The up-and-coming farmlife indie Roots Of Pacha has been pulled from Steam, following a dispute “over the rights” of the game between developer Soda Den and publisher Crytivo. The game is a prehistoric take on Stardew Valley’s crop-growing, dungeon-exploring, people-romancing formula. Its PAX East demo caught our eye earlier this year, and the full release late last month charmed many fans on Steam for the short time it was available.
Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun
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Replace *all* of your HDDs with this massive 8TB Samsung 870 Qvo SSD
Samsung’s 870 Qvo SSD is one of the best options for high-capacity solid state storage, with a simple 2.5-inch form factor that doesn’t take up a valuable M.2 or PCIe slot and a fast-enough SATA connection. While performance is good, at up to 550MB/s for reads and a little less for writes, the real benefit here is having up to 8TB of silent, reliable and low latency storage.
You can currently pick up this RPS-recommended gaming SSD in its ultimate 8TB form for less than £415 from two places in the UK: Tech Next Day, where you can use code TND-10 to get it for £414, and Amazon, where you can get the drive for £412. I’ve included both options in case you have a preference, and in the event the drive goes out of stock at this reduced price by the time you come to click the links below!
This ASRock RX 6950 XT graphics card is now under £600
AMD’s RX 6950 XT has been enjoying a surprising revival as of late, as precipitous price drops have positioned it as a cheaper competitor to Nvidia’s new RTX 4070 GPU that offers better performance in rasterised titles – by a significant ~20% margin, too.
Today, the RX 6950 XT has dropped below the £600 mark for the first time we’re aware of, with a chunky triple-fan ASRock model costing just £598 at Overclockers in the UK. That’s significantly cheaper than the £999 that these cards originally debuted at, bringing it into contention with newer-gen cards.
Despelote is a seriously nostalgic indie, taking us back to 2001’s Ecuador
Summery explore ‘em up Despelote first caught our attention at the Day Of The Devs many years ago, thanks to its gorgeous art style and special premise. Developers Julián Cordero and Sebastián Valbuena chart a semi-autobiographical experience of their childhood in 2001’s Ecuador, right before their football team qualified for its first-ever World Cup. After disappearing for a while the devs have now announced a partnership with indie publisher Panic to help release Despelote next year. Watch its re-reveal trailer below, please, it’s beautiful.
Gears Of War 5’s co-op campaign is a reminder that simplicity is king
Here I am, once again, The Gears Of War-liker. I’m back, specifically because vidbud Liam and I played some Gears Of War 5 co-op campaign the other night, a rare occasion where we hadn’t played a game for work but for just like… fun? Anyway, through all the roadie-running and chainsaw-gun-toting, I kept thinking, “I haven’t played a video game that feels so much like a video game in ages, I miss it”.
Mech Punk is bizarre, overwhelming, and actually punk
Mech Punk is taking the piss, and I like it. Deliberately opaque games are one thing. Artsy games making a point (that seldom grab me, I shouldn’t admit) are another. But Mech Punk is something else altogether, and an incredibly rare game that actually earns the “punk” in its title.
Does that mean it’s good? Well, umm. Yes, it’s good at what I think it sets out to do. Being an irreverent mess is a valid artistic approach, but still means your game is exactly that. It’s not a good game in the traditional sense, though. Do I recommend you buy it? If you can spare £20 to pat an artist on the back, maybe. What kind of artist? Put it this way: on release, its developer changed all their Steam page credits to “Alan Smithee”. I don’t think they’re disowning it.
Stadia-exclusive horror Gylt is finally coming to Steam
When Google announced they were shutting down their streaming service Stadia, a bunch of exclusive games began to jump ship to other platforms. Tequila Works – the studio behind Rime and The Sexy Brutale – have now announced that their Stadia-exclusive adventure Gylt is heading to Steam and consoles on July 6th, 2023.
How Tunic was born from a lifelong obsession with Zelda, secrets and hidden object games
Tunic developer Andrew Shouldice has made no secret about his love of The Legend Of Zelda over the years. He’s not only spoken at length about how playing the original pair of Zelda games on the NES provided ample inspiration for his crafty hack and slasher, but you can also see it right there in the game itself, from your fox hero’s bright green outfit to the beautifully illustrated in-game manual you piece together to unravel the world’s mysteries.
But speaking with Shouldice at GDC this year, I wanted to talk to him another other potential source of inspiration. Before he struck out on his own to make Tunic, Shouldice cut his teeth making hidden object games, ranging from globe-trotting mystery adventures to Atlantean-themed detective stories. On paper, this earlier work would appear to provide the perfect proving ground for Tunic, as we all know by now that it holds plenty of secrets of its own. For Shouldice, though, it was more of a reaction against his earlier work that fuelled his approach to Tunic, as he gradually came to realise his hidden object games “weren’t tapping into this very specific type of mystery and discovery and player agency and true exploration that I was interested in,” he says.
Giant God game Reus is getting a sequel with more world-shaping titans
Humans are pesky creatures. Without the influence of giant crabs and smiling monkeytree giants, who knows what terrors we could unleash? We thankfully won’t need to find out since deity sim Reus is coming back with a sequel: Reus 2. It’s another God game with a side-on view, putting you in control of elemental titans that can terraform planets to either benefit or bully the humans that live there. Gawk at its colourful reveal trailer below:
Retro-inspired Soviet FPS HROT leaves early access next week
Early access shooter Hrot channels the wicked energy of Quake and Dusk with a booming shotgun, fast movement, and wobbly weapon models. Old-school inspirations covered in a Soviet coat of paint that’s so oppressive, it borders on horror. Two of Hrot’s episodes are out now, but the shooter is leaving early access with a third on May 16th and it’s one to watch.