Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Russian Roulette is just an edgy version of Snakes & Ladders. It’s pure luck gussied up with high stakes and the cool aesthetic of spinning a six-shooter. A grizzled mafioso whose cheeks glitter with fragments of other people’s teeth has as much chance of winning Russian Roulette as a sleepy five-year-old in SpongeBob pyjamas. But take Russian Roulette, swap the revolver for a pump-action shotgun, mix up live and dud rounds, and add Inscryption-esque items which let you change the rules, and now you have a more skillful game. That’s Buckshot Roulette, the latest from Mike Klubnika, the dev behind those excellent horror games about operating machinery. Great weird machines here too.

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Rockfish have announced that they’re updating arcade dogfighter Everspace 2 to run on Unreal Engine 5. The engine rollover will arrive as part of or alongside the game’s Incursions update in spring 2024, which includes tweaks and bugfixes as well as extra legendary items and a new game feature of some description. The idea is less to take advantage of UE5’s various whizbangs and bellwhistles, like the new Nanite geometry system, than to grease the launch chutes for future Everspace 2 updates and expansions.

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Well, well, well. Of all the detectives in all the world, she came to me. She was a dame with hair red as communion wine spilled by a bishop looking at a nun’s cleava- oh what, wait, she’s how old? Christ, Philip, get your head out of the gutter for once, this is a family website. I was previously a snob about the Nancy Drew point and click puzzle games, and then came to regret it when a fan of them (very nicely) emailed me explaining they’re actually really good. We’re going to find out for ourselves by playing them. There are north of 30 in total, and I will update the rankings at the end of each article.

The first is 1998’s Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill, in which Nancy solves the murder of a Floridian highschooler named Jake Roberts, and there’s a lot to love about it right away. There’s a restrained cast, three locations in total, and the school sports team is called the Fighting Manatees. Thus the icon for the game is a lil’ cartoon manatee – and to be absolutely accurate, this is the remastered version of the game from 2010, not the original 90s version. I’m as disappointed as you.

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I realise we’re all struggling through the dank depths of January but it’s never too early in the year to talk about sex, baby. Twitch have updated their attire policies to stop an outbreak of “implied nudity” among thirstier streamers, who have taken to filming themselves nude with black censor bars, or positioning the camera to suggest that they’re fully or partially naked outside the frame.

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NZXT’s AiOs are some of the best liquid coolers in the business, whether considered in terms of performance or aesthetics, and their new Kraken Elite RGB release is now on sale at Newegg in the US. The 280mm size AiO in white is now down to $200 after a $70 discount, and highly recommended by this writer at that price.

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Montech’s King 95 Pro was chosen as TechPowerUp’s runner-up PC case of the year, and now it’s discounted to a historic low in the UK: £114, a solid price for a full-size dual-chamber design with six RGB fans included, tonnes of useful features and excellent thermal performance.

That deal price is for the blue version, but the white version (shown below) is also relatively affordable at £125 if you’d prefer a trendy gleaming design.

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Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt makers CD Projekt Red have said in no uncertain terms that they “are not interested” in being acquired by another company, while still leaving the door open for the studio to potentially acquire others in the future.

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Last year (wahey), you narrowly decided that giving items to other players is better than throwing grenades back. I feel glad for your family and friends, who doubtless received wonderful gifts for Christmas rather than regifted junk. You’re a little sweetie. Well, 55% of you are little sweeties. The rest… best not to dwell. Let’s open this new year with a question of beginnings. What’s better: a fresh new MMO server, or Viscera Cleanup Detail’s Sniffer tool?

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In 2024, I am learning to do cryptic crosswords. Last year I complained about Puzzmo’s crossword clues being very US-centric and Excors commented that US and UK puzzles seem very different, both in their form and in the fact that UK crosswords are often crytpic. Which is true! Often if you see a “quick crossword” in a UK paper that means “crossword with clues that are general knowledge questions and not an archaic set of riddles – you know, for if you’re waiting for the kettle to boil, or are an idiot”. So I decided to look into how you actually do cryptics. It’s way harder than I thought, but at the same time I did not realise it’s just smug puns.

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I greet news of the completion of a Unity remaster for The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall with equal parts excitement and horror. Excitement because I have never played Daggerfall and it is one of the weirder, more fantastical Elder Scrolls RPGs – the one with multiple endings which sequels have explained away as somehow all being canon thanks to a metaphysical event called a Dragon Break, whereby timelines branch and reconnect. And horror because I have never played Daggerfall, which is said to be 62,0000 square miles in size, and I’m getting to that point in life where I seriously ask myself whether I can finish certain games before I perish.

Still the journey is more important than reaching the destination, right? Perhaps I can treat it like an occasional walking sim.

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