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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The Last Of Us show teases the rest of the first season with its Weeks Ahead trailer

The Last Of Us debuted on streaming services on both sides of the Atlantic over the past few days, and now a follow-up trailer shows what’s coming for the rest of the show’s first season. It has plenty of cordyceps-infected baddies, gritty human drama, and Pedro Pascal being Pedro Pascal. You can watch the Weeks Ahead trailer below, and wonder where The Mandalorian’s left his helmet again.

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Leaked screenshot shows Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League has a battle pass

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League has revealed the game will feature a battle pass and a store. The image was originally posted to 4Chan, but made its way onto Reddit and Twitter. An unnamed development source has since confirmed to VGC that the Suicide Squad image is legit, and shows the menus in a recent test build of the third-person shooter.

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We’re finally getting a “clear glimpse” of Steam wishlist hit The Day Before just weeks ahead of release

The Day Before may have slipped out of its top spot on Steam’s most wanted games list, but it’s still the second most anticipated game on Valve’s storefront. Up to now, devs Fntastic haven’t shared unedited footage of the game in the lead up to its planned release on March 1st, but they say that’s about to change with a showcase of features at some point in January. You can watch the most recent, very short clip of edited ray-traced footage from The Day Before from this month’s CES show below.

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Atomic Heart may be a beautiful FPS, but I wish it had a silent protagonist

Atomic Heart, which took me from the story’s opening moments to plenty of the game’s earliest bits. The final hour or so was split into two parts, thanks to a lovely dev who time-skipped me forwards and into the game’s open world, before warping me through a gate and into an early boss’s lair. There was a lot to take in, from robo-gloves, to sex-dom vending machines, to grannies with bazookas.

I went in with expectations that it might be a little like BioShock, all steely and serious in its delivery of some vaguely philosophical truth. But I emerged with a totally different impression. Far from polished seriousness, Atomic Heart seems a little disjointed in its ambition, with a main character who almost immediately kills any atmosphere when he opens his mouth.

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AMD’s Rzyen 7 5800X3D drops to £306, a new low price

Ryzen 7 5800X3D was down to £348 at Amazon. Now though, thanks to a rogue 10% off deal at Ebay, you can pick up the same processor from Ebuyer’s Ebay store for £306.

£306! That’s a tiny price for a CPU that launched last year at an official RRP of £429 and a real-life asking price of £530. To get this reduced price, use code JAN10 at the checkout.

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Fresh Lies Of P footage shows off a fight with a lightning gorilla robocop

Lies of P hopes to fix, as revealed in a new gameplay trailer designed to show off how nice it looks on a Radeon RX 7900 XTX. I will likely never own a Radeon RX 7900 XTX, but it’s looking increasingly likely that I will buy Lies of P.

It’s a Soulslike that plonks you into an alternate Victorian London where people got real good at inventing creepy automata. You play as the big P himself, Pinocchio.

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Shang-Chi is apparently the most overrated card in Marvel Snap

Marvel Snap that destroys any and all opposing cards in his lane with a power of 9 or above. He feels great to play, and miserable to play against. He is also, apparently, quite bad – at least according to project lead Ben Brode, who’s consulted his big statistics bank to discover that he appears in more losing decks than anyone else.

Huh. I suppose I can stop agonising over whether he has a place in my latest Patriot deck.

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