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The nominees for the public-voted Steam Awards have been announced and they are, perhaps more than ever before, baffling to me. If I was being uncharitable, I’d say that’s because the list is overrun by games with large multiplayer communities that can be encouraged to vote for them – but who would want to be uncharitable? Let’s instead say that the list is certainly not boring, even if Starfield gets a nod for “most innovative gameplay”.
We come to the sixteenth door of the advent calendar, but unfortunately it’s quite far up above you. You’re going to have to climb.
In the market for a new SSD and a new controller? Good news, Ebuyer has got you covered with deal that bundles the excellent Sony DualSense PS5 controller with a fast Crucial T500 2TB SSD, complete with heatsink. Bought separately, these would run you £180, but together you can pick them up for just £140.
This deal is marketed as the ‘ideal PS5 upgrade kit’, but it’s actually just as relevant for PC users looking to pick up one of the best gamepads (alongside the Xbox Elite controller also discounted today) and get more game storage at the same time.
If you’ve been holding out hope that Baldur’s Gate 3 might find its way onto PC Game Pass in the future, I’ve got some bad news for you: it’s very unlikely to happen.
Ubisoft’s open-world multiplayer driving game The Crew will switch off its servers next spring, just shy of the series’ 10th anniversary. The shutdown will leave the car-based MMO impossible to play, with the game pulled from sale ahead of the move.
A number of staff have been laid off at 3D Realms and Slipgate Ironworks – the developers behind Ghostrunner, Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem and more – as the game industry devastation wrought by Embracer’s restructuring efforts continues.
Naughty Dog have officially stopped development of The Last Of Us Online, a multiplayer game based on their celebrated McCarthyite (no, not that McCarthy – I mean the novelist) post-apocalyptic action-adventure. Announced in the dusty days of 2018 as a multiplayer mode for The Last Of Us: Part 2, it evolved into a standalone experience with new characters and a new setting, but Sony reportedly scaled the project back earlier this year. Naughty Dog have now formally called it quits, stating that supporting a live service project such as this would have “severely impacted” future single-player game projects. Sony never locked down platforms for The Last Of Us Online, but a PC release was surely on the cards, though I would have expected the game to launch first on PlayStation, as with the original Last Of Us and Uncharted 4.
Brought to you by the decadent intellects behind Incredibly Fast-Paced And Very Rogue Movement Shooters, Completely Fictional Story About A City Inside A Whale is a gentle, comedic exploration game in which you steer a wind-up boat through the guts of a leviathan. It was announced this week and there’s a demo on Steam, which I think will tickle the cockles of Psychonauts 2 players and A Short Hike fans alike, though I do wish developers ln404 and akinat0 had taken their own work just a little more seriously.
Gaze down the sights of today’s Advent Calendar window and you’ll find time is a tricksy, malleable concept that’s all slow-motion power slides and extraordinary grenade explosions. Just mind the gibs on the floor there. Wouldn’t want to stain your boots.
I haven’t been keeping up with player reaction to the latest Twar and Twarhammer games, but it seems players are none too pleased with Creative Assembly right now. In a rather dramatic open letter, the company’s vice president Roger Collum has acknowledged that Total War: Warhammer 3’s Shadows of Change add-on and the recent historical strategy outing Total War: Pharaoh did not ship in a desirable state, with complaints ranging from wobbly execution to overpricing. The studio will try to make things right by offering partial refunds to Pharaoh owners and giving away DLC on top of the usual updates.
