Look, I just want to talk (about Burnout in wplace)

Right, so, it’s happened. One of my calls for a new Burnout game via the art map void has received a response. Quite frankly, assuming it’s accurate, it’s not the news I was hoping for. That doesn’t mean I’m stopping here, though.

In case you’ve got no idea what I’m on about, the other day I made my mark (no pun intended) on wplace, a site that picks up the mantle from Reddit of letting people doodle all over a map of the world. In two different places, I politely asked for a fresh entry in the Burnout series via slightly wonky writing.

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Steam briefly gets a Crap Dungeon, the devs of which are “hoping it’s not actually crap”

Naming things is often difficult. Accurately translating things is often difficult. Put the two together, and you get the situation roguelike dungeon crawler The Crazy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles has recently found itself in, when the Japanese translation of its name on Steam saw it accidentally re-dubbed “Crap Dungeon”.

Let’s face it, this has happened to all of us. You’re working on a 2D adventure about delving into crypts, it’s picked to show up at the Tokyo Game Show, and then next thing you know you’re in a crap dungeon without a sword-shaped paddle. Ok, maybe not all of us.

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Peak’s new Mesa update is just too damn deadly, cue three different types of tumbleweed nerf

Stay in cover. It’s coming. THERE. You see it? A tumbleweed, the deadliest of creatures to roam the desert. Stay quiet, it might roll up on us! Well, at least we’ll stand some chance of survival, thanks to a patch Peak‘s devs have just put out in response to the Mesa update being deemed to damn hard.

If you missed this update emerging atop the release summit the other day, it adds in the cannibalistic co-op climber’s first new biome, offering a different challenge to the alpine cliffs folks have been scaling since the game burst onto the scene. Key to surviving this desert is not to succumb to the heat, get blown up by dynamite, or fail in your attempt to recreate Indy’s boulder scene with some mobile shrubbery.

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Battlefield 6’s second beta weekend kicks off today, with EA making some playlist and matchmaking tweaks

The dawn of the second Battlefield 6 open beta weekend is here. Before it got underway, EA made a few tweaks based on feedback from last week’s bout of FPSing about, with the headliners being some playlist changes and the introduction of custom match searching.

It’s no massive reinventing of the big battlewheel, but hopefully should make a positive impact on the time folks have in this bit of the beta, which sees the Empire State map debut alongside week one’s offerings. Rush and squad deathmatch modes are also joining the fray.

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I have spent the morning learning about a recently deceased horse thanks to Umamusume: Pretty Derby

Around a week ago, 146,000 people mourned the death of a horse they’d never met. This might be the best single thing that has ever happened in videogames, although I don’t imagine the horse would give a shit. Grass Wonder was a famous Japanese racehorse, but it’s likely the majority of those that mourned his death online are only fans of Japanese horse racing by proxy.

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Football Manager 2026 revealed, after last year’s edition was left in the changing rooms

Whack out your not-at-all-weird-to-own spreadsheet of teenagers with incredible left feet, a Football Manager thing has happened. Namely, Football Manager 2026 has been announced by developers Sports Interactive, with a quick trailer. There’s no release date as of yet.

If you recall, Football Manager 2025 ended up being delayed and then cancelled, the studio admitting at the time that “the overarching player experience and interface is not where we need it to be.” Refunds were issued to folks who’d pre-ordered the touchline-prowling sim, and the devs shifted their focus on to Football Manager 2026.

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Mafia: The Old Country now has a first-person driving mod that’s ideal for capo cruisin’, when it’s not utterly terrifying

To me, the best part of Mafia: The Old Country is getting really into the idea of pretending you’re living in 1900s Sicily and drinking in the gorgeous vistas that the game’s world offers up like sips of wine. You can imagine, then, how keen I was to give its new first-person driving mod a go.

Having already knife-fought my way through the main story, I thought this sounded like a pleasant change of perspective to take in when motoring around the Valle Dorata, hoovering up the last of those Explore Mode collectibles. I wasn’t wrong either, the mod’s great. Well, when it’s not accidentally showing you the back of Enzo’s teeth and eye sockets.

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