Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

As it stands, Remedy Entertainment’s latest entry into their Connected Universe, FBC: Firebreak, is not doing so hot. Across the board it’s not been received entirely positively (including by our own James, you can read his review here), not exactly the ideal launch for a live service game. All the same, it being a live service game might ultimately be its benefit thanks to the power of that mystical force called “updates.” In a Steam post shared by the FBC: Firebreak team, some planned improvements were outlined, which certainly sound like they’d make for a better experience.

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Indie horror game developer Ruled are onto a nice little spree with their shortform Itch.io releases – seemingly, they are skipping from phobia to phobia. First there was Automatonophobia, a game that navigated the fear of subterranean golems, then there was Chrometophobia, a game dedicated to the fear of spending money, and also to the act of finding “grimbo” gibs for a delicious pie. What’s next on the menu? Ah yes, scarecrows.

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While the prospect The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered turning out to be a real thing had folks wondering what that might mean for Oblivion remake mod Skyblivion‘s release, Bethesda were quick quell fears of a shutdown.

Both sides have been openly chummy since that point, with the studio behind The Elder Scrolls even having the team of modders pop by for a visit around the time their project was being shouted out on the official channels. We’ve now learned a bit more about how that social call went and what the two sides chatted about.

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I am getting a real kick out of Rematch. As a football game, its closest analogue isn’t FIFA or eFootball, but a certain nitro-boosting sports ’em up that has been going for ten years. I’ve already seen it jokingly described as “Rocket League without cars.” An infuriatingly accurate description that does half my job for me. My list of irritations with it is long. But there is something so compelling about the kick-by-kick play, each match a little drama, that I will gladly scrunch that list of complaints into a ball and toepoke it into a waste paper basket on the other side of the room. GOOOAAALLL!

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PC gaming hasn’t seen much 3D hardware since Nvidia shuttered its goggles-based, Alec-damaging 3D Vision prospect in 2019. Death by lack of compelling use cases, or by VR coming along and doing the whole “S’like it’s coming right at me” thing more comprehensively? Maybe a bit of both, but in any case, Samsung is having another go with its new Odyssey 3D gaming monitor. Outwardly resembling just another 4K IPS screen, its three-dimensification of select games involves collaborations with their original developers, with the final effect being delivered without the need for any glasses or headwear at all.

I recently had a go on the Odyssey 3D, and it’s certainly a few steps up from yer dusty Nintendo 3DS. A combination of eye-tracking cameras and an internal array of lenticular lenses produces the 3D effect, maintains it as long as your head stays roughly centred, and at least for me, manages to avoid inflicting agony of the eyes or brain. It’s impressive tech, though if it’s to become a serious desk-topping option, the Odyssey 3D will need a lot more games to get on board with it.

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To suddenly make a leviathan 4X strategy game like Victoria 3 free to play the day before the weekend is either an act of historic generosity or a masterstroke of cruelty. My dear friends at Paradox Interactive, I have literally just sent Nic my contributions to this weekend’s What Are We All Playing round-up. And now, sirs and madams, you would have me reckon with approximately a century’s worth of densely tabulated imperialism, optional child labour and people called Leopold.

Not only have I popped my monocle, sirs and madams, but my top hat has gone off like a volcano and my handlebar mustache has twisted itself into a pair of propellers, which are now flying me away into the sunset. I bid you good evening, sirs and madams! I say again: good evening and good night!

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While prowling the ramparts of this year’s Summer Game Fest, I rode a zipline to a broken attic window and snuck into a sealed chamber containing Thick As Thieves, the unofficial multiplayer Thief game from Otherside Entertainment. Also in the sealed chamber: celebrated Looking Glass dude and Deus Exman Warren Spector, who walked us through a hands-off demo of the PvPvE heisting sim.

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Some footage from a reportedly cancelled Dungeons and Dragons RPG from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive co-developers Hidden Path Entertainment has surfaced online, alongside concept art.

All of it paints a vague picture of a work-in-progress game – which was being assembled under the watchful eye of a Wizards of the Coast that’s currently facing a post-Larian Baldur’s Gate conundrum – that looked a bit like a bunch of the big fantasy RPGs we’ve gotten in recent years.

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“Your kingdom, your call” announced the Crusader Kings 3 trumpets earlier this week when they put out a new player survey, which is a terrifyingly verbose achievement for brass instruments, but useful for anyone who wants to give Paradox their opinions on where the grand strategy game should head next, as well as get a few hints about the futures it might already be making plans for.

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Nothing is more powerful, Hotline Miami and its -likes teach us, than a good corner from which to lurk and swing sharp objects at conga lines of investigating idiots, each somehow convinced that although he just watched four mates get blade-battered in that exact spot by some murdercrazed invisible entity, he will personally be the one that overcomes the unassailable instant death corner with all his favourite bits intact.

Perhaps this is the Slaughter Void this lethal arcade action game speaks of, although, hang on: it’s got its own creation myth, in which a betrayed deity unleashes her anguish and makes everything at least 60% more violent and shit than it was previously. The claret-spattered cosmic psychedelia was enough to sucker me in alone, but there’s some nicely written fiction here too. It’s the kind that just pokes its horns through the walls occasionally, giving you enough of a sense of the entire beast to feel like you’re entering somewhere with history, without bogging down all that good good corner slaughter.

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