is the fancy AsRock Phantom Gaming D model too, which brings a snazzy design and a faster 2340MHz boost clock (versus 2250MHz on the vanilla spec).

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Total War: Pharaoh’s High Tides update, previously a paid DLC pack, will release for free on Jan 25th

Back in December, Creative Assembly posted a lengthy apology to players for their recent handling of the Total War strategy series, in particular Total War: Warhammer 3 and Total War: Pharoah. Seeking to smooth down feathers ruffled by overpricing and buggy launches, to pick out two of the biggest fan complaints, the developers offered to – amongst other things – make Pharoah’s first paid DLC pack a free update.

That free update is now upon us, miladies and milords. Available January 25th, it’s called High Tides, and introduces two new playable factions with their own units and gods and some additional campaign mechanics. Here’s a trailer.

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Prison Architect 2 is official, bringing Paradox’s jail management sim to 3D

After teasing a 3D sequel when Prison Architect received its final update last May, developers Double Eleven and publishers Paradox Interactive have announced that, yep, Prison Architect 2 is indeed a thing that is happening – and in 3D, no less. Prisons will now have multiple floors to police, as well as a whole new inmate behaviour system to navigate along the way that will feed into gang warfare, escapes and other budding management problems. It’s coming out surprisingly soon, too, with its reveal trailer dating it for March 26th.

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Take-Two Interactive and Remedy Entertainment are in a dispute over the letter R

Alright, alright, they’re in a disupte over the letter R as used for a logo for a video game company. As spotted by Respawn First, Remedy (they of the Alan Wake) revealed their new logo last year, a big letter R, and Take-Two (they of the owning Rockstar Games) contest it. Rockstar’s logo is also a big letter R, although I think they’re pretty different Rs.

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Frostpunk 2 and its rowdy citizens will be storming the gates of Game Pass day one on PC

The denizens of Frostpunk are, understandably, quite grumpy so-and-sos a lot of the time, but through their cries of “More heat!” and “Please can we not with the human waste hothouse jobs!”, I reckon even they’d be quite pleased to hear that Frostpunk 2 will be heading to PC Game Pass on its day of release (with Xbox Game Pass following when it arrives on consoles). Alas, we still don’t know exactly when it’s coming out yet, but in the mean time, why not gather round the burning barrel of 11 Bit’s very first gameplay trailer for it while we wait?

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Persona 3 Reload is a seamless transition for Persona 5-likers

Having spent what feels like an entire lifetime in JRPG Persona 5 Royal, going back to the original Persona 3 is pretty jarring. It’s unsurprising given it came out 18 years ago, but exploration is more akin to a slideshow and dungeon-running to a well-rehearsed routine.

But with an hour of Persona 3 Reload under my belt, P3’s remake felt immediately familiar. It’s absolutely built for a seamless transition for P5-likers and takes away some of P5 Royal’s learnings, too. Unless something disastrous happens when Reload fully releases, I can’t ever see myself returning to the original.

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This spec ops haunted house shooter got me thinking about unexpected scares in Call Of Duty

Here’s a pitch for you: a spec ops shooter, except it’s haunted. Well, that’s exactly what early access co-op FPS Contain is going for, where four of you gear up in tactical clobber and clear corners of military chumps and anomalous… rumps? It’s a mixture of Rainbow Six, a bit of Stalker, and maybe a touch of Control, with gameplay showing real promise. It’s also got me thinking about unexpectedly scary moments in shooters, too.

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Dawnwalker is the “revolutionary” dark fantasy RPG from former Witcher devs Rebel Wolves

Rebel Wolves, the studio founded by a few of the CD Projekt folk behind The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, have officially titled their forthcoming dark fantasy RPG. That title is… Dawnwalker. They’ve also shared a new teaser image, which I think could depict one of two things: a) a vampiric or otherwise supernaturally-inclined hero flying through the air care of a Dishonored-style Blink teleport, sword raised and clawed fingers stretched towards an unseen foe against a blood-red backdrop. Or b) a man with his trousers aflame swinging through the window of a second floor spa while attempting to use his umbrella as a parachute, having received only half a pedicure before the building caught fire.

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