Where does Dwarf Fortress stand after a decade defined by its own successors?

Dwarf Fortress would never make the biggest and most important change it possibly could, and fit itself with an interface fit for purpose.

Bay 12 Games have, of course, gone further than that, and released it for general sale on the biggest shop in the business after sixteen years as freeware. There’s even a charming new graphics overhaul to replace the famous ASCII symbols which, depending on who you ask, might not have technically counted as “graphics” at all.

I’m not here to discuss the relative merits of this shiny new version and the “classic” version. Both will be updated in future, the latter still free, and neither expected to reach a full 1.0 release inside 20 years. All this chips around the edges of what I’ve been pondering, which is this: What exactly is Dwarf Fortress’s place within our culture now, after a decade replete with games that looked to it for ideas?

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Listen to RPS’s brand new indie gaming podcast, Indiescovery

Ultimate Audio Bang, and The Electronic Wireless Show, but our focus is strictly on the wonderful world of indie games. It’s best to think of the podcast as an extension of our Indiescovery tag on the site – although we’ve got the Indiescovery Podcast tag just for the pod, if you ever want to check all the episodes. Every episode video bud Liam, guides lass Rebecca and myself (reviews ranger Rachel) will highlight a bunch of cool indies and talk about why we love them. We’ll be gabbing about the latest indie darlings, exciting upcoming releases, hidden gems lost to space and time, and more.

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Persona 3 Portable isn’t only a great JRPG, but a history lesson too

Persona 3 Portable‘s PC re-release with one expectation: it will be old and therefore quite bad. Looking back, was I naïve? Yes. And was I wrong? I’m delighted to report that I was catastrophically wrong.

From what I’ve played so far of Persona 3, I reckon it’s well worth a whirl if you’re a newcomer, or a Persona 5 fan who’s concerned that a game from 2009 won’t be all that good. Not only does it stand on its own as a fun high school mystery with an alarmingly dark undertone, it almost acts as a fun history lesson too.

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Stellaris is getting a First Contact story pack, Paradox confirm after leaks

Stellaris will take a step back from the stars and concentrate on pre-FTL civilisations with its upcoming First Contact story pack DLC. Paradox announced the DLC today after details, screenshots and a trailer leaked ahead of the reveal through SteamDB. YouTuber Aspec also uploaded a video detailing the leak and revealing the DLC’s trailer, which has since been made private. You can watch the official trailer below.

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I adore these Far Cry 5 recreations of mundane Edinburgh places

Dan Douglas captures English culture in a Duke Nukem 3D level, another mapper has been diligently recreating corners of Scotland in Far Cry 5. Since 2019, YouTuber “Mojo Swoptops” has rebuilt a wide and weird range of Edinburgh sights inside Far Cry 5’s level editor, from the big tourist landmarks like the castle and Forth Bridge to perfectly mundane places such as blocks of flats and nightclubs at chucking-out time. As an Edinburgh resident, it’s great fun to see, and a very pleasing contrast to the gleaming reimagination seen in Forza Horizon 5.

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