Happy this week all! It’s time for another Steam Next Fest. A time to stock up on unfinished business. A time to litter your desktop with dead-ends. A time to install 30 game demos and play exactly three of them – unless you are RPS supporter Mr_B, who I think accounts for the majority of Valve’s downloads traffic these days.
We’re not doing the whole Wishlisted thing this year due to a chronic shortage of wishfulness brought on by our collective advancing age, but we’ll be writing up the hottest demos as they arrive, in a dramatic departure from our regular news coverage of… writing up the hottest demos as they arrive. It’s not all demos, mind: a few developers have scandalous plans to unleash complete games into the storm of prototypes and playtests. Here are the ones we’re thinking about feeding to the Maw.
PlayStation’s Direct store is holding a huge sale on PS5 games, accessories, and more, helping you fill out the gaps in your collection, and one of the big beneficiaries of this is Kratos himself.
That’s $50 in savings, and well worth picking up over playing via PlayStation Plus (at least in my opinion), especially if you want to take your sweet time with what is a genuine masterpiece.
The game picks up after the events of the 2018 reboot of the series, which took Kratos from Greek mythology to his new life, where he’s raising his son, Atreus. After revelations about the place of both in the wider pantheon, Ragnarok is packed with unforgettable moments.
“Impeccable writing, pitch-perfect performances, knockout action – it’s a complete work of art from top to bottom. Reflecting its core themes, it’s everything a sequel should be: respectful of its legendary lineage, but not afraid to take it to exciting new places.”
Couldn’t have put it better ourselves, and now’s a great time to jump on board ahead of the remake of the Ghost of Sparta’s earliest adventures, which were recently confirmed to be in development (but are likely some ways off yet).
Kratos isn’t alone, either. Other discounts include almost 30% off of 2025’s Ghost of Yotei, essentially marking its first sizeable discount, as well as deals on the likes of Helldivers 2, Stellar Blade, Spider-Man 2, and many more.
There are even controllers on sale, including the limited Death Stranding 2 pad – but you’ll likely want to move fast for that one.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
Make sure the dildos are flying at half mast. Saints Row 1 design director Chris Stockman has said he believes the series is “dead”, following conversations with Embracer Group about his pitch for a prequel. According to the developer, who currently heads VR studio Bit Planet Games, that chatter about a potential Saints Rowssurection post Embracer’s closing of Volition has ended in the publishers ghosting Stockman.
Resident Evil 2‘s director and famed developer, Hideki Kamiya, has opened up on his thoughts about leaks and spoilers, suggesting those who revel in ruining surprises for others “deserve a thousand deaths” and “be cursed to never be able to play games again.”
Now, in a message posted to Twitter/X and translated by machine (which means there may be some inaccuracies or missing nuance), Kamiya reflected on how spoilers also impacted the release of Resident Evil 2.
“I’m sure the final developments of [Resident Evil 2] were also exposed in a weekly photo magazine…” he wrote. “For your own selfish satisfaction, you trample on the feelings of the users who were looking forward to the game, as well as the feelings of the creators who put all their effort into making it.
“It’s a despicable act that destroys the happiness of everyone, and deserves a thousand deaths… May you be cursed to never be able to play games again…”
Capcom stressed the posting of these videos constitutes copyright infringement, as well as generally being “an act that offends other customers.” However, the publisher seems somewhat limited in what it can actually do in response, suggesting it will simply delete the videos or issue “warnings.”
Thankfully, we don’t have long to wait now, as Resident Evil Requiem’s February 27 release date is but a few short days away. “After getting hands-on with a total of about four hours of Resident Evil 9 Requiem at this point, and sharing that experience with colleagues, I’m more excited for the series than I have been in recent memory,” IGN wrote after going hands-on with Resident Evil Requiem recently. “It’s the old mixed with the new, but all in a modern package with two protagonists I already like a lot.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot has confirmed that they are making a bunch of new Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games, together with some unannounced original projects, in a wide-ranging albeit very rehearsed-sounding chinwag with Variety.
Of all of Nintendo’s consoles, the Virtual Boy is one of the most fascinating due to being a rare hardware flop in the company’s storied history. It might be the worst-selling Nintendo system ever (and it never even launched in Europe), but there’s some great software and intriguing curios in the VB library.
With just 22 games released worldwide — and several completed but never released — it’s great to have access to them on Switch 1 and 2, if you subscribe at the ‘Expansion Pack’ tier of Nintendo Switch Online.
After years of waiting, we are finally getting some classic Pokémon on Switch! Nintendo and TPC surprised us all with the announcement that FireRed and LeafGreen will arrive on the Switch eShop immediately after the annual Pokémon Presents on 27th February (with a swanky Special Edition coming to Japan).
We’re ecstatic, of course, though it does leave us with an almighty large decision to make, almost as hard as choosing our starter: which version are we going to buy?
Hello reader who is also a reader! It’s time for another instalment of our winningly impromptu article series in which game developers discuss and marvel over books. Let us make the customary ritual sacrifice to Saint Nic Reuben, baron of words and founder of this column. Excelsior! And now, I turn the lecturn over to Mariia Grygorovych, executive producer at GSC Game World, developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chornobyl and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Cheers, Mariia! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?
This month’s been a surprisingly busy one for games, and we’re all on tenterhooks, waiting to see if RE9 is any good. Perhaps all that excitement was too distracting, as correspondence (and, indeed, correspondents) have been few and far between. So, prepare yourself for a slight, ‘Lite’ edition of our monthly letters page feature!
