Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I think to properly convey my severe dislike of always online games I’d probably need more space and time than what an average RPS news article provides, but I’ll try to contain myself on this one. You see, EA’s just started up this new thing it calls The Grind (like what you do on a skateboard, get it?), which they describe as their “platform to talk directly to you, the community.” The first volume had quite a few questions from expectant skaters about the upcoming Skate reboot, one of the first being whether or not it’ll have an offline mode. Can you already guess from my tone so far that it won’t?

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The thing about computers is that they’re just really annoying, actually. They’re massively complicated, constantly changing machines, and despite the fact the hardware is technically better now, they can sometimes struggle to run older games because of… reasons. Those reasons often being software issues I won’t even attempt to understand. So, it always brings a smile to my face when I see another game back from the dead through the efforts of GOG’s preservation program, the most recent entry being the classic Capcom JRPG Breath of Fire 4.

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Earlier this month Nacon did something unthinkable, completely unpredictable with Dune: Awakening… they delayed it. Alright, fine, generally the opposite is true for big games these days, but it did come down to the wire in the greater scheme of things as it was due out this coming May 20th. Now the MMO is slated to be released on June 10th (or June 5th for those with early access), just three weeks extra. That “meh” news did come with some “oh that’s cool” news though, as a large-scale beta was promised. Now, following a snazzy new story trailer, a date for said beta has been set!

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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is one of those rare games I’ll grind out a performance and settings feature for before continuing to play it – yee gads, what a concept – for fun. It’s more or less exactly what I’d have asked from a modern take, with refreshed visuals and UX improvements bolted directly onto Oblivion’s original, famously bent chassis.

This hybrid engine approach, similar to that of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, hands off the graphical rendering gubbins to an Unreal Engine 5 layer while keeping all the game logic to a modified version of what is otherwise just the 2006 backend. Preserving, in the process, that janky daftness that accounts for much of Oblivion’s charm, with qualified support for the original’s mods on the side. Still, the performance impact of Oblivion Remastered’s new look is not to be trifled with. Even with DLSS/FSR upscaling support and frame generation, this is a tough one to run smoothly at its highest settings, especially if you deploy the ray tracing effects that (for once) really do enhance and enliven the scenery.

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When shopping for a game on Steam you’ll soon be able to filter results by accessibility feature. The filter options are coming some time later this year, say Valve in a Steamworks update post, and will include tickboxes for alternative colour options, adjustable difficulty, menu narration, and subtitle options, among some other useful categories.

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Do subscribe to Tim Cain’s YouTube channel if you haven’t already. The Fallout creator is eminently listenable and seems to have an infinite well of great stories about a career working on formative RPGs. His latest is on game preservation, in which he reveals that Fallout developer and publisher Interplay had to approach him after he’d left the company to ask if he still had development archives they’d ordered him to destroy. The reason? “Oops! We lost it”, Cain says (cheers, Games Radar).

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Last year, Ubisoft announced that both The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest would be getting offline modes, something quite likely driven (pun intended) by how upset people were by the original The Crew being shut down completely. There’s an ongoing lawsuit over the first game and all! Still, The Crew 2 and Motorfest getting an offline mode is something, and there’s a playtest for the former coming next week, April 30th.

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Red Candle Games are probably more frequently remembered as a horror developer, what with their first couple of games being Detention and the slightly troubled (but very good) Devotion. Surprisingly, their follow-up to the latter wasn’t another horror game, but Nine Sols, a Sekiro-inspired 2D action Metroidvania that just looks stunning in motion. It was a welcome surprise! Developers should never feel beholden to expectations, and Red Candle Games have once again offered up a lovely little surprise in the form of a Nine Sols prequel manga.

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If you’ve been eyeing Nvidia’s new RTX 5060 Ti but aren’t thrilled about paying markup prices on the secondary market, you’re not alone. The latest Blackwell GPU launched with all the fanfare and none of the stock — unless you’re willing to pay over MSRP. The better move right now? Pick up a prebuilt PC that actually uses the card, like the new Skytech Shadow and Archangel desktops, both available on Amazon starting at $1,249.99.

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June 17th is the release date for FBC: Firebreak, Remedy’s triple mate co-op shooter set in the Control universe, which is also the Alan Wake universe, which also might be the Max Payne universe if you blur your eyes and plug your ears and shout “Alex Casey” a lot when Rockstar’s lawyers come knocking. It’ll be available on Steam and Epic for $39.99 / €39.99 / £32.99 (or more for a bunch of extra cosmetics), and also day one on that game subscription service by the company that you might not want to support for various reasons right now.

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